The scene:
A slowly creeping shadow cast from the towering castle nearby. A fading blue sky slowly overtaken by darkened clouds. Sitting alone on a long bench watching the crowds slowly thin in the yard. Patrons entering the souvenir shops before leaving with their memories. I pass the time looking up train routes I'll need to know the following day. Going over my camera and realizing I'd had a setting on all day which has cast the shadow now surrounding me on all my picture. Shouldn't have done that. Waiting for night to fall to see the blooms illuminated by the lights of man. From the corner of my eye I see a bike approaching me. Turning to face the man, we greet.
Ooo, ahhh. Dramatization. A story I didn't have the time to write down in full back when it happened at
Osaka Castle
. True story, but far less dramatic. It's not precisely an oddity that someone wanted to speak with me. Though out of the other foreigners there I'm not sure why I was chosen. Thinking back I believe in the evening hours was the only time I actually had a conversation with any male. At least with someone I had not known of before going to Japan. There certainly wasn't anything particularly odd about him in appearance or behavior. But soon interesting facts were revealed.
As with most conversations in a foreign land you first get asked where you're from. The following is what I recall how our talk went with this introduction. We will call him Ojisan.
Ojisan: Hello
Me: Konbonwa
Ojisan: Do you mind if I sit and speak with you?
Me: Of course not, please do
Ojisan: Where are you from?
Me: America, the United States (cover both bases since technically America is pretty much everything over on this side of the world)
Ojisan: Oh really? What state?
Me: Utah
Ojisan: Oh really? Provo? Salt Lake City?
...
Well, this is peculiar to begin with. For one, Ojisan actually knows something about Utah. And by something I mean he knows major cities and geography of my home. Which in all of my travels I can assure you is incredibly odd. Most are happy to know the country you're from and want no more than that. After I tell him my city, which is smaller than those previously mentioned, he again surprises me by saying "Oh! That one, it's up in the north right?". Again, he is correct. He then asks me if I was born there and I tell him Idaho. A state to the north of Utah. I shouldn't be surprised to learn he knows the major cities in Idaho. Yet again, I am indeed surprised. Rattling off 3 of the southern cities he guesses my birth place.
At this point I'm pretty confused. So I begin to task the questions. You may recall the
Mormon missionaries
I encounter in Takamatsu. Well the missionaries aren't located solely in the South. If you look you can find them across most of the world actually. And in Osaka it appears they offer a free English class where people can come and learn or practice. I have no idea how long Ojisan must have been going to this to learn as much as he had. Not only was his English really good. He knew an amazing amount of my stomping ground back home. Where Utah holds the greatest source for missionaries it does make sense that he had learned about the area. But to know as much as he did there would have had to have been a large amount of missionaries being met. Kind of funny how small the world can be.
He was an interesting man for sure. Turns out he was now retired from years of making the cloth signs you can find outside a store front or over the door way. Where the name of the shop would be made by hand in the past. It is now produced by machines. Which to say the least he wasn't a big fan of. I can understand the sentiment as it does remove some of the charm to no longer have that hand made sign.
My size was apparently impressive too, which I can't say I think much of. We talked about diet and things for a fair amount of time actually. Turns out he had mostly rice or other things he found boring. Only some fish but never beef. I wouldn't say I have big arms but somehow he got the impression that I'm a strong fellow. And kept asking me how much beef or chicken I ate back home. Was it easy to get? Gave my biceps a squeeze and patted me on the back saying "Ohh, you are strong!". I hadn't thought he was senile until then. Ok, not really, I never thought that. But it was pretty funny (and fun) to be called strong.
Where most people pick up a speech tic such as "you know", "like", or "uhm". Something most people do subconsciously when thinking about what they'll say. He had picked up the phrase "Oh really?" for his. Which is quite engaging I must say! It really made me wonder what the classes he's been to must be like. I'm glad he has gone to them as he has had great success as a result.
Towards the end he asked what I was doing sitting on the bench at that time. And I told him I was waiting to take a picture of the trees and castle illuminated at night. He then pointed me to a pond in the corner of the yard and told me about the reflection of the castle in it. I hadn't even considered that possibility and was happy to learn about that. Shortly after it began to rain and we parted ways. Ojisan off on his bike to who knows what adventure. People make the memories.
