In my personal lens, I wrote down a number of things to some up my identity. The most prominent identity I have is being a white American. Just by being born, I was given a massive amount of privilege within American society. I am used to being a majority in my country, and I have never experienced discrimination because of my race. I also wrote down “feminist woman” as a part of my identity – I am very proud of being a feminist, and I want to fight against sexisms that other women face throughout the world. I also wrote down “agnostic”. I am not a religious person, and while I respect the religion of others, I prefer not to get involved with it.
My identity will definitely be something that will shape my interactions with people in Japan. It will be very obvious that I am a foreigner when I am there, and for the first time, I will be a minority in a country. While I am unsure if this will affect my own emotional being, it will be interesting to see how people respond to my presence, especially when I try to speak in Japanese. I also have a facial piercing and multiple ear piercings, which is fairly uncommon in Japan. This may give off the idea that I’m some sort of delinquent to certain people. Overall, I think it will be interesting to see how people perceive me in Japan.
As a foreigner, I’ve only researched and focused on the positive aspects of Japan—I have never done much research into how actual citizens feel about their society, their government, or other aspects of their country. I believe that as I head into Japan and have the opportunity to discuss with locals, I will learn a lot about how people really feel. I think this will be an eye opening experience for me.