What It Feels Like to Return to Japan as a Japanese American: S10E4

Send us Fan MailKen Hirano was born in Japan but his family moved to the U.S. before he started school. He returned to Japan to live a few times in his life, and now is one of them. He moved back to Tokyo about a year ago and recently (wrote a post on LinkedIn) on this geographic anniversary about his cultural and language identity. And that is what we are digging into today. This identity path took us through how he feels in different languages, why he feels more simple and defenseless in Japanese than English, how Japanese locals versus expats in Japan treat his Japanese & Americanness and where he is the most comfortable. Spoiler: none of these issues have a clearly defined answer and that is what made this nuanced discussion with Ken so interesting to have.  Original publication date: September 28, 2020📬 Traveling abroad long-term? Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422💰Need a global bank account: I use Wise for multiple currencies https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107📸 Instagram reels from my past and present life abroad: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/🎥 Daily video clips from my life abroad: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew🎙️Start your own podcast. The podcast host I recommend most often is Buzzsprout. Use this link and get a bonus when you upgrade:https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips to help your older episodes keep getting found:  https://podcaststeph.substack.com/