From where I sit above Vienna I can see old bearded
Austrians hobble past young Muslims lost in conversation amongst red-brick
buildings. To think that 24 hours ago I was eating a box of bento—rice, fried
fish paste and steamed vegetables—on the floor of a train station in Tokyo
boggles my mind. My wife Raquel and I finished a year spent teaching in
Takayama Japan and decided to strap our stuffed bear Kumamon to one of our
backpacks, and spend two months in Europe.
Eating on the floor in Japan is certainly more agreeable
with the locals than walking while you eat, but typically frowned upon when done
in a train station. Yet we were given no hassle, for Kumamon was with us.
Locals tried to frown when they saw two westerners shoveling their faces
between trains, but inevitably failed when they saw his fat black belly and
rosy red cheeks. Frowns faded as the passersby mumbled “Kumamon,” from goofy
smiles. It seemed that deciding to take a stuffed animal as our only carry-on
item besides a backpack each was a great idea.
But that all changed.
The three of us landed in the Dubai airport after a tiring
yet sleepless 12 flight from Tokyo. After a year living amongst a sea of
Japanese salary men, the diversity of the airport boggled my mind. I saw men in
turbans and women in scarves, gnarled beards, styled mustached, business suits,
bindies and baseball caps on hair of every style growing from skin of every
color. The only thing all these people had in common was their distrust of the
two Americans sauntering through the airport with a stuffed bear.
People woke from their naps just to roll over and turn their
backs on us. Mothers warned their children to keep their distance and husbands
told their wives wait to take a picture until the cheerless ambiance of the enormous
international airport could return.
After an hour of listless wandering, it was time to fly to Vienna.
We queued up, inched forward, presented our boarding pass and were promptly told
to get out of line. A hundred people walked past us, their tickets brokering
them no troubles. We kept smiles on our faces and Kumamon bounced happily in
Raquel’s arms but the passing crowd was not amused. As people filed onto the
plane, stares grew from distrust to suspicion to downright horror. I know they
were all thinking the same thing. “There’s a bomb in that bear.”
“Your seats changed, I didn’t have a printer,” the flight attendant
said with a grin, not even apologizing for how sweaty the delay had made us. We
piled onto the plane, plopped down with Kumamon, and prepared for the praise to
come for our travelling companion.
Instead we were greeted with a cold smile from a European flight
attendant, and told to stuff our teddy bear in the overhead so we could take
off.
Teddy bear? We looked at eachother. TEDDY BEAR? We would
never travel with a teddy bear! But then our eyes alit on sweet sweet Kumamon
and we realized that she was indeed talking to us.
So I’ll miss Japan, with its bowing businessman and silly
characters, but we’re ready for a new adventure, this one with a cast of three
lead characters and countless bit parts that will come and go. So stay tuned to
see who we meet, and what they have to say about my beard, my beautiful wife,
and lil’ Kumamon.
If you liked this post, follow our adventures in Europe or find out about my year in Japan.
If you liked this post, follow our adventures in Europe or find out about my year in Japan.
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