A Gaelic Encounter in Japan

I was out for a walk today and by chance ran into an interesting person. Now, I have Japanese nationality and am therefore a Japanese citizen, but I'm not Asian, I'm Caucasian, which is unusual here in Japan. (I naturalized to Japanese citizenship).

The man I met is also Caucasian, which led to him saying hello to me in a very, to my ears, interesting accent. It turns out that this man is an Irishman, that has been in Japan for 34 years. He was quite interested to know that my family name is Bruce, a good Scottish family name, he told me.

He was very knowledgeable and talked a lot about people of Gaelic ancestry in Japan that somehow always seem to run into each other. He was a very interesting character that I enjoyed chatting with.

When he stood up to shake my hand at the end of our chat, I suddenly realized how massive this man was. I am 185cm tall, but this man was easily a full head taller and a good 50kg heavier than I! My tiny fiancée subtly went behind me and peeked at him from behind my back, which made him give a good, but gentle laugh.

A truly interesting man.