gaijin alert

So I'm just back from a workout at the gym (yeah, I go to a gym, so stop laughing because someday I will be He-Man and you will be very afraid of me) and was having fun blabbing up Debs and a bunch of Japanese people, when in walks a new foreigner. My gaijin alert radar went off and I was already feeling like my territory was being invaded, unannounced.

A little later I talked to her, turns out she's a high school kid from California here for a summer exchange program and will be living in my town for a few weeks, with a homestay family. She was real spunky and had just arrived, and her eyes were wide open and excited to be young and in a new culture. Reminded me of the feeling I had when I first went to Russia, and also of the excitement I felt 11 months ago when I came here. It was fun to talk to her and get some of that feeling back, and I left the gym feeling really happy about my time here and really excited to be here.

Though, one of the things you have to get used to in being a foreigner in Japan is being stared at like some kind of alien freak. I didn't realize it at the time, but after meeting this girl I realized that when I see a foreigner, I do it too. I had joined in the gawking and the questioning to your neighbor and the same curiosity that has been directed at me for the past 11 months. I realized that I can't criticize them for it because it is merely a product of one thing: isolation. Rural Niigata can be considered a culturally isolated area because it is on the end of a train line, and not really on the way to anywhere important where tourists want to go. So the only foreigners that are here for more than a couple days are teachers, exchange students, and those that have no choice, usually through marriage...like the Indonesian woman I am teaching private lessons to.

But the last few days here, just meeting a few new people, have made Tokamachi feel so big and cosmopolitan. Like meeting Yuko last night, she had lived overseas and was fluent in English, and meeting this American kid and finding out that her family hosts tons of students.