Leaving this cycle for the first time. I was raised in a household in the US with parents who immigrated from Mexico. Mexican Americans were the majority where I went to school before college (LA) but then I moved to somewhere where I was in the vast minority. However I’ve still been able to get Mexican products whenever I wanted to.
Now I’m moving away to a place where I go from vast minority to a near spec of a data point of a fraction of a percent. Don’t worry, this isn’t some “I’m having regrets” post. I’m just wondering if anyone had any advice for staying connected to their own cultures / mother tongues while living in a homogenous society like Japan. Honestly finding spanish speakers alone would be a win haha.
I’m placed in shiga-ken by the way, with my city being pretty much right in the middle between Kyoto and Nagoya. But my immediate city has a population of about 100k. Not crazy small or big.
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I’m Japanese but I ate a lot of culturally diverse foods growing up (from SoCal as well) I do like to cook a lot so if you can cook, I’ve found the easiest way to be able to maintain a taste for authentic/cultural food outside of Japanese food most of the time is to make things from scratch. My placement is very rural and I don’t even have reliable access to black beans or tortillas so you will probably have an easier time in Shiga but I’ve resorted to making my own corn tortillas, buying seasonings from Amazon (sometimes they are hella expensive though), and basically trying a bunch of different recipes until I find one that I feel replicates the taste I grew up with the most. Sometimes you have to get really creative. I’ve even had to buy corn meal or grits and blend them with other things to get something similar to proper masa harana.
This could even be a great opportunity to try to learn more about how to cook foods from your culture before you leave from the people nearest and dearest to you.
Besides food, especially in a place like Kyoto there are lots of communities that advertise online like “Spanish speakers club” or even bars that are dedicated to one specific language and culture exchange (there is a French bar in Tokyo, for example) so once you get connected to the “clubs” I’m sure you will easily be able to branch out from there and expand your network. Sorry if this is long but I hope it helps!
If you stay up late/get up early on weekends – talk to friends and family back home?
DM me if you want the contact info to a girl who sells homemade tamales out of her kitchen. She’s Mexican American, lives in Tokyo, and ships nationwide
For international food/drinks, look for a chain of shops called Kaldi Coffee Farm. They have ingredients for a lot of different cuisines, including Mexican. The olive oil is also a lot better than what I found at my local supermarket.
Mexican American over here living in Kochi!The way I keep up with Spanish, even if I never learned proper Spanish, is by just talking to my parents when I can. To my surprise, I am still able to speak the way I used to back home. It’s hard for me to find Spanish food in my area, but like some other people said, you can get it shipped to you from some people. There is a restaurant in Osaka that ships burritos around Japan. I heard it’s really good.What I usually do is watch Netflix shows in Spanish to keep my brain active. The benefit of being Mexican American is that you can teach two cultures to your students. So you can tell them about your culture to show that America is a diverse country. As well there are JETs who speak Spanish and have a back ground like yours. So you can reach out and make a group if you like.
Feel free to message me! I am same exact situation like you, but I’m from San Diego!
I live in Hiroshima prefecture, and I have been able to hear Spanish speakers every now and then.
What I have done is cook lot of Mexican dishes like ceviche for example, and taken them to my schools! I have a decent idea of where to get Mexican products now that I have been here 6 months.
Message me if you like I be happy to help!
Hello! I’m going to be in a similar situation as you since I am Romanian and I’ve been looking into how I can still be connected to my culture in Japan. Definitely look into Facebook groups with Mexicans in Japan! For me, I’ve found Romanian events that are held in Tokyo through Facebook. It will be pretty far out for me but it’s something that will definitely be worth it. Also look into authentic restaurants near you. For me, I’ve found a Romanian restaurant that occasionally hosts parties! Maybe you can find something similar. It will be hard to find certain foods and ingredients you grew up with so this may take a lot of googling and looking through your town. Also talking with your family in Spanish is a great way to still be connected not only in your language but also keeping in touch with your family. It may be difficult but I’m sure you will find a community near you 🙂 wishing you the best!
Mexican—American from Los Ángeles! I found other Spanish speakers when I would go out drinking, some of them Mexicans with whom I chat/hang out. Actually, once I met a couple Spanish speakers, they would introduce me to other Spanish speakers. If there are food festivals in your area, scope out the stalls for paella or other Spanish/Latin food. Often times a fellow Latino or Hispanic runs it.
In this way, I made connections with a friend (who now owns a popular business that ships latin food all over Japan) and even helped out at his food stand. I also found the import stores that sell some ingredients like corn tortillas (avoid El Paso brand, no matter how desperate you are, they’re crap). Costco also carried frozen flour tortillas that are burrito sized and make for great quesadillas.
I cooked tacos and enchiladas for some coworkers, made lots of sopa de arroz and horchata for home parties. Cilantro is pretty easy to grow in a pot, or even purchasing it at the supermarket because it’s used for thai cooking. Lemons and limes can be purchased at the supermarket (though pricy depending on the season) but Costco also sells them. Really mostly I struggled with getting the dried chiles like guajillo, California, ancho. I usually just bring when I visit home or when I have visitors from home.
As far as staying connected, I also always shared a lot about Mexican culture with my students and JTEs were always supportive of me adding snippets about Mexican culture in presentations and such (even using common Latino names instead of just John and Mary)
I even had an “introduction to Spanish” workshop for a school event that was actually more popular than I expected. At a high school I worked, there was a boy who was half Peruvian and would exclusively talk to me in Spanish because he had no other person to talk to in Spanish since his parents divorced and he had moved to Japan with his Japanese father.
During your intros, mention about your cultural duality and let students know if they want to know more about your culture to approach you! I actually had one student who would write me letters in Spanish from my first JHS for about a year after I was moved schools (the teacher would forward them to me via school mail) because she wanted to learn Spanish and visit Latin American someday. I definitely had a very positive experience sharing my culture and making a Spanish-speaking atmosphere.
Puerto Rican 🙋🏽♀️ I try to speak to my friends in Spanish more than what I used to. My parents don’t speak English, so I always speak to them in Spanish and I always call them at least once a week (even before moving here) I’ve met a few other Hispanics, but they’re from S. America, which is nothing like my culture so I don’t really click with them anyway lol
I don’t cook Japanese food. It costs more but I cook more internationally. I brought my favorite PR seasonings and I know how to make a lot of ethnic foods already anyway. I listen to the what’s hot back in PR on Spotify.
I’m lucky that at my school the teachers are interested in where I’m from and they often ask me, whether in private conversation or in front of students what something is like back in my country. Plus my school is famous for their baseball team, so ofc every baseball student knows about PR and baseball. I was legitimately surprised. Actually, anytime I meet a Japanese person they speak to me about baseball and how good PRs baseball players are. Which has obviously made me learn more about baseball hahah
Also lucky that I get encouraged to write test readings about PR history. We had a chapter on WWII and I was encouraged to do a reading on PR’s history during that time frame.