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Today was Sports Day, a Japanese national holidays whose purpose is to promote everybody to go outside and play sports. No school, no work, just fun athleticism. In my opinion, it's among the best of the random-national-holidays. So since we were all free from the usual requirements of Monday life, my family and I went to the Sports Festival that was hosted by my university (which is also, coincidentally, my host-dad's Alma Mater). Throughout the day there were a variety of different organized sporting activities up for grabs, but for me the most interesting by far was soccer.
Quick preface: I'm not very good at soccer, but I love playing it. There is honestly almost no sport that I won't play, and soccer is definitely among the long list of ones I enjoy. But do not be fooled, it doesn't take much to best me in this particular game.
So I happily walked onto the field with my host brother and his (slightly younger, probably 8 years old) friend. What followed was easily my biggest minority-experience in Japan so far. I mean on a field of some 50-some-odd people, I was the only guy wearing jeans. Really? Who wears jeans to a sports festival? Also, I was the only person in the entire participant pool who was over the age of 13, not to mention being the only blonde-haired, blue-eyed guy within 3 kilometers (at least). Also, kids tend to be less discrete than adults when it comes to this whole "Hey look a foreigner!" thing. Before we had even really started I could hear my name being whispered and see kids trying to hide the fact that they were staring. Also, I don't think the university student coordinators knew exactly what to make of me. Here I am, not only a gaijin (外人: literally - outside person), but standing 20 years old and lined up to play soccer with a bunch of kids. Fortunately, most of them just sorted laughed at the awkwardness of the whole situation (hey, it's better than the alternative), and they let me play.
After a quick round of icebreakers and a few more minutes of organization I eventually wound up with on a team with 6 other kids, ready to play some soccer......sort of. I didn't exactly know how to act. On one hand I'm entirely feeling my place as a minority, and therefore super awkward, and on the other hand I've easily got at least 1.5 feet and 40 pounds on any of my opponents (okay, the student coordinators were playing too but they don't count). I feel like I should do something to show some kind of worth, but at the same time I can't very well go all-out-competitive and a group of elementary school students (although honestly, most of them could beat me). I ended up kind of awkwardly being around, nudging the ball if it came near me and letting the kids play it out. Eventually, as a sort of joke some of the guy college students would constantly yell out「ルーカス！」("Lucas!" with a Japanese accent) if something happened that I was close enough to do something about. Again, I wasn't quite sure how to respond. This was typical college-dude behavior that I'm used to and can enjoy as much as anybody, but the combination of my insecurity, lack of Japanese and lack of soccer ability kind of left me to just sort of smile awkwardly and half-play-along.
After it was all done I chatted with some of the college guys a little bit. They seemed fine enough but I still was a feeling funky so I went off with my host-brother and his friend to play some tennis. I love tennis. I'm good at tennis. I know what to do in tennis. So despite the whole minority thing playing a little tennis definitely brought me back into my comfort zone.
Afterward my host-bro wanted to go play soccer again, and this time was significantly better. I just took on the same playful attitude I usually have with kids (thankfully it's mostly acting and less vocal interaction, ergo this was possible), and now that I had kids smiling instead of staring I could easily college-dude-it-up with the other university students. Funny thing is though, this time everybody (kids included) was constantly saying「ルーカス！」, whether it be when I missed a ball or when they were telling me to shoot. I still felt a little bad about overshadowing anything else going on, but I still enjoyed it, and I'm actually getting lunch with two of the university students tomorrow.
Overall it was a great day. I got to spend a lot of time with my host family (although not my sister, she wasn't feeling well and so stayed home for the day), and a got to play sports (which I've been craving). It still surprised me how different being a minority is though. Even if you were sure that people aren't judging you, the blatant not-one-of-them-ness that you feel is incredibly difficult to brush off. The thing I've learned the most though is to just stay open minded and try not to get offended easily. Example: At the end of the second soccer game one of the kids came and said 「おい！アメリカ人、バイバイ。」("Hey, American! See you later"). Now as many open-minded people that I know, I definitely know a few who would quickly take offense to being called by ethnicity (and who could blame them). But my response was to wave back and return the farewell. When you're just an anomaly to someone, it's better for them to remember you with a smile, rather than a glare.
