A select few Japanese people are great to talk to. Invariably those who've travelled outside of Japan, University Students and cute chicks.

But we've all been there. You know the people I'm talking about.

Those Japanese who make the conversation like drawing blood from a stone.

You ask them a simple question, as a normal conversation starter "What's your favourite food", and they go into the deepest long thought process possible; like you just asked for their daughter's hand in marriage. And then 6 minutes of awkward silence and sucking of breath later, they say "pizza".

Even worse is when you work for an Eikaiwa and you're actually paid to keep trying to get them to talk.

What are your get-arounds for this?

List so far:

• What are the kanji for your name? What do they mean?

• Avoid direct questions about their favourite X or Y. (food, drink)

• Ask them about their breakfast, and how this changes with the older/younger generation. Then reiterate what they said.

• Mention something to do with Doraemon

• Give a model answer to your question