A little about myself, first starting with my background:
I was born in the Osaka province of Japan. I then moved to a rural area in the Kyoto
province. My hometown is somewhere that
not even people from the Kansai region know about. They only seem to know Kameoka, then blank,
then Fukuchiyama. In between is an
insignificant, barely populated conglomeration of towns known as Nantan.
Nantan is very different from when I lived there 7 years ago. The construction at the bridge which had been
going on since I can remember is finished.
People are older and unrecognizable.
Some houses look newer and some older.
People are different, I am different, everything is different. I always rant about how much better the days
were when I lived there, but now that I’ve lived here, there is no turning
back. I would never survive in Nantan if
I went back today.
Nonetheless, Nantan has always symbolized to me something greater than a
town, or a house, or a community. Nantan
symbolizes my past; the richness, the abundance of culture, the people…I lost
them all when I moved here. Now, I live
in Saipan: not very populated, a lack of resources, a conglomeration of
mutually exclusive cultures, lack of transportation...That is my present.
If I was still living in Nantan, I often wonder what my life would be
like. By now, I would be going to a city
high school, living a rather ordinary life.
Economically, my family was actually quite rich in Japan, so I would
probably be living with quite a few commodities. Instead, I was dragged here into an island
with a corrupt government, dubious electric and water services, a bunch of cultures
who hate each other, and a family that is desperately trying to pay its bills…desperate
enough that I had to get a job. My
childhood was so utterly destroyed by coming here.
Nantan, though an insignificant rural town in the middle of nowhere,
symbolizes my lost hometown. My lost
friends. My lost future. I will never forgive or forget this
atrocity. I will never forgive my father
for dragging me here and still believing that it is a good thing. Never.
That is the background that I come from.
Now here is some things about who I am:
My name is Ueno Joey. I am half
Japanese and half American, though I always have thought of my home nation as
Japan. It is a shame that I was born
extremely white. If only I was not so
white…I do not look Japanese at all. If
I was given one wish in the world, it is to look more Asian. At least Asian enough for people to stop
freaking out when I speak Japanese.
I would like to go to Taiwan or Shanghai for college so I can learn to
speak Chinese. It is not that I adore
Chinese culture or anything like that; it is simply because just as English was
the language of the 20th century, Chinese is the language of the 21st
century, and it is a good thing to be able to understand.
I go to the Saipan International School.
The people there are very…I would say decent. Yes, decent.
Decent is something that I have been looking for a long time, and I am
glad to be here. A few policies are
dubious, and some people don’t seem to have common sense, but overall, I think
that it is the greatest school on Saipan.
I love my class, I love my teachers, and I love my school.
I used to be very interested in politics and thought that I would change
the world, or at least maybe take it over.
I’m over that now. I used to be
very religious. I’m over that too. In the two short years that I have been in
SIS, I have become more and more normal.
SIS is perhaps one of the things that I do not regret about coming to
Saipan.
I like a band called Tohoshinki, or usually known as TVXQ or DBSK. They are actually a Korean band, but many of
their songs are in Japanese.
That’s pretty much all there is to know about me. Thank you.
(Mr. Lee, I’m hoping that this was at least 600 words)
Pictures of my lost hometown.
I will never return, yet it still symbolizes to me a life that I once had.
...Utterly taken away by my father.
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