Gaijin to Gaijin

So on and on we searched, now avoiding asking anyone for help after the last encounter. It was getting dark and our hopes were failing. As we were walking in circles, a foreigner passed us. All our heads turned in unison at this tall, older Caucasian man, arm in arm with a pretty Japanese woman. "We could ask him," one of the girls said quietly. It is a strange phenomenon, it felt like a wall went up once faced with a fellow foreigner (gaijin) in Japan. I know I wasn't the only one feeling like this, as we all stopped in our tracks and stared blatantly. I suppose this was the same thing we had been experiencing from the other end, having someone clearly different from the majority in front of you, and not knowing how to react. Just because he looked of European decent didn't give us reason to assume he spoke English, did it? We're we being racist? All of us, having grown up in very multi-cultural countries (Canada and Australia), had not experienced this type of hesitation about approaching someone of similar appearance to us. They both walked by, immune to our stares. And we all gave each other uneasy looks, "That was weird."

There is something odd about Japan, as it is so homogeneous, that does throw you off when a lone foreigner is thrown into the mix. But also a feeling of guilt that you don't want to recognize that the person looks similar to you and guiltily note the stereotypes that pop into your mind (Caucasian man=someone that speaks English). It was an odd feeling that we all puzzled over.

We pulled out our map again and then Robin explained how she had been lucky enough before here to stumbled upon the places she wanted to go, following her inner compass. Meh. We had nothing else to lose, so we decided to follow her and a few minutes later, Voila! right before our eyes the Internet Cafe appeared! Yay! We jumped up and down and high-fived then averted eye contact shamefully embarrassed about the extent of our excitement. We braced ourselves standing in front of the door, feeling as if we should link arms, upon approaching another direction in our "Wizard of Oz" adventure. Now to face how to be able to get access to our beloved Internet.

Merran, Brenda, Robin and I boldly
facing Japan and all it's crazy colours.