幸福原來可以這麼費勁
原來真的有人不懂珍惜
現在你在哪裡
可不可以給我一點消息
～“星期一先打開星座運勢”
The first half of 2026 has already passed.
Looking at my counter, it says that only “2 years, 1 month, and 16 days” have passed since I first came to Japan.
For me, however, it feels like more than three years. I have been here since 2024 after all, and somehow, it feels as if I have already gone through each season at least three times.
One question people often ask me is, “Was there anything surprising when you first came here?”
It is a complicated question to answer, because honestly, I do not really feel that way. It is not because I am already used to how things work here, or how people think. The feeling is more difficult to explain than that.
After coming here, I once asked, “Will I be evaluated the same way as Japanese people?” and “Should I act and think like Japanese people?”
The answer I received was simple: “Just be your usual self.”
But I think it is difficult to truly understand what it feels like to be a foreigner in a foreign country. This is even more true in a relatively homogeneous country like Japan. It is hard to explain the feeling of being left out, of not understanding something, or even of not realizing that there is something you do not understand. In the end however, we were actually evaluated and expected to be the same as them.
Learning a language is not only about speaking, writing, listening, or reading. It is also a journey of understanding the culture behind it. It shapes the way you think, and helps you better understand how native speakers see, feel, and act in the world around them.
At one point, I had a strong desire to become as “Japanese” as possible. It feels strange to write it that way now.
In all honesty, I think I would rather be valued as the person I am. How my journey was, and how my potential will be.
I know I will not stay in this town forever. Because of that, I have been giving myself small “to-do buckets” of things to explore around me. Sometimes it is just taking a walk somewhere. Sometimes it is trying something new. Who knows whether one of those small moments might become something I can only experience once in my lifetime.
Maybe it is that desire to explore, and the hope that someday I can go even farther, that gives me a reason to keep moving.