Changing impressions of Japan

These past four months here in Japan have helped me come to have a better understanding of my Japanese heritage.  When I first got here and met Japanese students, I would tell them my last name.  They would give me a weird look and then I would follow up and say I'm a quarter Japanese in Japanese.  They would then ask me all these different questions about where my Japanese family came from and all that.  And in these four months, I was fortunatley able to travel down to where my family actually came from, which is Hiroshima. 

Going to Hiroshima, was more of a pilgramge to me, and I felt very humbled when I saw the Genbaku Dome.  It puts my whole time and experiences in Japan into perspective.  Seeing Hiroshima for me sums up my impressions of Japan.  Japan continues to take steps into the future, but hangs onto it's past by leaving reminders like the Genbaku Dome or it's castles.

Fortunatley for me, I get to spend some more time in Japan next semester.  And hopefully I will further my knoweldge of Japanese traditions.