Venture Into the Uncharted Territory

同志社国際中学校１年

田I was only five years old when my family and I moved to America.

中葵

At that time, I

was still a little kid so I was not able to remember much, but I remember being put into
a room full of kids around the same age as me.

I thought that we were just going on ashort vacation. I later learned that I was going to be staying there for quite some time.
A few years quickly passed by and English became my language inside and out.
spoke, wrote, and thought in English every day.
thought of myself as an American too.

All of my friends were Americans so I

The teachers there were so encouraging andreminded us each day that every single one of our opinions mattered.
played games and everyone was so competitive.

In every class, weAsking questions during class was

normal and the more you shared your opinion, the better.

My classmates were from allover the world, but we were more like family than friends.

There was nothing more

英語

important than them.

中学生－II couldn’t wait to go to middle school with all my friends and weWhen I was in fifth grade, my parents told me that we were moving back to Japan.

even promised to go to the same college.

I loved America and everything about my life.

never gave it much thought until there was only a month before I had to move.
the day came, I said my goodbyes to my friends.

IWhen

I didn’t want to accept the fact that

this was reality. I wasn’t prepared at all for what was to come.
I had to go to a public Japanese school and from the moment I walked through theentrance, I felt like I didn’t belong there.
with the people who I loved.
classmates.

I was no longer in the country that I loved andI didn’t know what to say or how to interact with my newI felt so small and fragile.

teacher or raise my hand during class.

I was so scared that I couldn’t even look at theNobody said anything during class anyways.

Every class was like a lecture. Only the teacher spoke and everyone else had to be silent.
The teachers there didn’t encourage the students to speak up.

When I had to introduce

myself to my new classmates, I remember that I told them that I belonged in America.
They all looked at me weirdly and confusion was written all over their face.

I had noidea what everyone around me was talking about and I thought that there was no way I
could survive the rest of the school year.

Everything was the complete opposite of what I

was used to in America.
Then one day at school, a classmate asked me if I liked Japan and I simply
answered “No.”She asked me why, but I couldn’t answer.

didn’t have a specific reason to hate or dislike Japan.
the differences.

That made me realize that II realized I was just not used toAfter the incident, I spent more than half of the school yearoveranalyzing the situation I was in, trying to put the pieces back together, and justifying
what could’ve and would’ve happened if I hadn’t moved back to Japan.
comparing and holding on to the past, I wasn’t able to move on.
backwards in time.

Since I kept

I was travellingI started to think that maybe if I tried to learn more about theculture and accept its differences, I could enjoy my life here in Japan as much as I did inAmerica.

I decided to stop focusing on the negatives of Japan and focus on the positives.

When I started to focus on the positives of Japan, my perspective changed.
instance, Japanese students are strictly taught to be respectful to the elders.

ForThey are

not educated to state their own opinion as clearly as Americans for some opinions might
hurt other people’s feelings.
good manners.

These behaviors are regarded as being polite and having

So while the teacher is talking during class, nobody else will interrupt.

Also, Japanese students are not used to people who come from abroad because Japanese
schools are filled with people who have never lived in another country besides Japan. But
looking back at my school life in Japan, I’ve realized that they have tried to talk to me
and they have made effort to get along with me.

At that time, I wasn’t able to noticethose attempts.
Living in America and Japan, I’ve learned that no country can be perfect.
learned that each country has a very different and unique culture.
cultures have different definitions for being polite and respectful.

People from different

I judged Japan with myIt took me a while to accept the changes

and differences, but what really matters is, I did accept.

Accepting something that you

International exchange has given me the power to widen my perspectives and toBecause of that, I now want to learn more about

Japanese culture. I know that there are still a lot more positive things about Japan that I
haven’t discovered yet.

I want to experience as many different tastes, sights, emotions,conflicts, and cultures as possible, so that I can expand the canvas of my memory andventure into the uncharted territory.

－中学生

are not used to might sound easy, but to me, it was a tremendous step in life.

look at conflicts from a different angle.

英語standards rather than trying to appreciate it.

I also