Hey everyone, how's it going? My name is Mayuko and welcome back to my channel,
it's May, which means that it's Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
Unlike previous years, I'm making this at the very beginning of the month instead of the very end of the month,
because why not spend the whole month celebrating our heritage and culture.
So today, I wanted to talk about how I stay in touch with my roots,specifically, my cultural roots, my Japanese roots.
So I've talked about my experience growing up Japanese and American in this video right here.
But today, I want to talk about kind of like, now and the future, like, what do I do now, as a Japanese and American person
to stay in touch with my culture, it's a video that I think if previous me watched it,
it would have been one of those ones where like, I didn't know I needed this, but I needed this.
Because as an adult, after leaving my parents house, and going to college and stuff,
I'm realizing that it's just like completely on me to really stay in touch with my culture.
And to have that as part of my life, especially being where I am and doing what I do.
I'm not exactly like surrounded by lots of other Japanese people.
So it's really on me to like make this environment for myself in which I can connect to my history.
And before I get into the how I wanted to also talk about why it's really important to me,
I think growing up, it was kind of like a sense of like legitimacy, like, the closer I was to staying in touch with the Motherland,
the more legit of a Japanese person that I was.
And that's definitely faded some more because I'm kind of like I am whoever I want to be.
And I can take all the different parts to myself, legitimate or not, like, I'm just me.
But I've since realized that it's important for me to stay connected, because being Japanese is a huge part of who I am.
Like, I look Japanese, like I'm 100%, like ethnically Japanese, I was super Japanese name, I grew up with Japanese parents
speaking Japanese. So it's just Yeah, it's a core part of my identity. And moving forward, I kind of want it to continue
being a part of my life, because I like that side of me. And I think it's cool that I get to experience the world in my
life through this other culture as well. So yeah, I've just been thinking a lot, especially with the pandemic at all
about what it means to be Japanese. And what I do kind of on a monthly, daily, weekly, yearly basis, on how I have that
is part of my life, when I don't live in Japan, lets get started. So the first thing that I do to stay in touch with
Japan is to literally go to Japan at least once a year. And of course, these were pre pandemic days, going to Japan also
serves the dual purpose of being able to see my parents because a few years after I graduated college, they moved
back to Japan, and now they live there. And so it's kind of nice that I have a place to always stay when I go to Japan,
that's not just my grandparents. And so because we've been going back at least once a year, Scott and I have had a lot
of fun just experiencing Japan through our own eyes. Because you know, when you're growing up, and you're like parents
take you somewhere, you are kind of seeing that place or experiencing it through your parents eyes, because you can't
really make decisions on where you want to go, and when you want to do them. But now as an adult, whenever I go stay
with my parents in Japan, we do a lot of adventuring. And specifically, I think the thing that we really like to do is
to go and find different coffee spots. Because third wave coffee in Japan is so good. And I think when whenever we
travel, finding those spots is always really fun. And it brings us to different neighborhoods that maybe we wouldn't
have tried before. So yeah, coffee, experiencing different food experiencing different neighborhoods, kind of seeing
Japan for what it is at the current moment and experiencing it as much as possible through like, current eyes, I guess.
Because one of the things is like, once your family I feel like immigrates outside of the Motherland, then some of the
values and stuff that they bring with them can tend to be like a snapshot of the last time they live there. And so I
know that like, you know, Japan is changing, like everywhere else. And trying to understand how it's changing how the
culture is changing, what are the sentiments of the people there, I think is really interesting. Like I like thinking
about that stuff. So whenever I go trying to kind of get that sense, and talking to locals, and having them always
surprised that I not only speak Japanese, but also speak kansai-ben can be kind of a fun experience. So yeah, I just
I can't wait for the pandemic to end because then I'm going to go back there and enjoy. Like literally before the
pandemic started. I had plans to live there for like a month to like really fully be there. But you know, COVID The
second thing that I do to stay in touch with my Japanese roots is to eat Japanese food. I just think that eating the
food that you grew up with that's like part of your culture is just like your soul food, right? So Japanese food is like
my soul food to me. And a lot of it is just like Dude, I have a Japanese body like my whole family. My grandparents,
grandparents, grandparents, grandparents, grandparents. Were in Japan and then grew up eating whatever they ate. And so
it's just like, of course, it almost feels like it's genetically encoded in me. This is not actual science, but I
just feel like it's what I meant to eat. And I really enjoy it. I also just personally really enjoy cooking as well. So
it's like being able to explore an entire different menu that I have pretty easy access to because I speak Japanese.
And I know what things are on a Japanese menu and stuff. I mean, we make a lot of stuff at home. But I feel like at the
end of the day, like Japanese food is like the most comforting so we make like onigiri and miso soup and
buta-jiru and takoyaki. And there's all these things that like remind me of growing up. And also I think just tastes
so good. Like I really like cheese and wine and stuff. But like if you get me some like dried squid, and edamame and
peanuts and beer, like heaven. Eating Japanese food means that we go to the Japanese market at least like once every
month to stock up on all of the essentials like shoyu and mirin and sake and miso and umeboshi and stuff like that. So
that's something that I've been very conscious about, like, I just know that especially like when my body is tired or
I'm not really hungry. All I really want is some simple Japanese food. So yeah, I think that's one of the ways that
I stay in touch with my Japanese culture. And the other thing that I do in terms of staying in touch with my
Japanese roots and eating Japanese food is bokksu. bokksu is a sponsor of today's video, and they are a Japanese snack
delivery subscription. I love bokksu I'm actually really glad that they're sponsoring this video again. Basically,
they gather different treats and snacks and sweets and savory things and tea pairings from all over Japan every
month, and they send it right to your door. What I really love about it is that they're very seasonal, and so every
box is different. And most of the things in there, you can't find Japanese grocery stores in the US they shipped to many
countries straight to your door from Japan directly. So you can also get 10% off your very own subscription to bokksu
for a savings of up to $47 by using my link encode and assertion box down below or my Hugo 10 thank you so much to
boxey for sponsoring and now we'll get back to the video. The next thing that I do to stay in touch is to consume
Japanese media. So I think around High School is when I started to really just like get into watching Japanese TV
and listening to Japanese music. And that's just something that's continued since then, as far as like what I watch
goes like I watch everything from anime like right now we're working through One Piece and I finished Demon Slayer which
was so good, as well as TV shows and variety shows like Tantei Night Scoop is like this variety show from like the
Osaka Kansai area. It's like my favorite show in the world. So I watched a lot of that when I can and then watching just
like dramas and movies and stuff. So you know when Kimi No Nawa was just like a huge thing, I watched that a bunch.
Recently, I watched another anime movie called Mirai. And then I also watched another movie about a tea ceremony
called Nichi Nichi Kore Koujitsu cause it's which was so good. So yeah, I think I try to just like consume almost as
much Japanese media as I do American media. I've also found that when I watch a lot of Japanese TV, my Japanese gets
better. Because that's literally like the only way I can expose myself to lots of Japanese without like going to
Japan. So it helps in many ways. Sometimes I do feel like by me speaking Japanese, my English gets worse. And the other
thing that I do to consume Japanese media that's not TV is to just listen to a lot of Japanese music, which has just
been so much easier in the last two years because Spotify has allowed me to finally listen to Japanese music without
being in Japan. Previously, I need to buy like CDs and stuff which like I haven't had a CD player in like 10 years. But
now streaming services, especially like Spotify have really helped me to discover new Japanese artists, and kind of just
like plug into that side of the world. So recent artists that I've discovered are people like Kan Sano and Spicysol.
And I really like Hoshino Gen. I also really like Arashi. And so I listened to all their old stuff. LiSA like there's
just a lot of great music on Spotify these days. In fact, I've listened to so much Japanese music that I'm gonna leave
a playlist for you all of my favorite j pop tunes in the description box down below. So check that out probably going
to sound quite like indie pop, e Sol e chill, but not lofi hip hop sort of stuff. I don't know I check it out and let
me know what you think. The last thing that I do to stay in touch with my roots is to really just kind of work on my
Japanese and in that effort I've been doing kind of two things. The first is that I've launched a Japanese channel
right here on YouTube. The channel is called Mayuko Channel and it's gonna be kind of a lot of the same stuff that I
talked about on this main channel but in Japanese So yeah, tech career and life stuff like all of it is going to be in
Japanese. So if you would like to, I would love it if you subscribed. And I'm really excited, I think it's just a
really good opportunity for me to practice Japanese, a lot of the stuff that I talked about, I tend to say it in
English. And so it's gonna be really good, like mental exercise for me to try to convey that to a Japanese audience
as well. And the other thing that I've been doing to improve my Japanese is to literally study. So there's what's called
a Japanese proficiency national language test. And they have five levels within to kind of assess your proficiency in
Japanese as someone who didn't really like finish going to Japanese school and has since picked up like learning kanji.
And all of that, just like through exposure of Japanese media and stuff, there was a certain point where I was like,
I should probably just like study again. And I felt the JP-NLT was a really good way to do that, because it's a
structured program for non native speakers. But it kind of goes over all the stuff that you want, like grammar, and
kanji and vocabulary and stuff like that. So I picked up these books on Amazon, there's five of them. So far, I'm
really liking it. I decided to start from the N-2 level which is one below that most difficult level, which is N-1,
I figured I work my way up, because I don't really know where I placed just yet. Well, I don't think I'm actually
going to take the actual test, just having some sort of curriculum to help guide my learning and study so that I
know that I'm making progress and that it's some sort of structured curriculum to get me to a really good proficiency
level has been great. If you told high school Mayuko that 28 year old Mayuko was doing frickin kanji doriru. She would be
like, Why? Why would you do that to yourself, but alas, here we are, I want to get better at reading and writing and
understanding Japanese. So we're doing this. So that's it, those are all the ways that I stay in touch with my Japanese
culture, it's been really interesting because all of it really just ebbs and flows. Like there are some periods
where I just don't eat Japanese food at all, because I'm just sick of it. And then there's periods where I watch
nothing but Japanese TV. And I think it really depends on my mood. But at the end of the day, like doing these things,
like surrounding myself with Japanese content, and all of that does feel a little bit like coming home. So I'm
enjoying it. And I hope this helps you out there. Someone, hopefully. Something that's really exciting is that on May
15 2021, about a week from now, I'm gonna be giving a TEDx talk talking about how to figure out your own identity as an
Asian American. And the talk I'll be talking about how my cultural identity has played a part in my life. And so if
you'd like to attend, I'll leave the pre registration link in the description box down below. And if you're watching
this video after the fact then there'll be a link to the recording in the description box, all the links so a lot of
these things in the description box down below. And thank you so much for watching. If you'd like to see more of this
kind of like cultural identity like living a life in between sort of content that let me know in the comments and tell me
what kind of topics you want to see. Alright everybody, make sure to subscribe to this channel for more videos from me.
Take care and I'll see you next time. Bye.