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“We’re trainees from Cebu, Philippines, under the Technical Intern Training Program. We do plumbing for Japan’s waterworks bureau, who secures water resources and provides a stable supply of clean water for the public. Life is good. But grocery prices and living costs are so high when converted back to pesos. I’ve been here for aContinue reading
“She’s nine months old. I had the easiest pregnancy with her. But now I’m having the hardest time with her. Maybe it’s like reverse karma or something. I want her grow up to be assertive because I notice people here talk to you in this roundabout way. Makes me want to say, ‘Just get toContinue reading
“I think everyone goes through some kind of identity crisis. I’m from Taiwan and when I was 16, I went to the States, where I lived with a white host family. I went to a private school that was predominantly white, although there were also a couple of Asians and some black people. I rememberContinue reading
“When one of the biggest English conversational schools in Japan went bust in 2007, I suddenly found myself jobless. With no income, I would desperately find former students, go to their house, and do a group lesson for not even so much money. There was even a single mother who asked me to do lessonsContinue reading
“My daughter just turned two. She’s half Filipino. My wife teaches her Tagalog while I teach her English. If she goes to public school then she’ll learn Japanese very quickly so that would be great for her. She’ll be trilingual and a third culture kid. I thought Tokyo might not be a great place toContinue reading
“We met through a mutual friend at a party. She’s Japanese and I’m half Japanese, half Filipino. I was born and raised in Japan. But even though I’ve never lived in the Philippines, sometimes I miss the vibe of my Filipino side, and of course the food. My mom’s Filipina so she’d cook dishes fromContinue reading
“We’ve been friends since elementary school. She’s Japanese (left) and I’m half Japanese, half Filipina (right). My mom’s from the Philippines, dad’s Japanese, and I’ve been coming back and forth here since I was a kid. The Philippine community in Japan is so huge that whenever there’s a festival like here today, everybody comes. NoContinue reading
“I work the night shift at a convenience store. I show up for work at 10 pm then clock out in the morning at 6 am. Because they can’t hire young Japanese people, lately there are more foreigners like myself doing this kind of job in Japan. Not gonna lie, it’s tough. Especially the language.Continue reading
“We’re volunteer staff for today’s Vietnam Festival. It’s the biggest we’ve ever been to. Sometimes it surprises us how big the Vietnamese community is in Japan. We’re the third-largest group of foreign residents here. I’m from Huế (left), she’s from Danang (right), and we made a Japanese friend (center) today, who’s even wearing our traditionalContinue reading
“I was brought up in a poor environment in Kenya. My dad passed away when I was seven so I barely got to know him. And even while I was growing up, I hardly saw him because he was always in the hospital due to a heart problem. He was constantly being admitted to theContinue reading
“Japan recently acknowledged the work that I’ve done integrating foreign actors with the entertainment industry by writing a book on acting in Japan and bringing people across the board together. The biggest problem here isn’t someone’s ability to act, it’s their ability to behave. The small cultural things, like what questions to ask or notContinue reading
“I had an amazing childhood. A dope one. Maybe sometimes it was too nice because I didn’t have that many hardships. So when I had to deal with problems later on in life, I thought, ‘What?! This isn’t supposed to happen to me.’ And that’s when I turned to alcohol. I’m originally from Orlando, Florida,Continue reading
“I was a functional alcoholic. I was constantly having alcohol in my system. While I wasn’t getting super smashed drunk every night, I’d usually get a beer after work. Then on the weekends, when I was DJ, I’d get free drinks, or I’d drink with my crew, and I would get obliterated every Thursday tillContinue reading
“Moving to Canada from Taiwan to live with my aunt’s family and attend high school and university was a big moment in my life. And now I find myself at a crossroads once again. After going back to Taiwan and having worked there for two and a half years, I relocated to Japan through anContinue reading
“I was going through a difficult time in my life last year due to a relationship that had ended. Not only that. Some friends went through divorce, someone had cancer, and one even committed suicide. So it really shook my faith in God. And my friends tell me I’m someone with a strong faith. BecauseContinue reading
“It was hard for me to marry the two Japans that I saw and experienced before and after coming here. My fascination for Japan came from a young age. I fell in love with the stories as told through books, film, animation and even video games, such as Final Fantasy, Sonic the Hedgehog, and MarioContinue reading
“When I was a student, I joined a government scholarship program to learn English in the UK. I met a Japanese girl there who was studying flower arrangement. We became friends and she even visited me when I returned home to Kassel, Germany. I wanted so bad to be together with her so I movedContinue reading
“I wasted half my life trying to make other people happy. My family and relatives were totally against me moving to Japan. My stepdad is from the Caribbean and the traditional culture there is you’re not supposed to go against what your parents said. But I didn’t really want to study Spanish or something elseContinue reading
