Half Japanese girl here! I was raised in a small village before moving to Tokyo.

My village wasn’t really a touristy spot at all. Maximum 250 people. When we did get foreigners, they always flocked to me or my brothers. I take after my mom, so fair skinned, blue eyed, and I had light hair.

Now, I didn’t speak English until I moved to the States. A few things always stick out in my mind when I think about this!

1. I volunteered with the Shinto shrine to help maintain it since my best friends father was the priest there. I would be sweeping the leaves off the steps and a white couple came up to me and started asking me questions.

I had no idea what they were saying! I tried to communicate that as well as I could, but they refused to believe it. So I tried to remove myself and go back up the steps and find my friend, granted I’m 7 at the time, and these crazy people follow me up the stairs!

The priest spoke okay English due to studying in Tokyo for university, and sent them on their way.

1. After our move to Tokyo, we lived in a nice neighborhood in Roppongi. It was amazing, big city life wasn’t as difficult as I imagined.

My English had gotten better at the time due to better teachers in the school I ended up at.

I was 10, and walking home with my cousin who is full Japanese, and my eldest brother since he had the day off.

We stopped to get a snack when we were stopped for what I believe was a lady asking for directions until she saw me. This lady tried to ask me some questions but it was too fast for me to understand.

To this day, I have no idea what she thought was happening, but she grabbed my arm and tried to pull me away! I understand I don’t look related to this really huge guy next to me, but seriously, trying to kidnap a 10 year old is crazy.

I can only imagine now she thought I was being trafficked or something. My brother dressed really nice due to his job, and I was in my uniform from school. I feel second hand embarrassment for this lady still.