みなさん、こんにちは！帰国子女、海外経験者コミュニティーのBeyond Borderです！
『競争力を持った国際日本人になる！』、『日本の良さを再発見し、世界中に広めよう！』をスローガンに始まった、現在唯一の英文記事<Introducing Japan>第7弾！

How did you think about Japan and what do you think about Japan now?

Before I came to Tokyo as a foreign student, I have been to different places in Japan as a tourist with my family. Spending holidays here and staying here for long term are totally different experiences.

When I was small, my family brought me to some of the popular sight-seeing places in Japan. I started to love Japan as everywhere in Japan is really clean and tidy. The streets are clean that you will seldom find rubbish somewhere at the corner or sideway. There are also a lot of high technological products in Japan, such as vending machines. There are many vending machines on the streets compare to my hometown Hong Kong 10 years ago. The machine called ‘otohime’ (a device which creates a loud flushing sound to avoid women’s embarrassments when using the toilets) in female’s washrooms also surprised me when I first saw it. But from these kinds of design, I realized how creative and gentle the Japanese are. They are so caring and try to use their inventions to improve their life in different ways.

Staying here as a foreign student, some of my impressions of Japan changed. It is really hard to find a rubbish bin on the street, which make me feel inconvenient as I always have to bring my rubbish back home. I believe that garbage separation is a nice idea because it is good for the environment. However, having different days for collecting the garbage is a real headache as some of the raw trashes cannot be put at room temperature for a long time.

The opinion that I have not changed through years should be about the good manners that Japanese have. Wherever you go, you can feel that people are really polite and if you ask them something, they will try their best to help you. This lovely point does really keep Japan as my favorite travelling place throughout the years!