Mou chotto yukuri itte kudasai...

...or in English, "can you speak a little more slowly please?"

I've been saying that a lot for the past couple of days. The Koucho Sensei of my current school is a splendidly nice man, friendly, enthusiastic, interested in Japanese history and quite willing to share his views. The problem is that he overestimates my language abilities, and talks incredibly fast in a very gruff, manly accent, akin to Rowlf speaking Japanese whilst buzzing his tits off.

I did manage to glean the following from him - that he is incredibly interested in old things...that Kiyomizudera is best viewed in the early morning when there are no tourists...that, although not quite on the same scale as Stonehenge, Japan has her own stone circle and that ancient records from European countries are easier to read than those in Japan, because of the way in which paper was made...I think...