hello all and welcome to my blog :) i wanted to start off by introducing myself. i was born in tokyo, japan and grew up in los angeles, california. i'm an accidental fourth-generation japanese-american a.k.a. nikkei-yonsei. i say accidental because even though i was born in japan, my great-grandparents on both sides immigrated to the u.s. from japan back in the late 1800's and their children and grandchildren have since only married other japanese or japanese-americans. i won't get into all the details, but basically i don't have a japanese passport and i can't speak japanese very well.
growing up in the u.s., i always felt i was japanese. my parents integrated japanese culture into my daily life through food, dancing traditional odori, attending japanese school, and watching the japanese channel. also, being part of the minority, it's natural for me to refer to my ethnicity rather than my nationality.
when it came time to study abroad, my heart was set on studying at waseda university in tokyo because i wanted to learn first-hand about my roots. it wasn't until i got there that i actually felt like i wasn't japanese. this was the first time i ever felt like this and people would tell me that i "wasn't actually japanese" and i was "just american." i heard this from the local japanese and my american classmates. to this day i still get offended and hurt when people say this to me, especially from those with no japanese ancestry. at the same time, they're right; i don't have japanese citizenship, i didn't grow up in japan, and i can barely hold a decent conversation with someone in japanese. yet, i'm still trying to learn the language and i feel more close to japan than ever before. i realize now though i'm not just japanese and not just american. i'm japanese-american whose great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents fought hard to immigrate to the u.s., stayed strong in the internment camps during world war ii, and support me everyday. i'd like to think i'm a nice mixture of these completely different cultures. what i'm really trying to say (my whole reason for writing this post) is that i think it is really important for everyone to first understand their own home and background before really exploring other cultures. i hope by introducing myself, you can better understand where i'm coming from for my future posts.
growing up in the u.s., i always felt i was japanese. my parents integrated japanese culture into my daily life through food, dancing traditional odori, attending japanese school, and watching the japanese channel. also, being part of the minority, it's natural for me to refer to my ethnicity rather than my nationality.
when it came time to study abroad, my heart was set on studying at waseda university in tokyo because i wanted to learn first-hand about my roots. it wasn't until i got there that i actually felt like i wasn't japanese. this was the first time i ever felt like this and people would tell me that i "wasn't actually japanese" and i was "just american." i heard this from the local japanese and my american classmates. to this day i still get offended and hurt when people say this to me, especially from those with no japanese ancestry. at the same time, they're right; i don't have japanese citizenship, i didn't grow up in japan, and i can barely hold a decent conversation with someone in japanese. yet, i'm still trying to learn the language and i feel more close to japan than ever before. i realize now though i'm not just japanese and not just american. i'm japanese-american whose great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents fought hard to immigrate to the u.s., stayed strong in the internment camps during world war ii, and support me everyday. i'd like to think i'm a nice mixture of these completely different cultures. what i'm really trying to say (my whole reason for writing this post) is that i think it is really important for everyone to first understand their own home and background before really exploring other cultures. i hope by introducing myself, you can better understand where i'm coming from for my future posts.
here are a couple previews of future posts on tokyo & little tokyo - two of my favorite places!
"big" tokyo -- all photos taken by me while i was studying abroad
tokyo tower + sunrise + jet lag = awesome picture
line of shops in asakusa near senso-ji temple
view of tokyo from tokyo metropolitan government building + sunset = another awesome photo
little tokyo - all photos taken by me at various times
little tokyo really is little in downtown la
my favorite restaurant in little tokyo-- shabu shabu house
hope you enjoyed my first post!
please check back for more posts on different areas in los angeles, japan, my past travels, and future plans.
xoxo,
camryn
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