“I’m Japanese but my mom got remarried to an Australian, so my last name changed to Smith. I also have a younger brother who’s half Japanese, half Australian. We all moved to Australia, where I spent the next 4-5 years. That was an important part of my life. It shaped me to who I amContinue reading
“I will always be a minority in every country I go to. I’m Punjabi but I was born and raised in Birmingham, England. My parents are both from East Africa, grandparents all from India. If I go to India, I’m a Brit. In the UK, I’m British Indian or British Asian. In Japan, I’m aContinue reading
“I had to go through a lot of disappointment, a lot “no’s”, before getting to where I am in my music career in Japan. I came here after college and it was a total culture shock (even though I used to stay here as a kid since my dad was in the military). I gotContinue reading You Got This
“When I arrived at graduate school in Japan, the first thing that greeted me were two cards on the counter of the student program’s department saying, ‘Don’t kill yourself’ and ‘Don’t sexually harass people.’ And this was after I had just found out I didn’t actually have a scholarship. So that was a very stressfulContinue reading Brain Drain
***日本語訳は下をご覧ください*** “I don’t feel like I’ve had the kind of experience that everyone thinks you’ll have when you come to Japan or Tokyo. I think everyone imagines that I am going out and living this crazy life, dressing up in kimono or meeting loads of people. Actually, my seven years in Japan have been reallyContinue reading Otherness
