Yesterday evening, we saw a big roadside sign telling the opening of a new restaurant.  Since we hadn’t decided where to eat, we went to the restaurant right behind the sign.  The restaurant serves Pacific fusion dishes, nicely prepared, and we enjoyed them very much.  What impressed us even more was that our waiter was from Mongolia.  Even though I, Japanese, belong to the Mongoloid speices, I’ve never met a real Mongolian.  At first glance, he looked Asian enough, black hair, yelow skin, almond eyes, but something about him was diferent.  My husband who has a Russian friend picked up Russian accent and couldn’t help asking where he was from.  Sure enough, he said “Mongolian. Russian is my second language.”  When he found that I was Japanese, he was very pleased to talk about “Yokozuna from Mongolia.  Luckily, I could remember the name of Yokozuna “朝青龍”.  He says now that Mongolia is truly independent (from Russia) and because of the Yokozuna, Mongolia’s tie with Japan is getting stronger.  He said that Mongolia might be the most Western (not westernized) in Asia, as the country is situated in Central Asia, influenced by all kinds of cultures.  He himself has  Persian blood.  We could converse only about 2 hours, but we felt that we learned something totally new.  Well,  I didn’t have nerve to tell him that I mixed up Mongolia with Magnolia a few weeks ago.  Truth is, it seems to take a lot to understand that country.  I may say I am more confused than before.