ONCE I FINALLY MADE it to Japan, I spent a couple of months doing judo but gave it up: the world outside of the dojo was just too interesting, too marvelous. But that stubborn desire to impose my will transferred to other things, one of which was a complete refusal to speak English—even when the other person’s English was better than my Japanese. It might become a long slog, a war of attrition, with that other person speaking in one language and me in the other, but eventually that other person would get worn down and switch.