"Sorry, I don’t actually speak Japanese"

A major travel milestone was passed not too long ago. It was the sort of milestone that I didn’t know existed until I passed it. When checking out of my hostel in Sapporo, I said “good morning” to the front desk person in Japanese. Apparently, my pronunciation was good enough that she assumed I spoke Japanese to me and proceeded to talk to me in Japanese. I immediately told her “Sorry, I don’t actually speak Japanese” at which point she said “Oh,” and then switched to English. As I left the hostel and started on my way to the Sapporo airport, realized what had just happened. I had fooled a Japanese person into thinking that I spoke Japanese. Check that one off the list of travel goals.