What would you say if I told you that a plate of katsu curry was enough to change my life? That sounds utterly bonkers right? But it’s true.

Katsu_Curry

To set the stage, it was January 2024 and I was in London with a group of friends and some things happened and I was left solo in Chinatown. I was going up and down the streets to find something that tickled my fancy. My eyes caught on a place called Tokyo Diner（東京ダイナー）as it served Japanese food but with one note on the menu that peaked my interest 「全てのスタッフが日本語を話せます」 (All our staff speak Japanese).

For context, I was early in my Japanese language learning journey at the time and up to that point I was drilling immersion based learning methods that were similar to AJATT (All Japanese All The Time) and at that point, I thought I knew enough to order but that was a complete unknown. But regardless of how my nerves felt that night, I got a table for one and sat down. I looked at the menu and found カツカレー (Katsu Curry) on the menu and I knew it was a good option to order but in that moment, I was unsure if I sure order in English or Japanese.

English is a safe option but Japanese gave me a chance to test it out. I was debating the question of English and Japanese in my head as I watched the waiter walk towards me. At that point my brain thought to use English but my mouth? 「カツカレーお願いします」(Katsu curry please) that moment was when my language learning entered into the real world. Now the cat’s out of the bag, I thought “Crap, now I need to finish what I started” and the waiter asked me what meat I wanted and if I wanted only one curry. I said that I wanted the chicken katsu and only wanted one curry.

When the curry arrived, it was an like a high that I’ve never experienced before. That curry felt truly earned and I’ll never forget that moment. Over 18 months later and I’m still learning Japanese but now I’ve completed a challenge where I forbid myself from pulling out my phone in conversations (or any aids for that matter that I couldn’t keep in my head) and to use Japanese whenever possible on my first trip to Japan. I now also own a few Japanese language devices like my Panasonic Let’s Note CF-SV7 running its factory Japanese install of Windows and a Japan SKU G576D Pixel 8a also running in Japanese mode.

Today, my Japanese learning has moved on a lot from that humble Japanese curry order and to think that was my spring point for the language is insane to me but it’s true. I owe my Japanese abilities (which still isn’t great but is functional) to that restaurant and that night when my mouth decided to speak Japanese.

To that experience, all I can really say is: 本当にありがとうございました。