Japan Part I - scratching the surface
originally posted March 28, 2018 on my WordPress
Almost 24 hours after returning home from Japan (not really sure if that’s accurate considering the time difference, but who’s really going to fact check me), my brain is cluttered with reflections and unanswered questions. I’ve been trying to sort through what I’m feeling after this experience to distinguish my own opinions from the ones I’m expected to feel. People want to hear about how amazing and life-changing this trip was, how refreshed I feel, and how I’ve never felt so in touch with my culture. To some extent, yes, I do feel these things. But I also left Japan feeling more confused and uncertain of my cultural identity as ever.
Ah, a week later and here we are… I wrote that in a tired, half-delusional frenzy and haven’t had time to return to this post until now. I think I’m still decompressing, but I also don’t want to wait too long to reflect on my trip. In retrospect, this truly was an amazing opportunity I was given, and I feel very privileged to have been chosen as a participant.
I want to emphasize how much I support the continuation of the Kakehashi Project. To all my Japanese American friends and family members between the ages of 18 and 25, APPLY IF YOU HAVE NOT GONE YET. Seriously. You will not regret it. This is one of those one in a lifetime opportunities that you will wish you had taken advantage of. (And to all my Japanese American friends who are under 18, apply when you are of age.) A fully compensated trip to Japan for a week?!! I mean, why wouldn’t you at this point.
Background interlude ~ to my understanding, here’s a quick tidbit of background about the Kakehashi Project. After the explosion in Fukushima, the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) raised millions of dollars and sent it as disaster relief aid to Japan. After this gesture, the Japanese government realized that it was incredibly valuable to have a strong, positive relationship with the US and with the Japanese Americans living there. Thus, they started funding a program through the Japanese International Cooperation Center (JICE) to strengthen US-Japan relations in a very specific way: by funding a cultural exchange program for young adults. The Kakehashi Project is a program that is still evolving and bettering, but my hope is that it will continue to be funded so future generations of Japanese/Asian Americans can deepen their understanding of Japan, its culture, its people, its government, and its history.
What’s interesting to me is that the purpose of the project and the purpose that us participants have for applying are extremely different. I’ll speak for myself here when I say I have struggled in determining my cultural identity as a Yonsei (fourth generation Japanese American). I applied to this program with the hope that it would give me the chance to better understand my ethnic heritage, and maybe offer opportunity for some revelation about my identity.
Footnote: Maybe this comes off slightly dramatic… I actually have a pretty strong sense of self, but I think it’s important for me to continue challenging myself to grow because learning never stops. Gotta keep grinding for those intellectual gains!! (Too much? Yeah, I’ll dial that back a notch.) For me, my cultural identity is something that has been taken as is rather than questioned and discovered for myself. I think it’s important for me to be critical of the homeland that my ancestors come from (as it has affected my identity and upbringing whether I am conscious of it or not).
Alright let’s refocus. There’s clearly a lot of aspects of this trip I want to unpack, but I wanted to start with one of the biggest cultural differences that I felt. So one thing that really struck me when I was in Japan is how safe I felt. I hate that growing up in the US, especially as a woman, I am taught to be cautious when walking alone. Whether it was direct or inherent teachings, I always felt generally untrusting when alone in public places. Even in broad daylight I feel on guard and my body sometimes tenses up when I walk past strangers. I’m not sure exactly when this anxiety started manifesting, but it’s definitely something I haven’t been able to shake.
But being in Japan, I have never felt so safe to be out at night, even in dark empty alleys, just wandering around. How funny, right? I feel safer walking in Japan at night in dark alleys than I do at home in broad daylight in places that are familiar. I think this sense of security has to do with the low crime rates in Japan. In the prefecture I visited on the island of Shikoku, one of the local residents told me there are only a few murders a year. I can’t say for certain that is true across the country, but I’m pretty sure crime in general is much lower than it is in the US.
To feel completely safe was freeing and empowering in a way that I’ve never experienced before. This has been just one way that my trip to Japan through the Kakehashi Program has given me a newfound interest to learn about cultural differences. It’s not in food, clothing, or whatever other surface level differences but in lifestyle and core values. Moreover, how those things are shaped by a country’s mindset.
