One of my friends moved to America for a year. Not an uncommon thing. I live around Toyota City.

Toyota City is sometimes called the Detroit of Japan because of, well, Toyota and it's importance to the city and area. But really it's not just Toyota City, this entire area is something of a car megacenter. Some of the largest car companies in the world are nearby: Mitsubishi, Honda, Suzuki, Mazda, Daihatsu, Isuzu. Not only that, but this area is home to a lot of car parts companies, most notably Denso and Aisin.

All of these companies are giant and have branches and/or factories in various countries, including the US. And all of these companies routinely send their employees to one of these overseas locations for 1-5 years. Usually these overseas assignments are given to young and single guys, but sometimes they do fall on guys with families. In that case, if the family is willing to go with the husband (which isn't always the case, especially when the kids are older or the wife has a good job she doesn't want to leave) then the company usually pays the entire cost to ship over all of their personal things and set them up with a nice house. Really it's not a bad deal.

Anyway, the friend I'm talking about has a 7 year old son and he made the move with his entire family. The other day I did a Zoom call with him and we chatted for awhile. He told me a funny story about his son.

Does Santa Speak Japanese in America?

His son wanted to write Santa a letter, but he had a problem: what language to write it in. He asked his dad if Santa could understand Japanese in America. His dad was a little confused and told him that he had written Santa in Japanese in previous years and it hadn't been a problem. "But now we are in America", his son insisted. "In America the language is English, so Santa might not understand Japanese here". His father laughed at the logic and told him Santa is magic and knows all languages regardless of what country he is in. His son persisted: "But we are in America, so shouldn't I use English in my letter? Maybe Santa will get angry if I use a different language". His father assured him that either language would be fine.

But his son wasn't done. After a few minutes of quiet writing, he asked his dad: "How will Santa know we are now in America? What if he delivers my presents to our Japan house?" His dad again told him that Santa is magic and that he just knows these things, but he wasn't happy, so his dad told him to draw a map to their new house in America, which his son was happy to do.

Ok, I admit that's not laugh-out-loud funny, but it is cute. My kids are still young enough to say silly things that make me laugh, but they are beyond the age of making that kind of cute question that only young kids can do, so I don't hear that kind of thing as often as I used to.

Anyway, just wanted to share that story. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Do you have any cute stories like that either involving your own kids or kids you know? If so, leave a comment about it.

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David is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon.