gen-ki des ka?

In the last couple weeks, I have met a new friend - Yuji. He works at the Starbucks close to my school. Since I come to Starucks quite a bit, he excitedly introduced himself to me one day by writing his name down on a reciept. In attempting to give me a taste test of the latest Starbucks coffee, we kept apologizing to each other for our lack of language skills. Dispite my lack of Japanese, and his little English, we have somehow managed to share a laugh or two. Over coffee last night, Yuji and I decided to become language exchange partners. I have finally come to the conclusion that I can't just rely on my mime artistry in order to communicate with the people here. I have managed to pick up a few words and phrases here and there, but expecially to interact and meet new people, I want to hopefully carry a conversation - especially with Yuji (ok...if you haven't guess already, I think he's cute mostly, but getting to learn Japanese is just an added bonus of getting to hang out with him!)