==JAPAN: KM== [Contemplation]

How do you act if a foreigner is near by you? Many Japanese would ignore or keep away from one because they don't know how they should speak to the foreigner. I think myself happy when I can make friends with a foreigner even if he or she speaks in a language that I don't know. But I had other feelings toward foreigners in my childhood. When I was a child, there were some American movies on TV. In them, I saw a murderer with an ax killing people cruelly, a horrible shark attacking people, or the Mafia wildly shooting it out in a town and so on. These were the sights that I had never seen in Japanese films or TV programs. Large-scale movies such as hard-action or panic movies were too intense for this little child and frightened me. Then, I started to misunderstand foreign countries and their people; that is to say, I mixed up reality with movies. I was convinced what happened in movies happened for real in foreign countries and I felt people who survived such terrible circumstances were like aliens. For me, foreigners, who spoke a language that I couldn't understand and seemed to be quite different from Japanese, were not much different than people living on Mars.
Although I began to learn English at the age of ten, I had had a little prejudice against foreigners. But my first English teacher gave me a chance to change my mind. This Japanese man thought up a "Challenge Tour," taking us to a famous place of interest in Nara or Kyoto where many foreign tourists who would let us speak to them. And it truly was a challenge. At first, I was uneasy and hesitated to speak to foreigners because I was not sure if they would understand my English, but it was not long before I came to feel that making myself understood in English was very interesting. Moreover, even if I was so awkward with English, most of them responded smilingly. I realized foreign people had nothing to do with horror movies.
When I was seventeen, I met and made friends with some foreign students from different countries-America, Indonesia, and so on. I had a very good time with them in my hometown, becoming a best friend with one of them from America whose name was Cayce. There is a funny story about him. When he called me up while he was in Japan, my mother who couldn't make heads or tails of English got the phone. He said to her, " Maki, Maki Yamamoto, ----- Maki kudasai !! " "Maki kudasai" means "Give me Maki!" in English, but in Japanese the meaning is different so it added to my mother's confusion. My foreign friends could only stay for a short time. The day they went back to their countries, I saw them off at the station, but I couldn't say good-bye cheerfully because I was weeping.
I have never left Japan although I'm much interested in foreign countries. I really hope to go abroad but the biggest problem is my father. He absolutely opposes my going to foreign countries because he believes his daughter will undoubtedly be killed if she goes abroad. What he believes is not true. He knows nothing but what he gets from TV or newspapers about foreign countries.
No matter how much information we get, how many imported goods we use or how hard we study a foreign language, it is difficult to know what a foreign country and people living there are really like without actually having contact with them. It is nice to have friends in other countries. I guess you will be more interested in a foreign country if you have a friend in the country. And a better merit is that you will have friendly feelings for the country. I think friendship helps to solve some international problems. Everybody helps his family or friends if they are in a bad condition. If your foreign friends also have problems, you will be sure to care about them. Even if you don't have a foreign friend, you should have interest in other countries because being indifferent is irresponsible as a member of those who are living on the Earth. Your interest and friendly feelings for other countries will become the material to build bridges across the countries of the world.

COMMENT
I like this tittle, "Bridge built across the world," and I think it is really necessary for us, human beings living in this world now. There are a lot of misunderstandings and prejudices toward the foreign people. No country knows others completely. Those things bring about many international problems all over the world. Today, problems such as global environmental ones are very serious, and we have to cooperate with other countries' people. I don't think friendship is enough to solve all the problems, but that is what is needed first of all. We have to build strong bridges over the troubled waters now!!

Yuichi Yokoyama