I had a conversation with a Balinese restaurant operator in our neighborhood while eating some of his saytay (peanut sauce drenched chicken on sticks). He had some good things to tell us about Bali.

Apparently in Bali, people stand very close to strangers when making small talk. I enjoyed the chat after realizing the concept of "personal space bubble" wasn't an aspect of his background.

He was a good fellow, and semi-fluent in Japanese after only 2 years of living here. He also has a Japanese wife. I take that as motivation to ratchet up my own speaking ability, after a brief sour gaze of jealousy passed.

Probably we were the only English speaking customers he had had in recently. During lunch we seemed to be the only customers at all, besides a Japanese girl taking Indonesian lessons.