Concerning The Bridge Across the Pacific, the story of the awful Marvin Matthews and his (mis)adventures in Japan, I’ve been asked by a few people about what kind of incidents occur in the story. I am certainly grateful for the interest; many thanks to those who have inquired.

 

Most of what takes place in Bridge may be at least somewhat familiar to those who have spent some time in Japan. Marvin struggles with ordering in restaurants; he is occasionally “serenaded” with a chorus of “hello, hello” from people he passes on the street; there is an incident with an English “leech,” somebody who sees in Marvin a means to further (at no charge) his English ability; Marvin has to deal with a visit from the NHK collector (one who visits residences in order to collect the fees for Japan’s public television network); at his job as an English teacher, he at times meets with students who are convinced their English is superior to his; additionally at work, he interacts with students who seem to talk about nothing but Japan. These are a few of the examples of what Marvin experiences during his short tenure in Japan.

 

Without a doubt, the incidents mentioned above can be mildly annoying at times. Not many people relish the idea of paying the NHK fees; even fewer probably much appreciate their English being corrected by their students. However, the manner in which Marvin reacts to these—and several other perceived slights—leaves much to be desired. He feels they are proof that the Japanese are a strange, unnerving people, and somehow out to get him. Never mind that the NHK collector is simply doing his job, that his English indeed needs correcting from time to time, and that students who go on about Japan often do so simply because it’s generally easier for those speaking in a foreign language to talk about something with which they are familiar, in his mind he is being persecuted and is thus totally justified in reacting belligerently.

 

As mentioned in the Bio page, I believe that much of what has been written about Japan in fiction (and non-fiction for that matter) tends to focus on the supposed oddities of the country and its people. Bridge merely attempts to convey the idea that occasionally it’s not always the Japanese that are acting strangely.