First Mexican In Ishigaki

Today is my last day on Ishigaki Island, and also my last day in the Yaeyama Islands. Today I fly to Okinawa hontou, or main island. I'm guessing it will be a different sort of experience, since I got a small taste of it when I passed through there on my way here. The feeling I got then was that the atmosphere was dominated by the US military presence. But maybe not. The airport definately was. Several times, while I have made my way through these islands, when people found out I was American (it is not always assumed, at least two people thought I was Italian), they ask me if I am "ami," which had me shaking my head in confusion until I realized they were asking me if I was in the Army.

I've met a ton of people here, all interesting, and many possessing bottomless kindness. This blog is totally backlogged, but I guess that's alright. When I get my pictures up at Kodak later, I'll try to remember to fill in the blanks in the travel chronology.
Anyway, last night was noteworthy.

I had rented a moped and made a complete circuit of Ishigaki, going all the way out to the northernmost point, where there is a lighthouse. There are many beautiful lighthouses on these islands, and I:ve seen almost all of them now. Yesterday, by the time I reached Hirakubo lighthouse, I had seen enough to only want to stay a few minutes and then jump back on the moped to race back to Ishigaki city before the road got too dark to see. So, I had returned the bike, taken a shower and was walking around the city, thinking I would buy a few omiyage (gifts for people back home). I was also looking for some place that looked like it would have good food, thinking I might go for a steak of Ishigaki beef. (All over these islands I have seen cattle grazing. It's really been quite beautiful just cruising the country backroads on the bike and viewing green hillsides with horses and cows on them. Many people are also cultivating rice fields which attract cranes.)

As I walked down the street I noticed a guy who did not really look Japanese, strumming a guitar. (There are not many, but some Japanese faces which don't really look Japanese to my non-native eye). I gave him a second look and thought he might be Latino. I kept walking, but could not really resist the urge to approach him and find out what his deal was.

His name is Martin and he moved to Ishigaki four years ago. He comes from Cancun, Mexico, where he studied Japanese for about 10 years. He told me that in Cancun, people kept asking him, "Martin, when are you gonna move to Japan?" as though they were making fun of him. I found that amusingly familiar. So after a short stint in Los Angeles, he moved to the mainland, staying for awhile in Osaka before moving to Ishigaki.

He asked me how long I had been studying and nodded approvingly when I was able to converse with a couple on the street who I had been out diving with the day before, and who just happneed to be strolling by. "TV is the best learning tool. You gotta watch a lot and imitate," he told me. I mentioned that being here is really quite different than being in LA because you almost feel yourself starting to think in another language. "But," Martin said, "you cannot let a lack of native speakers in LA or wherever be an excuse for not studying. Besides," he said, "there are thousands of native speakers in LA. In Cancun, there were zero."

While we were talking, a family of three approached and the husband started talking to Martin about the guitar. As it turned out, he had stopped by to listen to Martin for the past few nights and was a guitar player himself. After a few minutes of talking about guitar and sanshin (a traditional Okinawan stringed instrument), the man sat down and began to play a couple of Beatles tunes on Martin's guitar.

For awhile after we chatted, and Martin told me about his obsessions - soccer, guitar, snorkeling, studying languages (he speaks English, Spanish, French, Japanese, and a little bit of Russian and Italian!), and he also demonstrated one of his other primary interests - skirt-chasing. Martin is a nampa extraordinaire. In other words, he excels at the art of picking up women. Well, so he claims. I only saw him get turned down, but I must say he always elicited a lot of laughter and smiles with his gregarious and direct methods.

We headed to an izakaya (restaurant/bar) for some food and a few beers. Martin checked the place out first to see if any girls were in there that he might want to talk to first. He did not think the prospects looekd great, but he figured some cute girls might stroll in later. We sat and talked about diving, living abroad, and his business (he set up his own language school). While we were talking, the couple across from us took notice and the guy introduced himself. He and his girlfriend were Ishigaki natives and wanted to compliment us on our (mostly Martin's) Japanese ability and skillful use of hashi (chopsticks). I have found that I get that a lot in Japan. It does not matter how shitty my Japanese is, people will forever compliment me on how "jouzu" I am. Courtesy is big.

Martin talked with the guy for ahwile. I think his name was Hide, but I've already mentioned that I have a talent for forgetting names if I do not write them down. I could follow the gist of the conversation, but the details were tough. Hide (as I suppose I wil refer to him) talked about how parents always force their kids to study, taking all the fun out of it and conditioning people to hate study, which makes it harder later in life to try hard to learn something. He watches a lot of American movies with Japanese subtitles to practice listening to English. "He LOVES movies," his girlfriend said. "Culture is more important than language," Hide said, which I suppose means that language is just the key to understanding the culture. It was kinda funny to me to find people doing the same thing I am, interested in learning another language, another culture and being obsessed with movies.

Martin claimed that many people just do not have the requisite discipline to learn another language though. He was very disciplined and demonstrated amazing an amazing memory when Hide taught us some hougen (hougen is island dialect). He taught us three phrases. "We are brothers from the first time we meet," (does not translate to English very well, but said to someone you hit it off with), "Thank you very much," and "Nice to meet you." Of the three, I can only remember "Ni fai sei yu," which is "Thank you very much." (And I can only remember that one because Toshio-san taught me that on Iriomote.) But Martin's brain was like a sponge and he could repeat each one after hearing it only once. When Hide and his girlfriend told Martin he was "jouzu," I think it was pretty goddamn sincere.

While were walking, Martin said, "To really master the language, you gotta get inside the person's head, anticipate, be ahead of the game. Know what they think, know what they expect." I considered how his thoughts echoed Hide's as we stared down the street, Martin scanning for beautiful women. "Know what the rules are. And break them," he burst out laughing.