Golly Gee! So Many Gaijin!

Today, September 19th is National Respect for the Aged day. Cool holiday right? It basically entitles anyone over the age of 50 to get away with whatever they want with no fear of consequences. I mean, you have geriatrics jumping turnstiles, letting their dogs poop wherever they want and tons of shoplifting, obviously. I am obviously joking, but you are welcome for the mental images of folks in walkers doing those outlandish things. In America, September 19th is National Talk Like a Pirate Day. I think America wins, but in Japan, we got the day off. 

For the day off, I got myself up at 5 am and met with members of the Kofu Ward to go to the Tokyo Temple. After 3 or 4 hours of travel, we arrived in Tokyo at the LDS temple there. Recognize this?

 You can see the spire there in the center of the picture. On the right you can see the outer fringe of a big ol' park located within Tokyo. 

 No caption needed I suppose.

Picture from the parking lot. Celestial lighting provided by Mother Nature.

I was informed that this area of Tokyo has all sorts of English speaking folks. I am fairly sure that the American Embassy is located near by as well as a few for other countries. It was quite jarring to see groups of Gaijin walking around, biking, and being normal. It continued to get more and more confusing for me to see these other Gaijin from their respective countries. 

After the temple, we went down to a ramen shop. As I sat next to the missionaries, across the table from a woman who only speaks Japanese, I heard perfect, fluent English floating across and into my ears. As I looked around, I saw a group of 4 girls sitting at a table talking boisterously about how one girl did not in fact like the boy that it she is rumored to. It was a serious issue of cognitive dissonance. To make matters more interesting, I heard a popular American rap song come over the radio.

We got Baskin Robbins for dessert which was delicious. I stood with my jaw open at all of the English speakers and white people walking around without even taking notice of one another. For me, it was such a stark contrast to the world that I live in everyday. When I see another white person, I am shocked and amazed and feel an immediate need to run up and talk to them. Here, these folks were surrounded by hordes of English speakers and took no notice. 

It made me feel a little jealous, and also a little confused. The Japan I know is the one I live in. The Japan that these people live in is starkly different. I am jealous of their ability to speak to so many different people in their native tongue, but I am also very grateful for the Japan I live it. Mine is not so metropolitan and western, but I didn't really come to Japan to live in the West.

I am surprised at how much my view changed in the last two months of being here. My house is a western place, but I have gotten used to a lot of the Japanese way of doing things. I suppose that is why seeing other westerners in a different situation was so jarring. Also, British accents have always thrown me off.