Culture Day

Today is a holiday in Japan: Culture Day! I went to a local bazaar that was strung through every room and the entire grounds of an elementary at the invitation of Keiko, a very wealthy and active mom and volunteer member of the school community. She's also a darn good English student. So, as my responsibilities as a teacher to my students, and because I was interested in Culture Day, I set out to the schoolgrounds. There were tons of people there. I saw 3 different male Gaigin, all short caucasians, haha. Here they were considered tall and their noses handsome, and I saw at two of them with half-japanese children. I was slightly surprised to see that no females had "married into the system," but there were absolutely no foreign females there. I was totally expecting this what with most Japan-interested females wanting to have cute Japanese children of their own.

What made it "Culture Day" and not just any bazaar? Well...THAT took me a while to figure out. Once stand had curry with POTATOES in it. I know. In Japan. Otherwise it was regular Japanese curry, without curry powder, served in the indentical way as it is every other time. Well, at least they made an attempt. The other thing was...well there were some foreigners on the grounds with their children who obviously attend school there. And...that was it.

What made "Culture Day" confusing? No cultural presentations of any kind that I could see. No writing in non-Japanese, or even traditional styles. No cultural dress of any kind, no cultural music...it was just a bazaar. With potatoes at one curry stand. I did get some rather unwelcomed looks from the moment that I stepped onto the schoolgrounds, which is something I've gotten only occasionally since I've gotten here. This surprised me! I felt welcomed or at very least tolerated even at the Matsuri festival dance right after I got here, but the moment I step onto the schoolgrounds that I was invited to, I was getting looks that were not friendly. I stayed only long enough to look the place over good, see if I could learn anything. I didn't. I was really disappointed by it all. I know that we tend to treat culture like the Borg from Star Trek in America, assimilating it through destruction, generally. This was beyond that. This felt like it was their holiday. And that it wasn't my place. Apparently the one other foreign guy without an obvious kid there got the idea that I did, because he sat waiting outside the fence almost immediately after he arrived, probably waiting for his wife and/or kid that were inside. He also looked disappointed. We shared a quick look, and although I don't think he was a native English speaker by his appearances, I got the idea that my impressions might be right.

I've only gotten two friendly looks all day. One was from Keiko for seeing that I came, and the other was from my favourite bakery next to my bank and the train station. Oh well. You learn something new every day, eh? I've had better holidays than today though.