One American student’s love for Japan

Jay Nikolewski: I love this country with all of my heart, really. The traditional culture, the food … But I think what I like most is, really, just the daily way of life. I think it’s pretty misunderstood, you know? I think a lot of people look at the really strong emphasis on social rules or conformity … and really, I feel like that allows you to find yourself in a sense, because it allows you to focus on what really matters beyond these sort of petty things that I feel like a lot of people wind up fighting about in the States. I feel like it sort of opens your heart up to a lot more. There’s a lot less to stress about. And so, I find myself turning to things like nature, photography, writing some haiku. I’m not very good at that, though. Not yet. But it’s something that, for me at least, is the most wonderful thing in the world.

I mean, I think Japanese culture is so layered, people say it’s contradictory. I wonder … It’s probably not contradictory, you know, if you come from Japan. It flows together. I thought of this analogy:  If you have a cake, half of it’s vanilla, half of it’s chocolate … It’s all one cake. It’s all part of the same whole. And I think that’s the way it is here. When it comes to something like traditional and modern, blend together in a place like Tokyo with both of those, but especially a place like Kyoto, which has very modern things, like Kyoto Tower and also these beautiful old temples and shrines and the old Imperial Palace. There’s the emphasis on its preservation as well. Japan is a country where many practices and traditions, especially in the Buddhist faith, scrolls and document sutras that have been preserved here, that were lost elsewhere, when there were periods of strife in, say, China, for instance. People have come here to rediscover those things. And in that sense, Japan is a truly wonderful place. I think it’s also a place with a great sensitivity to nature when it comes to things like haiku and the like.

I mean, I would like to be able to attend graduate school here. I’m hoping by the time that I finish undergrad or even into part of graduate school, I’ll have a stronger Japanese language capability. I feel like there’s so much more to go. It’s such a rich language. I’m hoping that in the future, I’ll be able to find a job and work. I have ambitions. Maybe I’ll go into something like consulting. I think that, probably for graduate school, I’d do something in political science or business. I also want that to be a part of a greater whole of things like hobbies, and with that comes things like travel. I’d like to become more immersed as I grow older in the culture, in the language. I would like to be able to explore the beautiful traditional Japanese arts, haiku. I mean waka, which is an older form of Japanese poetry; I’d love to get into that.

No, not at all. I think I’m here. I think I’m working a job. You don’t really hop around the same way you do in the US. You usually stay at one company and sort of move up the ranks there. You know, I’d like to get married and have kids here. Family is very important to me. I’d like to do that here. I see myself becoming a Japanese citizen one day. And hopefully, every day, Japanese would be the main language that I’m speaking.

My family, my father especially. I mean, he came here and he felt it. And he was like — again, I had a bit of a rough time in high school and even before that — and he’s like, “You finally found your place.” He said, “You can’t come back. This is your place, Jay.” And to hear him say that after a lot of difficult years, it was something that made my heart flutter, you know? It felt really good. I think my family is supportive. You know, my brother, my mother, they also see it. They haven’t been here yet. I’m hoping that next year, maybe Christmas or something, my brother and mother will be able to come here, and I’d love to show them such a beautiful country. All seasons, you know, that’s the thing. Seasonality of Japan is so important to Japanese culture, to haiku and all of these things. So, I’m hoping maybe they can come once every year for each of the four seasons. I’d love for them, for four years, to experience that breath. They’re very supportive, and they mean the world to me. So, Mom, Dad, Luca …. どうもありがとうございます, thank you very much.