日本の好きなこと一つは鉄道網です。アメリカの鉄道網はあんまりよくないので、日本の鉄道網の楽さと安さなどが好きです。そして、列車もかっこいいです。そのため自分の汽車を持っている人を訪ねることができた時、とてもワクワクしました。
Apparently the owner had for many years been inviting local daycares to come and let the kids ride, and I was going to help out in crowd control/entertaining the kids. Although I had heard of this model train, it was really cool to see it for myself. At a little over three feet long and powered by steam, it’s an adorable little thing, but had a surprising amount of kick to it. We set the kids up to ride, and they started squealing with delight. The whole thing clearly made their day, although they were most enamored with the tunnel we had set up for them.
I also got a chance to actually talk with some of the kids, which was really fun. They were all fairly young, and my favorite question of the day when one girl asked if I was Korean. I’m about as Caucasian as it gets, but this wasn’t the first time this kind of thing had happened (kids have asked me before why I have a foreign sounding name, implying that they think I’m Japanese.) It occurred to me that maybe some of these kids had never met a foreigner before, and so didn’t have any idea what one would look like. I don’t know if that’s the case, but it certainly is interesting to see how really young Japanese kids react when meeting a non-Japanese person for the first time. But before I could respond, saying that no, I was American, and giving some long winded lecture on national identity, another girl blurted in, “You have an eigo (English language) face!” So there you go. After that, they told me they were learning English words for fruit, so we had a great time playing the “What’s that fruit?” game.
そして、子ども達と話す機会もあり、凄く楽しかったです。そして、一人の女の子に「韓国人ですか」と聞かれました。僕は完全に白人ですが、こういうことを聞かれる事は何回もありました。(子ども達は前に、「何で外国っぽい名前ですか?」と聞き、僕が日本人だと思ったようでした。)この子ども達は外国人に会ったことがなかったかもしれないので、外国人のイメージもないと思いました。そういうことかどうか分からないですが、日本の子ども達の、初めての外国人との出会いを見るのは面白いですね。しかし、僕が答える前に、他の子は「お兄さん、英語の顔しているよ!」と言いました。そうですね。後、皆が果物の英語の名前を習っていたときいて、「あの果物何?」というゲームをしました。
The day ended before I would of liked it, but it was really great to see all those kids so happy.
アッという間に終わりましたが、子ども達の笑顔は最高でした。
Plus I got to do this.
そして、こういうこともできました。
So a great day all-in-all.
いい日でした。