Interviewer: Where were you born?
Lumi: I was born in Tokyo.
Interviewer: Who named your name? What's the meaning behind your name?
Lumi: What I heard is that my mom chose the name and my dad chose the kanji for my name. It's like the color of a certain part of the ocean in Okinawa.
Interviewer: When did you move abroad?
Lumi: When I was four years old.
Interviewer: How long did you stay there?
Lumi: Seven years.
Interviewer: You spent it mostly in your kindergarten to elementary school?
Lumi: Yeah. In a local, not a private school.
Interviewer: Do you remember if it was hard for you to adjust when you first came to the U.S.?
Lumi: I didn't know anything but I enjoyed living there.
Interviewer: Did you have a Japanese community with you?
Lumi: No, my mom wanted me to be a little separate from Japanese people so I can learn to get used to the environment.
Interviewer: Did you face any difficulties because of either your race or because you were Japanese, or no?
Lumi: No, because, I mean, I only stayed there for, like, elementary school, so there was no hierarchy. High school cheerleaders and stuff like that, no. So, I didn't face anything.
Interviewer: What kind of student do you think you were?
Lumi: I don't remember but I was an overachiever. People thought that I was really good at math because I'm Asian. Because in, like, fifth grade, if you could do, like, multiplication, they would consider you as gifted. you know what I'm talking about?
Interviewer: So when you came back from Chicago, were you around 11. When you came back, do you remember what differences you've experienced between Japanese schools and the school you were in?
Lumi: It might be because I was younger when I was in America, but it was so easy to tell if there was like a line that you can't cross between like the girls and boys group. You would be looked at weirdly if you were talking to a lot of boys.
Interviewer: Do you mean in the U.S. or in Japan?
Lumi: In Japan, yeah, because of the age. In the U.S., you would hang out with whoever you wanted to.
Interviewer: Do you have any memorable events from your childhood or anything that stands out to you? It can be either like differences you experience between the U.S. and Japan just in general outside of school or any fun stories that you’ve had.
Lumi: I only had injuries… Taking the school bus was fun because you only had to walk the street up for two or three minutes and then the bus driver will pick you up and you can go. That was nice. The first school that I went to had this thing called science fair, so you make a poster and write about how to make a DIY lava lamp. That was interesting. I don't see that in Japan a lot. It's more diverse in terms of what you can do in the U.S.
Interviewer: I'm assuming in Japan, school was more focused on academics. Would you say that what you learned in the U.S. and Japan were very different or did you have any trouble adjusting from when you moved back to Japan?
Lumi: No, not really. I didn’t really go to school. I came back in the sixth grade summer, so half a year but I just didn't go to school because I had the excuse of doing Juken.
Interviewer: Why did you decide to do Juken?
Lumi: Because my parents said I should do it but I think it was for good because if I had to do high school juken, it would have been pretty hard. I probably wouldn't be able to use the returnee process.
Interviewer: Did you know like do you have any interest in what kind of schools you wanted to go to or was it your parents that encouraged you to apply to certain schools?
Lumi: My parents. I wanted to go to a school that did not like swimming classes but I found out after Juken that my first choice actually had swimming lessons. The pool wasn't in the school, but it was in a different place and I didn't know that.
Interviewer: Was Juken stressful?
Lumi: No, because I wasn’t studying.
Interviewer: Did you study just English or did you also do Japanese and Math?
Lumi: I did Japanese and Math.
Interviewer: You came back in the sixth grade summer, so you barely had time to adjust to Japan and then you went to a Japanese private middle school. Would you say that that was kind of a big shift or were you fine with the transition?
Lumi: I didn’t really adapt to it since I just went every day, so that's all you know. Because there were a lot of like returnees, I don't think there was that much of a change. It felt more right to be there than to be in the elementary school nearby.
Interviewer: Did you hang out with returnees more?
Lumi: Definitely returnees.
Interviewer: But is it different now? By the end of your high school, would you say that it was still similar?
Lumi: No, it was definitely way different. Because a lot of returnees like my friends either left or quit school. Also, they went to the humanities, so that kind of changed who I was like hanging out with. Also when I went to cram school, I made some new friends that weren’t returnees.
Interviewer: Do you have any favorite moments from middle school or high school aside from Juken (entrance exams)?
Lumi: I enjoyed WSC (World Scholar’s Cup). That was like a long time ago.
Interviewer: Did you like the traveling aspect or was it more of WSC itself of debating and writing?
Lumi: I think traveling but I did like debating though because it was fun. When it was more like a game, I enjoyed it, but when it started becoming like “we need to win” for certain events, then I didn’t want to. I enjoyed traveling, but it was fun to talk with new people and see their viewpoints on different topics.
Interviewer: What clubs were you in during middle school and high school?
Lumi: I quit most of them or barely went to them but I was in debate, MUN and softball.
Interviewer: You continued softball for quite a long time. Since debate and Model UN are not very high commitment clubs in a way at our school since we have practices once a week, would you say that softball was very different? Was that kind of a big part of your life or not really?
Lumi: It's pretty different because you were allowed to go during long breaks and you had to like to run a lot.
Interviewer: Were there also the strict Senpai-Kohai (upperclassmen and underclassmen) relationships?
Lumi: Yeah I had to say “hi” every time I saw them in the hallway so that was new.
The Senpai-Kohai relationship was exhausting because they're just a few years older than me.
Interviewer: Would you say that strict upper-underclassmen relationships still exist in college?
Lumi: It’s not that obvious anymore because for veterinary students, there's a lot of people that took gap years. There are people who take one or two years, and there's sometimes people that take six years. So there's not really that much of a strict relationship between different ages but there is one in terms of your grade since they probably know more. It’s easier to talk to them now.
Interviewer: Why did you choose to go to veterinary school?
Lumi: Because I've been near animals a lot since I was little. Plus if I were to study it for a long term, I thought it would be easier for me to do something that I enjoy.
Interviewer: When did you know you wanted to study that? Did you know already early on in Juken, or was it something that you found along the way?
Lumi: In middle school, I wanted to be a vet. When I was little, I also wanted to be a vet, but then, I wanted to major in English around the beginning of high school because I thought it would be interesting. Then I wanted to join art school because I thought it was interesting. You can't really judge them by how smart they are. It's more by their experience and ideas. But, around 11th grade, I had to meet up with teachers and my mom. I was still talking about art school and my mom got mad. A lot of things happened and then suddenly I was back to “I'm going to study biology” so in 12th grade, it was like “let's just find a place where you can study biology” and then the teacher asked “do you know any schools?” I said “Tokyo university,” so I started studying from 12th grade and I finally understood chemistry. That was the first time I actually studied chemistry for finals and I was able to go to the class above. I studied hard for math because I was struggling. But then for the Japanese standardized test, because I didn’t prepare for it as much, I didn’t do that well. After that you have to meet up with your homeroom teacher and then you have to talk about how it was and where you want to apply to and that's when I changed my first choice. It was in January, but I changed my major to veterinary halfway through again. I thought that would be a good major for me and then I started studying.
Interviewer: How is college different?
Lumi: You can choose your schedule like which classes you take. You can learn subjects in more detail. There's one class that I really am looking forward to which is anatomy.
Interviewer: Are there any classes you find interesting that you took before?
Lumi: Not much because the subjects were broad. The classes go more in-detail than high school classes but it’s not specific to veterinary.
Interviewer: Are you also in a circle/ club in college?
Lumi: I’m in badminton and tennis. I’m also in a club where you get to see some wild animals. There's a lot of like clubs that are pretty rare.
Interviewer: How do you handle both tennis and badminton? That seems quite a lot.
Lumi: Oh, the practices are not that often. Badminton and tennis is also played once a week. Oh. But, yeah.
Interviewer: What is your view on Japan? Are there any parts that you like and some parts that you want to see changed or improved?
Lumi: I think it's pretty safe and I enjoy being able to go places by myself because in America, you need a car to get by and it’s hard to go out easily. Healthcare is also nice. It’s also not as expensive as America.
Interviewer: Lastly, what is Japan to you? What does it mean to you?
Lumi: I've been here longer than I've been in America now, but I haven't gone to that many places. So, I can't say too much about it, but it's a safe place. There are some good and bad memories, but it's still my home country. I like it.
Interviewer: Thank you so much!