In the evenings, I watch DVDs of American movies with my husband. Then I pick up my daughter from school, come home, go shopping, and make dinner. (Today was miso soup mixed with rice, with some vegetables on the side.) I take my daughter to school, then go to one of the universities where I teach English as a Second Language part-time. I wake up and eat breakfast with my family.

She joined the tea ceremony club at her junior high school, and her hyper-attention to others strikes me as very Japanese. For example, my daughter loves kimono and flower arrangement and manga. My children mostly identify as Japanese, although they are proud and appreciative of their American heritage. That gives me a degree of freedom, since there are so many rules. When I’m in Japan, I feel American, probably because I can’t ever entirely fit in here. What culture do your kids most associate with? If you would describe yourself as multi-cultural, tell us a bit about what culture you most identify with and why.

I’d like to think that my family would describe me as international, open-minded, and creative. I think my social skills are a bit more developed now. As a kid, I was the one at family gatherings tucked away in a corner, lost in a book. I’ve always been interested in other cultures, and in reading and writing. How would your friends or family describe you?

In today’s interview, Suzanne tells us about how she and her family have integrated into the Japanese way of life, who the national heroes are in Japan, Japanese Culture Day (what a great idea!) and even the complex recycling system that the Japanese practice! Suzanne has also written a novel and two short stories about life in Japan, which you can read more about here. While I was on the program, I met and fell in love with a Japanese P.E. Thinking I’d see a different part of the world, I signed up for the JET Program, a one-year stint assisting English teachers in public schools in Japan. I spent a semester in France during my junior year of college, which ignited my appetite for travel. In Suzanne’s words, “I live in Japan, on the island of Shikoku, but I’m an American, born and raised in Michigan, and most recently from South Carolina. Suzanne is an American living with her family in Japan.

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