Doing my part for a safer America...

Yesterday I was on the MAX, coming back from picking up the dry cleaned curtain that Buddy took a whiz on last month and the library books/DVDs that they had on hold for me, when I noticed a Japanese couple reading a tourist book about Seattle and Portland.  It was neat because they had probably brought it from home... it said "Seattle and Portland" on it in English, but under that, everything else was in Japanese.  I had never thought about people buying travel books in other countries to come here.  Weird how you don't think of things like that.
 
Anyway, I normally get off at the NE 7th stop, but this time I was near the front of a short Red Line train ("puertas a mi derecha"), so I decided at the last minute to hop off at the Convention Center.  And there was the little Japanese couple, huddled over their book in the too bright sunlight, looking for all the world like confused tourists.  Well, next week I will be in Montreal, and I probably will be wearing the exact same face, so I decided to ask them if they were lost. 
 
The Japanese man, who had at least four American flag decals on his backpack, looked up at me about the same time I was about to say, "Are you lost?"  When he saw me, he walked up very close to me... about 10 inches away from my face.  If he were American, I would perceive that as a threat.  But, I figured since he was from somewhere else it was just a cultural difference and it didn't bother me.  He said, very loudly, "Do you know where Lloyd Center?"  Funny how people do that when they don't speak the language very well... they say it louder.  I thought we Americans were the only ones to do that.  I guess some stereotypes are universal.
 
I thought of the movie "Romancing the Stone" where the guy says, "Honey, you are hell and gone from Cartahena."  I thought of saying that just to be smart.  Then I realized they might not get a pop culture joke.  So I decided not to, and instead I said, "Lloyd Center is two more stops."  They both looked sad... the wife, not surprisingly I suppose, stood a few paces behind her husband the entire time I was with them.  I guess some sterotypes are true. 
 
Then he said, "I want buy an American flag."  I said, "I don't think you can get an American flag at the Lloyd Center."  They both looked sadder.  I thought about the junk I was carrying, and where I was headed.  I decided to just take them someplace they could buy an American flag.  So, I explained to them- in words I thought they could understand- that I would take them through the mall to a place where they could buy a flag.  They were confused, but seemed to be happier.
 
And off we went.  I stopped quickly at my building to drop off my stuff.  I asked them to "wait" and to "stay"... using my hands to pat down the air in front of me.  They nodded and started to walk away.  I said, "No, no!  Wait. I take my things upstairs and I be back to show you to the flags."  Yes, I "are" a college graduate.  Nonetheless, I got my point across and when I came back downstairs, there they were.  We walked past the two stops that they should have stayed on the train for, then I showed them the mall.  They were surprised by how long it was.  I think it takes up something like three blocks or something.  I showed them the ice skating rink, and they thought that was neat.  I told them I knew how to say "thank you" in Japanese, but that was about it.  The wife kept stopping as we went through the stores to get out of the mall.  I heard the word "sale" used in conversation with her husband several times.  I guess some other things are universal, too.
 
Then we came out the other side of the mall, and I pointed to the place we were going to - just two more blocks away... just in case they thought I was leading them on a wild goose chase.  It's a big store called Elmer's that just sells flags.  Flags of all kinds, but mainly American flags.  It just so happens that I had noticed it for the first time only a day earlier, as I was walking to Franz's work to go with him to lunch.  The Japanese man and his wife both looked very happy.  We kept on going and I told them that there was a Japanese restaurant right across the street from the flag place, in case they got hungry.  They seemed to be very happy about that, too.  Although, I think the name of the place, "Yuki", might mean something funny in Japanese.  Because they both looked at me like they thought it was not a good name for a restaurant. 
 
I brought them into the store and explained to the sales guy that I found them and they had been lost looking for a place to buy American flags.  I told him that they were from Japan and they spoke some English, but that he may have to be patient.  He said, "We'll help them. Thanks."  It occured to me after I left that I may have just given the guy at the store a license to gouge them, but it was already too late at that point.  I said, "Bye bye" to the nice couple and wished them a good trip.  They shook my hand and said "Arrigato" A LOT.  I bowed my head back to them a whole bunch of times and then left them to their shopping.  I was across the street when I heard, "Hey! Hey!"  There was the little Japanese man and his wife motioning furiously for me to come back.  So I did. 
 
The man wanted to take a picture of me with his wife in front of the store.  I laughed and agreed. They took their snapshot of the goofy American that led them to the place where (I assume) they bought their spiffy new flag.  I guess some other stereotypes are true, too.

So, now, there are two pictures of me floating around Japan somewhere. 
 
The first was a picture that some Japanese tourists took of me and my sister when we were pre-teens in The Hall of Presidents at Disney World.  It was the last showing of the night showcasing the animatronic Presidents flopping their robot arms around, in a way one hopes would be perceived as being a dignified manner by tourists from around the world.  After the show was over and the lights came up, for some reason (probably the air conditioning) no one wanted to leave.  Me and Sheila being kids, we took this opportunity to run up on the stage and run around in front of the big curtain after it had come down.  We must have looked like we were having a ton of fun, because some Japanese tourists (grown ups, even!) joined us on stage for what turned out to be a spot-on imitation of the Moulin Rouge high kicking girls.  All of us joined arms and did high kicks for the cameras.  And there were more than a few of them.  These Japanese grown ups, weighted down by their cameras and bags, hats and sunglasses; me and Sheila in our shorts and tee shirts... all of us kicking as high as we could and laughing as hard as was possible while doing it.  I remember being happy.  I remember being surprised, because up until then I had thought people from other places were scary.  You know, the whole "not talking to strangers thing" was fairly well beat into my head by then. 
 
But these folks were just happy to be there and excited to be meeting real Americans... even though we were just kids.  Maybe it was the magic of Disney, or the magic of America- the kind of America that you see in the Hall of Presidents, anyway.  But, for one brief moment we weren't people from different countries, who spoke different languages.  We were just all children of the world, having fun and sharing the best parts of our world culture with each other. 
 
I wish every day could be like that.
 
Love to all,
 
Sherry