Cafe Asia

In Rosslyn, the suburban business area across Potomac River from Washington D.C., is a restaurant named "Cafe Asia." This restaurant serves various Asian dishes; Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, and so on. Many people of Asian origin swarm there to satisfy their own native taste.
　　At the sushi bar in the corner of the restaurant I saw a big guy with his skinhead tied around with a twisted towel making sushi. He asked me in Japanese,
　　"From which can I start for you? We have good red-snapper."
　　"I'll take it."
　　"Something to drink?"
　　"Japanese tea, please."
　　He ordered Japanese tea to the kitchen in fluent Standard Chinese. I was surprised a little to know there was a Japanese in America who could speak Chinese. However I was more surprised at the color of his eyes when he looked back at me. His eyes are grayish green. I noticed that he was not Japanese.
　　"You speak Japanese very well," I praised him.
　　"I have lived in Japan for ten years or so," he began to talk about himself. He came from Xinjiang Uigur of China. He left home under the political pressure of the Beijing government and went to study in Japan. Attending a collage in Tokyo, he got a part time job in a sushi restaurant and learnt Japanese there.
　　"This is red snapper."
　　The sushi which he handed out to me was exactly such as we used to eat in Japan.
　　"As I learnt how to make sushi, I can earn to live in the U.S."
He seriously said to me.
　　I supposed it might be the habit of the Uigur for him to shave the head. His sinewy upper arms out of the sleeves of his white cooking clothes reminded me of a strong nomadic man. My impression was that he must become a brave fighter in case of emergency.
　　Several years before I was wandering along the Guangji Street in Xi'an City of China, where many Uigur people lived, when I felt intensely this street led to "the West", the nomadic world in Central Asia. A Uigur, who had once looked upon Chang'an (current Xi'an), the biggest international city of ancient China, as his final destination, ran east along the Silk Road to Japan of its terminal, skipped it over, and crossed the Pacific Ocean to America.
　　This sushi cook who is come from "the West" speaks Uigur, Turkish, Chinese and Japanese. He said to me, "I like Japan."
　　Nowadays sushi is an international food. Almost all of the countries in the world have sushi bars. In the U.S, Korean, Chinese, and even Hispanic as well as Japanese make sushi at sushi bars by imitating Japanese style, because Sushi, an alkaline food seasoned with vinegar, is one of the healthiest foods all over the world.
　　The nomadic sushi cook explained the reason why he had come to the U.S, by saying, "I wanted to settle down in Japan. But as long as I stay there, I remain a foreigner." His eyes seemed to dream an unfinished dream.