多文化主義

I have been in Japan for three weeks now and there is only one week left of this program. I am sad to say I can’t wait for this program to end. Along with all the work that comes with being in an exchange program, the dorm life just isn’t for me. I prefer my peace and quiet while I do assignments and there is no where I can go in the dorm to find silence. To make matters worse, the students on the two week programs are extremely loud, so sleeping is only possible after midnight.

I participated in the homestay program from May 24th until the 26th as it was mandatory for us. My host family lived in Mizonokuchi, an area that is not well known to tourists. Against my expectations, there were actually a lot of foreigners living and walking back in Mizonokuchi. In the area near my host family’s house, I saw many foreign workers doing a variety of jobs like construction, restaurant workers and tutors. When I was talking to my host mother, she mentioned that she accepts a lot of foreigners for homestay and the guests who come are from a huge variety of countries. She mentioned a Danish Youtuber did a home visit at her house and filmed how a regular Japanese life is like. She also mentioned that a lot of foreign students do home visits at her house. She’s had students from the Philippines, United States of America, Brazil, Germany and France. She mentioned how a lot of the foreign students had a hard time adjusting to Japanese life. They often found school way too difficult and completely different than the school life they are used to. Also, they mentioned that Japanese students often shunned the foreign students due to cultural differences. She had a student from France who refused to go back to school due to bullying. Although my host mother is very open to having a variety of people staying at her house and travelling abroad to experience different cultures, she still showed signs of prejudice against foreigners. She mentioned to me once how she had a male who was Muslim stay at her house for a couple weeks and found their praying schedule annoying and hard to work around. She said that cooking for him was a bother too as they have dietary restrictions due to religious reasons.

 Aside from listening to stories told by my host mother, I also saw many children of different ethnicities walking to and from school during my stay. I also observed many interracial couples walking around the supermarket. I wonder if it’s just Mizonokuchi that has this many foreigners living in the area. I have yet to see that many foreigners and interracial couples who live in Japan and are not just here for vacation. I wonder what Mizonokuchi has to offer to foreigners to attract so many of them. Being a foreigner myself, I felt Mizonokuchi was not foreigner friendly. Majority of the menus given at restaurants only had Japanese and a lot of the workers in restaurants and supermarkets did not speak English.

I hope in the future I’ll find another community that filled with foreigners and find out why they ended up all living in that general area.

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