Another Gaijin!

Living in the inaka (countryside), I don't often run into other gaijin (foreigners) around town. I'm pretty sure I know all the native English speakers here (four of us, all JETs). Apparently Taiwa used to have a rather large population of Brazilians, but most of them moved when the factory they worked at moved. (Being expected to move for your job is quite common in Japan). However, there are some still around town.

As I said, the scarcity of gaijin around town makes running into another one somewhat exciting. On Sunday, I was waiting to cross a large street when I saw on the other side of the road two young guys who were pretty clearly not Japanese. It seemed like they noticed me as well. When the light changed, we met halfway across the the street and exchanged a "konnichi wa". When we finished crossing the street, both I and those guys looked back over our shoulders, entertained that we saw another gaijin.

Or maybe we were checking each other out. Hard to tell the difference these days.