Being in Japan as a Westerner can feel like being on another planet entirely at first glance. When it comes to language barriers, Japan (and other asian countries) take on a whole new meaning. Travelling throughout other continents, we can at least make out some of the language as the alphabets are more or less the same as our own. Yet when confronted with the entirely different symbols and characters of the Japanese language, I start to understand what it must be like to be illiterate. I start to really feel disconnected and isolated from the setting in which I find myself.
Only after getting out and exploring that I stop feeling as disconnected. On a leisurely stroll along a riverbank in Tokyo city, I stumble across this group having a wonderful, active afternoon. I know I am in Japan but I can't help but to see my Portuguese great-grandparents in their backyard as they square up for their next croquet shot.
Later while visting Kyoto city, I take another quiet moment to look around and see this older gentleman taking a much needed rest. I start to ask myself "How do you say siesta in Japanese?" And again, I know I am in Japan but now I see my own father having a lay down in the sun along the Californian mountainside somewhere....What is going on here?
As I see traces of my own family who have never even set foot on this side of the world, I am humbly reminded that no matter the language, no matter the country, at the end of the day we are all the same.
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