Week One: Arriving in Japan

I actually had an advantage over my other colleagues who were enrolled in the program, because I grew up speaking Japanese, and have visited the country on multiple occasions. I’m also half-Japanese if that matters. But I feel like this multi-cultural background that I have ended up becoming one of the largest drivers that urged me to want to go to Japan. That’s because having been born and raised in the United States, I always felt like a piece of me was missing in a way. It’s small moments, like whenever I put on a song by one of the greatest J-Pop artists of all time in the car, no one knew that my mom and everyone in her generation literally grew up to that song, or if I hummed a little jingle, people would be surprised to find out it was the jingle for one of the largest convenience store chains in Japan. I’m sure many of you can relate the frustrations of the people around you not understanding something that is common in your culture. This was one of the main reasons why I moved to Japan. When I hummed a little jingle, I wanted the comfort that came with someone saying, “Hey, that’s the jingle for Family Mart!” <a href="https://medium.com/@akariaster/week-one-arriving-in-japan-06ce69bad82b">Learn More</a>