How far is East?

It's been almost three months since I left Japan. From Tokyo, I went to Los Angeles for a week, and from there I went to Albuquerque. Try to imagine one of those Indiana Jones maps with the red lines on it to make this part a little more interesting. Anyway, after some rest, I continued more or less east on to England. Yeah. I'm living in England now. Pip pip. But being in this bastion of Western culture, I'm finding that there's a wholly different understanding of east and west here. It seems like for most people here, Asia is the part of the world that includes Pakistan, India, China, and uh, is Hong Kong part of...? Er, yeah, and China.

And that isn't to say those aren't Asian countries. But that's pretty much it, at least in terms of what affects most people's thinking here. That stuff about Korea? Primarily troublesome for people's mental rearranging of the "List of Countries That Can Nuke Something Besides TV Dinners." The recent coup in Thailand? Tack that on the "Places folks go on exotic vacations that I've always wanted to know more about someday" list. Laos or Cambodia? Same list. And Japan? That place I devoted the last five years to? "Oh yeah, I've eaten some of their food/seen a movie or dance from there/know a guy who went there and listened to his half-baked observations" list.

Which is to say that there is a whole world of stuff here that is considered "Asian" that I'm going to have to learn about. For instance, it's a little after sunset here and my otherwise quiet neighborhood sounds like an old west gunfight. It's fireworks being set off to mark the Hindu festival of Diwali. But that shouldn't be confused with the celebrations for the end of the fasts for Muslim holiday of Ramadan, which also took place tonight. It's just a coincidence that this year the first day of the tenth month in the Islamic calendar coincides with the end of the seventh month of the National Civil calendar of India.

And the recent Japanese holiday of 体育の日? Or about the upcoming 文化の日? Not even worth mentioning to people here. It's not really a part of what's been included in British international culture exchanges. East, but not Asia? Too-far East? Or is it so far away that I need to say it's Western Pacific?