i stayed with a japanese family fer 5 weeks during the summer and they spoke no english at all and i only spoke a little japanese so wat i did was say a wor in japanese and point at the item and they understood that i wanted that or if i said a word and shook my head the would no that i did not like the item or i was allergic to it(and trust me im allergic to alot of stuff). if u try to develop a system with the people u meet in japan everything should turn out right they helped me alot so im sure people there will help u to