Last tuesday I had my first lecture in Japanese. The lecturer, Dr. Katja Valaskivi of Tampere University, was Finnish but she has been a lecturer (and a student) in several Japanese universities, so she spoke very fluent Japanese. The subject of the lecture was extremely interesting, contemporary Japan (with an obvious although unsaid viewpoint of a foreigner) and it's different cultural offsprings, including J-pop. It was an event for the sholarship returnees (and me), and the Japanese Ambassador to Finland and his wife attended. The food was good.  
 
Although the lecturer's speech had a considerable accent, very formal speech was used throughout the lecture. Despite the fact that most of the vocabulary wasn't known to me, I could follow the lecture quite easily, with images that popped into my head. Even with the usual wandering of the mind that happens with lectures even in Finnish, I could catch up quite easily. The lecturer used several quite funny anecdotes, and I swear I did not just pretend to laugh with the rest.   Some I even foresaw!  
My confidence did not continue to the Q&A afterwards, however. Too bad, I kind of wanted a confirmation for one of my perceptions about J-pop.
 
I have no reason to doubt the technical Japanese skills of the lecturer. However, the fact that I could follow it was a complete surprise. Perhaps, one reason is that the lecturer and I share the same cultural background (we're both Finns). Does anybody agree (with additional insights)? I'm also interested in the twilight zone (non-scientific explanations excluding ESP). I'm quite certain that my Japanese didn't improve with such amount overnight.

Is that the delicate hint of sarcasm I detect in your... umm, your... typing there?  
 
  But really, I'd like to know why I understood the lecture. There are many sentences in Japanese books where I understand every word and grammar form, but do not get the meaning at all. It just doesn't click. And now the complete opposite happened. I hate that. I had the same feeling with unknown kanji that I could still read (such as 編, 偏, 遍 and 諞 all have on-yomi of ヘン).

No sarcasm.