Are the Japanese people on the average shorter than North American Anglos? I am wondering because I suddenly remembered one cold winter night being jammed into a bus shelter in Mississauga with half a dozen Asian women… and being head-and-sholders above all of them… and I’m only 5’10". My sister is taller than I am.
Japanese are about 2" shorter than the American average.
Don’t forget that while you may be “only” 5’10", that’s taller than the average for American males, and 6" taller than the female average.
I’m 5’7", and when I was in Japan, for the first time in my life, I didn’t have to look up to speak to anyone. Of course there are Japanese people who are taller, some much taller, but on average, at least of those I encountered, 5’8’ish seemed to be the norm for men, and 5’5"ish for women.
Some elements, like 使ったらいいかなと思って strike me as being very conversational. My own skills at polite Japanese aren’t that great, but I’d suggest:
日常会話的な日本語で書きはじめましたが、途中でもう少し丁寧な日本語にするために動詞の語形変化しましたから、結果としてかなり乱れた日本語になってしまいました。申し訳ありません。今度は敬語の練習として書きましたから、ご都合がよければこれに目を通して、ご意見を述べていただけませんか。
That last bit might be a little too polite for the rest. I do a fair amount of writing in Japanese, but fortunately honorifics aren’t used in formal academic writing.
Japanese are storter than other east Asians, which makes my short Tawanese wife feel a little more at home.
Once I saw a wanted poster which described the suspect as “extremely tall” at 183 cm, (6’), my height. 
For pitch accents, I’ve never run into problems with people understanding me. I sound like an American speaking Japanese, but if the shoe fits. . .
Henjin Very good Japanese. I, too, essentially learned on my own, so I’m certainly not the expert and won’t feel bad if someone who really knows comes along.
最初に、結構口語体で書きはじめましたが途中で、もう少し丁寧な言い方を使った方がいいと思って、中途半端に文の最後の言葉だけを変えました。残念ながら、最終的にいい加減な文書になってしまいました。
今度、丁寧語の練習としてこれを書きましたので、どうぞご覧ください。ご意見を教えていただければ幸いです。よろしくお願いします
Edited for fun and hopefully is closer to the English in his / her post.I eliminated the apology, which may be the first time I’ve ever suggested not apologizing in Japanese. Normally Western people don’t apologize when they should. However, ご迷惑を掛けたのであれば、申し訳はありません。(I apologize if this caused any inconvenience, or I apologize for any inconvenience) would not be apparent to a reader what inconvenience is being caused. If you are set on an apology 大変失礼いたしました。”I was terribly impolite”.
Changed 会話的な日本語 (incorrectly “conversational Japanese”) into 口語体で書く (write in colloquial style) This editing may be heavy-handed, but “Japanese” does not necessarily need to explicitly written here. The emphasis is on the writing style. You would not say “I wrote my essay in conversational English.” Rather, you would say “I wrote my essay colloquially.”
Likewise, substituted もう少し丁寧な言い方を使ったら方がいいと思って (lit. I thought it would be better to use more formal expressions) in place ofもう少し丁寧な日本語を使ったらいいかなと思って (I thought I would use more formal Japanese)
Rewroteどうぞお読みになって、どう思うのかを述べていただきたいと思います。(Please read this and tell me what you think. Lit. I would like the honor of you telling me what you think) asどうぞご覧ください。ご意見を教えていただければ幸いです。(lit. Please read this. I would be happy if you can teach me your opinion.)
I broke up the requests to read and reply, the later asks more of a favor of the reader, so separating it softens the request. Overkill on a message board, but a useful practice for sales.
I like 動詞の語形変化しましたから、結果としてかなり乱れた日本語になってしまいました。 (lit. changed the verb form, and the result was confusing Japanese) I’d addのみ (only, written form) 動詞の語形変化のみしましたから、(I only changed the verb form)
I tell ya’ there’s more learnin’ and edumacational stuff goin’ on here right now than in just about any other Japanese class room!
Awesome stuff people.
I’d probably re-write ご意見を教えていただければ幸いです。(lit. Please read this. I would be happy if you can teach me your opinion.), as
ぜひご意見を聞かせ下さい。 (lit. please let me hear your opinion).
Sounds good, but I’m sure you meant ぜひご意見を聞かせて下さい。or ぜひご意見をお聞かせ下さい。(more formal, and I’d take the later)
Would it not be correct to simply say 「意見を教えてください。」(Please tell me your opinion)?
It’s a matter of formal speach and asking favors. Most people tend to higher levels of formality when asking for others to do it.
Wow, this thread has moved out into much deeper territory. 
I suspect that printing and saving it will be rather useful. I’ll shove the kanji-laden text through one of the linked hiragana-izers, then start looking things up.
Question: how do I look up kanji directly, assuming I can’t cut and paste?
Actually, my mistake was in not getting the honorific お (o) in front of 聞かせ (kikase); probably a typing mistake from having を in there. So it should be:
ぜひご意見をお聞かせ下さい, in which case you don’t add the て (te).
Sunspace, check out Denshi Jisho; an online dictionary that lets you look up kanji by radical (i.e., parts of the kanji).
Thanks! Another one to go in my bookmarks!
And I just wasted an hour watching shinkansen vids on YouTube… man our trains are pathetic. But I suppose if we had three times the population in 1/30th the space, we could afford bullet trains too…
We can afford bullet trains. You were right the first time. Our trains are pathetic. That we don’t have true hi-speed rail is more about politics than available resources to get the job done. Now I’m depressed. I think I’ll go watch some 新幹線* videos on YouTube to cheer myself up …I wonder where I got that idea しんかんせん
shinkansen
Very yes. Tall Japanese men were shorter than me. I was there for a little over four months (in the Tokyo area: studying in Tokyo, living in the neighboring city of Kawasaki, but spending a lot of my free time in Tokyo, esp. Harajuku), and I saw maybe a dozen people who were taller than my six feet the whole time, and at least half of those were foreigners.
There was one especially gangly Caucasian man in Akihabara… poor guy must have been pushing seven feet, and he looked insanely awkward.
Every now and then I see someone on the subway who is a head taller than me (in other words, my eyes are below his shoulder level), and he has to duck to walk through the subway doors. I wonder what life is like for the extremely tall here; seems I would find out by going to Japan…
Did you have trouble fitting into cars, seating in restaurants, phone booths, etc?
Overall, it wasn’t too bad. I mostly just loomed. 
Had to watch my head if I was standing by the door on a train, because the bar/rack over the seats was just a bit too low for me to stand under without slouching. Didn’t use any phone booths–I had a Japanese cell phone while I was there. There were a few places where I had to watch my head going through doorways (I recall a particular restaurant bathroom, for example). By and large, though, it wasn’t a big problem.