How long in Japan?

Morning jog, I point to leaves changing to yellows and reds on the trees.  "Autumn comes," I say in Japanese.  A restaurant gardener carrying tools assents.  

"Do you live in Kyoto?" he asks.

"Since April.  My first autumn here."

"How long in Japan?"

"12 years."

"Two months?"

"12 years."

My  Japanese is not as fluent as my cousin's son.  "Why aren't you fluent?" my uncle asks.

"I don't know."  But the reason is that I speak Japanese only in occassionally and in short phrases.

It is a garden variety Japanese and suffices to share expressions of the beauty of nature.