The Mark of the Gideon

So, I'm sitting in the Teacher's Room when an older man comes in, he has blue eyes and is obviously not Japanese. But he asks (In fluent Japanese) if the Principal or vice principal are in. At the time, neither of them are. He is wearing an ID lanyard (Most of us here in Japan wear one, it's like we are all officials). And the name on his lanyard is in Kanji (Japanese Ideograms) not Katakana (The phonetic alphabet for foreigners).

He seems a jovial, jolly sort, and he is happily talking to Mrs. Team Teacher. He hands her his business card and she goes off to find someone else.

The man turns to me and says, "You are the English teacher?"

"Yes." I say in reply, I'm a little stunned.

"Where are you from?" His accent is American.

"Colorado."
"I'm from Minnesota" And he is: Minn-uh-SOOOOduh he says. "I haven't been back in nearly 50 years, though."

I raise my eyebrows.

"I came over in 1958 with the Air Force, and I went home just after my discharge. But I simply saved up my money and came back. Haven't been back since."

1958... My mind boggles...

He turns out to be a Japanese Citizen now (Hence why I can't read his name... I guess when you become a Japanese Citizen, you change your name into Japanese). He tells me his name in English (His original name), and then he tells me why he is here.

He is an evangelist with the Gideons... And he is trying to give our school copies of the (condensed) Bible in case our kids want to read them.

1958... I'm still boggling over that... When he left Chevy was still making cars called "Chevy” as in the 58 Chevy... Elvis was just getting in swing, America hadn't figured out how to beat the Russians in putting up a satellite yet. No bras had been burned, Woodstock wasn't even a concept, The Beatles were only just beginning.

And what he has seen here, restoration of this country from the massive firebombing, recovery of the economy, rebuilding, the chip industry, reform. And the rise to a first-world superpower. When he arrived, this country had been bombed almost back to the stone age... There were few cars and the train system only partially survived. Most farmers traveled about by horse and buggy or on foot.

Of course, this country is not a time-warp, he's watched it all happen, but just from foreign soil. He'd be okay in America, he'd just feel out of place.

I realized as he left (He gave me a Bible in Japanese, that's so cool!) That I never introduced myself... I was so engrossed in the conversation.

---Unintroduced