another good yarn

Again I am bowled over by the kind helpfulness of a Japanese person. Yesterday when Jose was off of work, he decided that he still needed to have some sort of case presentation/lunch with the interns. We spent the morning together and then I walked up Blue Street in Yokosuka while he stayed with the interns.
On the left side of Blue Street, headed toward Yokosuka Chuo train station, is a great store called "Sakuma" which has knitting supplies, cross stitch, embroidery, felting and quilting supplies also. While I was looking at the gorgeous Noro Silk Garden yarn, thinking about the scarf I have lying on the kitchen table still in the form of balls of yarn, an older woman approached me and asked if I needed any help.
She said that if there was anything special I wanted to make, the samples hanging around the store has patterns available. I spent a good half hour wandering around the store and then asked her if she could suggest a good project for a beginner.
She chose a fluffy mohair scarf and helped me chose the right yarn and needles, then went to find the pattern which she would give me.
Well, of course all of her patterns were in Japanese and I really didn't understand how to read the charts either.
She said that she would teach me the pattern - then proceed to sit down with me and knit with me until I memorized how to do it: knit, purl, knit, purl, until it is a good long scarf.
She was very patient and did not appear to be in any hurry.
Of course, I thanked her profusely and promised to be back soon, wearing the project and looking for more yarn and the next project.
Now, if only I can figure out how to get the yarn back on the needle correctly, I could get back on track with the loops that just flopped off the needle.
Ah, well.