Roland Kelts

Roland Kelts was one of my first Facebook friends when I finally landed on the social media grid. “Stellar website!” he emailed me, by way of introduction. Although he was writing from Japan and I from America’s heartland, I quickly discovered that we share two enduring passions: a love of Japanese culture and of the New England Patriots. So when I invited Roland to write a guest column for StrangeTango.com: Life as Art, I suggested that his impressions of the Super Bowl or his expertise in Japanese culture would be fascinating to read. In fact, Roland deftly combines the two themes for a very personal, and poignant, exploration of identity in an increasingly connected world.   

When I depart Japan for the US, I usually target the American coasts. My flights out of Narita are bound for New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Seattle, and many of my fellow passengers are Japanese, Korean, Chinese or Singaporean, with a smattering of other Southeast Asians. As a half-Japanese American, I am surrounded by my ilk—people who look and behave approximately like me. Most of my fellow passengers have dark hair, slender builds and tawny skin. We use chopsticks and drink tea. We grin subtly. With few exceptions, we speak sotto voce.

The same holds true when I fly west from Tokyo to London or Amsterdam, with a smaller contingent of Middle Eastern passengers. Many Asians trek as tourists or businesspeople to flagship European cities, and numerous flights from the Asian continent connect through Narita.

So while I am officially leaving Japan when I board my flights, I remain surrounded by reassuring remnants of Japanese culture as I make the multi-hour transition from East to West.

But earlier this year, I took a slightly different route. And that, to paraphrase American poet Robert Frost, made all the difference.

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