Who Do I Think I Am?

This is a hard question because I have never thought about this.

I am Japanese and I was raised in Japan.

I came to the United States 4 years ago because I wanted to learn English to get better job in Japan. I decided to go to California just because my favorite Japanese singer, A.I., was born there.

I was going to community college in a small town, Merced, CA, then transferred here simply because my major was media studies. (I needed to move to bigger city in order to get better education.)

At the time, all the English words I knew were "thank you," "I am sorry," and "OK."

As you can tell, I had really hard time living everyday.

It is a funny story now, but at the very first day I moved to California, I asked my host mother, "Can I take a bath?" Although I tried to tell I wanted, she just continued to say, "Yes, it is outside." so i take my shampoo and conditioner and bathing towel to outside. There was nothing.

The truth is, I was not pronouncing "th" sound correctly, she was thinking I said "Can I take a bus?"

That was just my funny story.

Media are the necessary thing to talk about me.

I read newspaper everyday to check what is happening in the world, especially in Japan, I watch TV often (on the internet though), and also music is the essential thing for me.

I started to be interested in media world since I was young.

At the age of 13, I started to wonder why almost all the Japanese in American movies are samurai or ninja.

Also, in California, one man asked me "what is your father's job? Samurai or ninja?"

I was really shocked by this. (I am not kidding!)

But this question made me think how media have a power to create stereotypes or images of something.

Media would create one whole country to be different image.

This is how I got into media world.

About me..

My hobby is reading comics and watching animes.

I believe that the quality of animation which Japanese create is one of the best in this world.

In fact, there is a big Anime Convention in France, called Japan Expo, where many anime-lovers from all over the world get together to show their cosplays, talk about their favorite anime/manga, and also make friends.

So far, it seems like I really like my own county, Japan, but I actually had hated Japan before I came to the United States.

I just wanted to get out of Japan. (Because literally, Japan is so tiny tiny country!)

Now, however, I love Japan and try to learn more about my country.

I found many differences between Japan and United States, and also found many aspects that I

prefer Japanese culture than American one.

The good thing was that I could be aware of the uniqueness of my own culture through learning different cultures.

I am able to communicate people with various backgrounds here in New York .

I think this is a great opportunity that I cannot experience if I just stayed in Japan for a whole life.

So, I am Japanese who is enjoying learning different culture admire and is proud of being born this way.

Natsumi