Really, my Japanese sucks too... I just let on that I can speak (right Troy??) and I've been here 4.5 years.
Although I hear the YMCA 12 month full time course they have does wonders for your conversational ability.
RyanJ: I've done some 'advertising' work, photo shoots for my school, a French restaurant (yeah... they though I looked French :confused: ) and even fronted up for an NHK sponsored English language 'listening CD' audition where we had to record dialogues for said CD - part of an English textbook or guidebook can't remember. Didn't end up using me coz my accent wasn't strong enough!!! Go figure. In a nutshell, it's novelty value at best, 3,000 yen/hour... teaching is better.