How inherent cultural qualities allowed Japan to emerge from the pandemic relatively unscathed.
During my year abroad in Japan I realised how my upbringing as a person of British-Japanese descent imparted onto me certain traits. Previously, I thought that these were my own idiosyncrasies but as time went past I began to see these reflected back to me in Japanese culture. I’ve been back in my birth country of the UK for less than two weeks now and immediately found myself in reverse culture shock.
Whilst Japan and its people are diverse in character and ways of thinking, there are certain habits and ideas that offer guidelines on how to live. …
The country I came back to after my year abroad was entirely different to the one I left.
No pamphlet or brochure can adequately prepare you for the experience of studying abroad I was told. In preparation for our class to head off to Japan to have a taste of life in the land of the rising sun, our professors made sure this was hammered into our brains.
They warned us it would be tough, that we would be confronted with aspects of ourselves we were previously unaware of and that we may not assimilate as much as we expect ourselves to as language students. …
Sitting on a couch for an hour a week may have some surprising benefits for your writing.
My reasons for starting therapy had nothing to do with writing. And for most people that will be the same. People start therapy for a multitude of reasons but I, like many others, decided to make the commute to sit one hour a week on a sofa as something just didn’t feel right. In fact, my head hadn’t felt right for a long time by that point.
Heading off to university and being thrust into the confusing sweat of adulthood did not spell good news for me. The university that I initially chose was a place that I didn’t see myself reflected in. Nor did I find people who were able to do this. …
The reaction to the VP nominee shows how the world still cannot fathom identities that cross borders.
I am not American. Yet when I read the news of Kamala Harris’ VP nomination, I couldn’t help but feel an inkling of pride. Whilst she has a questionable record during her time as attorney general, Harris is a person of mixed Asian origin like me. This makes her not only the first Black VP nominee but also the first Asian-American to take on this honour.
Being raised in the UK, I’ve often looked to America to find the representation that would acknowledge my identity. Due to its history of being a colonial power, the UK is a diverse place yet this has not quite seeped into our political or cultural representation. The UK has never had a person of colour let alone a mixed person of colour in the running for Prime Minister. …
Dissecting an article that should have swiftly dropped off the radar reveals some truths about content creation
Look online at any content marketing website and you’ll see the same thing repeated. If you want to succeed in this blogging game, you need to write evergreen content. Evergreen content are articles that stand the test of time and are still relevant today even if they were written three weeks, three months or even three years ago.
One of the most famous examples that come to mind is former Wired editor Kevin Kelly’s “1000 Fans” essay. This essay is continually cited as a way to carve out your place on the internet and make a living from it. It was written almost a decade ago but it is continually cited as the basis of what the internet should and could be. …
We should never underestimate the power of representation
I’m not used to seeing myself on a screen. Minorities never are. Especially for someone who comes from one as niche as mine. I am a queer mixed British-Japanese person. I am fully aware that you have most likely never met anybody like me. And I am not saying that because I believe I am some sort of pariah. Statistically, it is just unlikely.
There are roughly 65,000 Japanese nationals living in the UK. Out of those, the majority are likely Japanese businessmen who have been transferred to the UK. Mixed people likely make up the minority of this number. …
Feeling sorry for yourself can be reframed as a powerful form of motivation
I am lying on my bed in my closet-sized room and feeling sorry for myself. In a perfect storm of pathetic fallacy, the Tokyo weather today is stuffy yet stormy. With its two pronged-attack of making you simultaneously sweaty and drenched, it’s the kind of weather that stops you from going anywhere. Not that I should be going anywhere anyway. Life is on pause and so are the employment prospects I had this summer at the now-postponed Tokyo Olympics.
The broke and lost millennial is a stereotype that is often banded about by the media. Yet today I find myself fulfilling that caricatured image. In a pandemic economy, jobs are hard to come by. Despite this somehow I find myself looking at CVs of people around my age or below. LinkedIn is a dangerous place to be on in our new normal. …
How pay-later digital solutions such as Klarna are complicit in Boohoo’s horrific factory conditions.
As the UK entered lockdown early March, restaurants, theatres and cinemas amongst other local businesses were bordered up and shut down. Highstreets were left empty as people across the country stayed inside. Some were lucky enough to work from home with some even finding that their work-life balance improved. However many suddenly found they had to adjust to the new normal of the pandemic where unemployment and a sick sense of stillness became the norm.
Yet, in the garment factories housed in the British city of Leicester activity raged on. For fast fashion companies such as Boohoo, the pandemic presented a prime opportunity. Capitalising on the fact that the entire UK population was staying in, Boohoo changed its game and released a range dedicated to staying in. This was done with remarkable speed and flexibility resulting in Boohoo managing to increasing its April sales from last year. …
Thanks to our media, East Asians have become the face of the pandemic.
Growing up I never saw a face like mine or my family’s in the media. Although the UK, through its status as the metropolitan core to the British Empire, is a very diverse place, media has never reflected this reality. In particular, British East Asians and their stories and issues have been ignored.
This is despite the fact that the first British East Asian arrived on UK shores in the late 1700s. Following this, the demographic has grown to be the third-largest and fastest-growing in the UK. …
This Is Us
I’m the only hafu in the onsen, and I get to decide what that means
Hadaka no tsukiai is a Japanese saying that roughly translates to “naked friendship.” It describes the bonding that occurs whilst bathing with another in an onsen, or Japanese hot spring. In this communal setting where members of the same sex are all vulnerably naked, the public selves that we project in our daily lives are meant to melt away. In hot water and sheets of steam, we can finally talk freely. Or so the saying goes.
Since I started living in Japan, the onsen has become one of the spaces in which I feel most free. In class, I reconcile daily with my identity as someone of Japanese and English descent. In my student dorm, the year has been glittered with parties and gatherings that tested my social anxiety until the pandemic put a stop to them. At the bank and other institutions, they are taken aback by the passport that I hold and the language that comes out of my mouth. …
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