Multiculti Moment

Tonight, I went to Dahlia, one of the handful of Japanese restaurants in Bangalore.

The restaurant -- an informal and pleasantly shabby spot off Church Street in the center of town -- has a television tuned to a Japanese satellite channel. The staff appeared to be mostly Indian.

As I ate my tonkatsu (a fried pork cutlet stuffed with vegetables), I glanced occasionally at the TV, which displayed a variety of spots, including entertainment and news. (I think it was news. I have some Japanese words but they're pretty limited.)

I look up at one point and notice that they're showing highlights of baseball games. Not surprising. Baseball is big in Japan.

And then it dawns on me -- the ball caps are those of American teams and the games are in the States. The names on the caps include the Mets and the Yankees (I'm a New Yorker). The captions, meanwhile, are all in kanji characters (what else would you expect on Japanese TV?).

So, there I am -- sitting in a Japanese restaurant in Bangalore, India, watching American baseball on Japanese TV.

Confused? Me?