Feeling a bit down now... I went to this Japanese restaurant near my work place for the first time in nearly a year, partly due to covid but also because it's not the most budget friendly place around, and well... it could've gone better. I had planned that I'd try to order in Japanese for the sake of practice, but just like before when I've planned to do this, I had no guts to do it. There was another woman there too who seemed to be a friend of the only worker in the restaurant, so that made me freeze up even more and not want to order in Japanese since I'm easily embarrassed by mistakes when it comes to language. Ordering in restaurants always makes me a little anxious, save for fast food places that I can order from in autopilot due to being used to it enough, so I think that played a part in it too... to top it all off, the owner speaks poor Finnish (which is odd since she's been living here for years; I don't think she puts in proper effort) and when I asked to pay with cash, she didn't understand me and by then I was too flustered to even realize to switch to English, which the owner's friend thankfully realized and told her, in English, that I wanted to pay with cash.
But well, I did manage to pay, and went to wait at the table and tried to read the Japanese books in the restaurant while I waited (truthfully, those books are the main reason I like to go there lol.) I'd ordered the same food once or twice before, but it wasn't as good as I remembered... or maybe the mess with the ordering just left a sour taste in my mouth.
I'm seriously considering not going back until I can properly order in Japanese... not that this is the first time that I consider that. Anyway, next time I'm just going to one of those Asian buffets nearby. Cheaper, faster and I can eat as much as I want. Plus no pressure with the language.