Cheesecow: A Description of Myself

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 20^th century, Chinese is the language of the 21^st 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)