Blue Eyes, golf superstars and my house

I was teaching a class of 45 high school students the other day. They were about 16 years old. A special class for students who like English.

My eyes are blue and I overheard them say:
"Wow, his eyes are so blue."
"Yeah, they're as blue as an Australian's!"

So maybe there are some Japanese high school students out there that think Australians have particularly blue eyes.

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Last week a rising young superstar named Michele Wie came to Kochi. This was really big news. We are in "the stix" and no one famous, especially someone young and cool and beautiful comes here. We're kind of a punch line sometimes. Anyway, the golf is good here and she came for a big golf tournament.

Some background in case you're reading this sometime in the future. At this time, she is a 16 year old prodigy who just turned pro and is making headlines. She's an American, lives in hawaii and if I'm not mistaken is of Korean descent. But she grew up in the states and if you hear her speak english she sounds more american that i do.

So she came here and even went shopping at the local mall, local restaurants and so on. I know that 6 months ago none of my students knew her name but now everyone does.

So my students asked me f she's famous in America.
Sure I said, very famous.
They were skeptical. Really?
Yeah, she's very famous now. In the news all the time. A beautiful young sports genious? Sure she's famous. Two years ago not so famous but now she's very famous.

Again, disbelief. Because she's of asian descent my students figured she would be famous in Japan but not the US. Even though she grew up in the States and as far as I know doesn't speak a word of Japanese (not to mention the choppy relationship between japan and Korea) people just figured she somehow became famous in a vaccuum, unbeknownst to other Americans and was then invited to an international tournament in Japan where she could be appreciated finally.

The fact that she calls Hawaii home explains a little. here, Hawaii is considered just barely technically a part of the USA.

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Yesterday I bought a sofa. The shopclerk (woman, about 6o years old) was using a map to figure out where to deliver it. Even though I've been here a few years, and was conversing in japanese and had just made a "durable goods" purchase with a japanese credit card, she was a bit skeptical that I knew my own address.

I'm getting sidetracked here but I mention it because even though I and most of my foreign friends find the japanse to be very nice and accommodating, it sometimes comes at the price of, I don't know what to call it, respect?

In other words, you could be a brain surgeon and people will clap their hands in glee if they see you use chopsticks. Sure, people are just being nice but imagine how you would feel as an adult if people were constantly pattng you on the head and saying things like "Wow, you can ride a bicycle!" or "Gee, did it take a long time to understand how to use the TV remote control?"

So she found my house finally and said "Wow! You live in a house!" In other words, living in a house is harder for foreigners than living in an apartment.
I kinda played along. "Yeah," I said "and I live there alone too!"
"Wow! That's amazing"

Just a note: sarcasm is rare in Japan. She was truly impressed,
Another note: sorry if this post wandered. I was having a conversation while typing.