Being Watched

One of life's real treats around here is the reaction of some Japanese kids when they suddenly find themselves up close to you. I don't mean those horrible spotty mobs of noisy Junior High teenagers of course, they are no better that their counterparts anywhere else in the world. Heck no!, I'm thinking of 'nice' kids - still nine or ten years old and polite and deeply curious about all aspects of life.

Most children around here don't come across foreigners - or at least 'Westerners' (and what exactly is that term supposed to cover?) in their elementary schools and if you live out in the 'boonies' of leafy Chiba-ken you probably won't meet one socially either. So on the crowded train into Chiba this morning the ten year old girl with her mum who was crammed into the aisle near my seat had probably not had many opportunities to take a good 'gander' at one close up. And now here was one just thirty centimetres away that looked like Santa Claus in a short-sleeved shirt engrossed in a book. A book written in Roman characters too, not familiar kanji and kana.

I was getting one of those stares that you can actually feel so I looked up. Click! - it took her eyes about a thousandth of a second to move on so I went back to reading. A minute later I looked up and there she was staring again so I smiled - click! Her shoes occupied all of her attention! But then a minute later I smiled at her again and I got a little smile back before she looked out of the window.

As luck had it I was getting off the train the stop before Chiba so when I stood up to lift my rugsac down from the rack I politely said "dozo" to her - please have my seat! So I hope she remembers big beardy gaijin as nice people at least.