Day 213 { International Expo } - Saturday, October 18, 2008

Day 213 { International Expo }

Today I was invited to an international expo in Okayama City by the lady who translated for me on Sunday. The translator lady was in charge of the Costa Rica area.... Now, this expo I thought was going to involve many many different people from many many different countries. No no....It was mostly Japanese persons who traveled to these different countries were there and doing the presentations. Even though there were a few foreigners present from places like Egypt, Ghana, Nepal and Brazil, the majority were Japanese. This further encouraged the Japanese who I spoke to, to think that I am from Africa...I was thinking recently about how strange it is for different people all over the world to know the different states of the USA which is a country. But they cannot name seven countries on the African continent. Africa is seen as this massive country with a bunch of black people.... So it's almost like there is no Nigeria, no Ghana, no Cameroon but just Africa....

The translator lady explained to me that they really and honestly cannot recognise the difference between black people. So automatically, their first assumption will be that if you are black, then you are from Africa. So if you are white, where do they think you are from??? I don't know.... Well, many of us cannot tell the Asians/Mongoloids apart no matter how hard we try or how well we think we know them differently....Just like how many of my Jamaican friends think all Asians are Chinese... No matter how many times I tell a couple of my Jamaican friends that I am in Japan, they somehow think that I am in China. They even come with the kong tong pong chung business which is very Chinese and far from Japanese. Almost all Japanese that I come across don't have a clue that Jamaica is an English-speaking country and they are shocked when you tell them that yes we speak English. A little Japanese girl asked me how do I say Ju yun (14) in Jamaican language. so I said "fourteen" and she said, but that is English .. and I said "YES IT IS, THATS WHAT WE SPEAK" ...

I did meet 2 other black persons at the expo though, one from The Republic of Congo who said he recently completed his doctorate in agriculture. As well as this other guy from Haiti who said he is completing his doctoral studies on oral surgery. They both spoke French, Japanese and some English... The guy from Congo said he works at a University in Okayama but they do not encourage you to do your own research???? They want you to do everything they tell you to do.... So if you make a brand new discovery, well!!! they didn't tell you to do that so forget it.... More Japanese Bull.

Anyway, after the expo, I met a couple Japanese girls who were oh so interested in meeting a dark-skinned guy it seem. I sat and chatted with them along with others from the expo for a little while. Then me and the translator lady along with four others who were at the expo, went on a night tour of Okayama city then to a restaurant... The food there was wonderful!!! but it was too little to even begin filling my stomach... Well, they all treated me and I didn't have to pay a cent so I am not complaining at all :) ... After the restaurant, we went to eat Ice cream at sati wan (31) yes that's what the Japanese call Baskin and Robbins because it has the number 31 as a part of the logo. To Japanese people ... 'th' is pronounced as 'sa'... So at baskin and robbins, the stares were coming from all angles. 

I saw where a group of persons paused and stopped eating their ice cream to stare at me.... So guess what I did??? I stared back at them and walked over to them and said "Hello!!!". One of the girls there looked like she almost jumped through the window hahaha. But then they all started to laugh and I said "konnichiwa" and they answered and laughed. After the ice cream eating, the translator lady dropped me to the train station and I took the last available train home.