Supercharge Your Japanese with the Ultralearning Principle of Directness

Anthony Griffin
Kokoro Media
Published in
6 min readJul 10, 2023

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On an unforgettable April day back in 2008, I found myself sitting across a desk from a travel agent in Nishi-Shinjuku, clutching a pair of freshly minted Narita Express train tickets in my hands.

Awash with mixed feelings of accomplishment and disbelief, I had just managed to complete a relatively high-stakes transaction without using a word of English. At this stage in my life, I was, at best, a novice Japanese speaker. This situation I had thrown myself into was a far cry from ordering food and asking directions-common occurrences during this, my second trip to Japan.

It wasn’t long until a new sensation hit me: disappointment. Successfully obtaining these train tickets to Narita Airport sealed my fate: my vacation would soon end, and I would have to return home.

This was the moment that solidified my resolve to live in Japan. And, sure enough, a mere seven months later, I found myself just a few blocks away from that same Nishi-Shinjuku travel agency, this time as a gainfully employed resident of Japan.

This article, however, isn’t about how I came to live in Japan. There’s actually a language-learning lesson buried within this travel agency adventure. Unbeknownst to me at the time, through this experience, I was deploying an incredibly…

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Kokoro Media
Kokoro Media

Published in Kokoro Media

Exploring the heart of Japan through people, places, and experiences.

Anthony Griffin
Anthony Griffin

Written by Anthony Griffin

I've been living and working in Japan since 2009. My consulting work (www.consultsaga.com) often leads me to explore the business behind Japan's beauty.

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