Tokyo’s Muslim

Bush has won.

I don’t resent Americans for voting him because I understand why they did it. A combination of fears, fear of terror, of strangers and strange beliefs. Even ardent Muslim Fundamentalists cannot entirely be dismayed at Bush’s election; after all, he would block gay marrage, something so abhorent in the Muslim tradition that it wiped out the people of Lut, right?

Yet… In that fear, the fear that Americans expressed, I inevitably find myself drawn to the evening of February 9th, 2004. I was on a train headed for the furthest destination I could find; a complicated story wherein I was unable to get a hotel room and decided to sleep on the night train. Sadly the night train was more than 300$ and I couldn’t afford wasting that much money. I took the bullet train to my destination and tried to grab as much sleep as possible within the stifling confines of the train’s sole free east in the smoking car. Within the cancer causing soot, and within visual range of a pervert reading hentai manga on the train, I prayed. I prayed that God would find me a place to stay, and that it would be cheap. I promised not to miss any of my prayers if he did so.

As the train pulled into Himeji station, a Japanese man started talking to me. He told me we had arrived and we started talking. A middle aged man, with a tough streak in him that I could see. He spoke English and the kanzai dialect of Japanese. I told him I was Canadian and the fact that I had no place to stay eventually came out. We talked and he told me that I could wait on the train tracks if I wanted, the agents don’t mind. The weather was chilly so I nixed that idea. As we walked down the stairs, with me lugging my giant bag, he left to get some smokes and asked me to wait. When he got back, we talked to the people who worked with the railway people. They said there was a cheap hotel close by, and he thanked them.

On the way out of the station, Mr. Nagai and I chatted. Among other things, I told him that I was a Muslim. When he heard that, he looked at me and said “La illah ha illallah” (There is no God but Allah, the fundamental prayer and statement which must be made by every Muslim when embracing Islam). When I looked at him, my eyes were wide open in surprise. Islam is not widely known in Japan; very few Muslims reside there. As well, I’ve never heard a Canadian (where Islam is the second biggest religion) know what it is. I was not dealing with a normal person.

He asked me if I knew about a place called “The Marriot”. There is a Marriot hotel right where I used to get off the bus in Montreal so I responded in the affirmative. He pointed at a hotel and said “This is the Marriot of Japan” and took me there. As we arrived, he told me to make reservations. I went to the clerk and started talking to him. He told me a single room would be 9000 yen (About 90 American dollars). I was going to agree to this when Mr. Nagai came up and suddenly started negotiating with the clerk. I was shocked at how he managed to get the clerk to drop the price to 8000 yen and give me a bigger room to boot! This room would have cost a heck of a lot more ordinarily.

It didn’t end there as Mr. Nagai took me to eat. The restaurants were all closed but he knocked on the door and when they saw who it was, they opened up and let him in. I never found out why. Was Mr. Nagai a famous person? I don’t recall him missing his pinky finger, so I guess he wasn’t a Yakuza. He told me they were like “Family”; but not of his blood. He fed me and paid the bill, which shames me on this day.

As we left, he told me that he saw me as someone who would succeed in this world. I was pretty depressed to see him go, and told him that. He yelled, “Bakayarou! Ganbatte!” (You stupid moron, cheer up). I cracked up and answered in the affirmative. As he vanished into the night I knew I would never see him again. Life is filled with people we meet for an instant but will only vanish shortly thereafter.

What is the connection between this and the Bush story?

Americans voted out of fear. They are scared of what will happen if terrorists strike again. There is also a healthy dose of arrogance and disregard for the rest of the world. If I had been arrogant I would have never accepted help from a foreigner. If I had shown fear, I would have never gone with Nagai-san. Yes I could have gotten a hotel room, yes I could have probably found something to eat. However, my hotel room would be less comfortable, more expensive and any food I would find would be out of a machine. There would be no memories of this day except for the fact that I was stupid enough to sit in the smoking section of the train.

But I chose to show faith in God’s plan and threw away my fear. And eventhough Nagai-san drank alcohol and talked about picking up his girlfriend, I still consider him closer to God than myself. In the end, was it not God’s friend Abraham who rejected fear and helped the travellers who came to his door? Was it not the act of the one man who God himself respected? How can I aspire to be a good man, and a good Muslim, if I wallow in fear?

Dear Nagai-san, you will never see this page, but you thaught me the consequence of fear. Let those who didn’t learn the lesson see their reward down south where fear has won the day. And dear God, please help me eschew fear and follow the path you have laid out for me.

Amen.