The Town of Victor is a highly homogeneous population – with over 94% of Victor residents identifying as White, it’s not everyday that we see people of diverse backgrounds, yet alone anybody from across the Pacific. Given this information, I was excited to be given the opportunity to meet Yume Morino, an exchange student from Japan, and she was able to offer me a fresh perspective of Victor Senior High School and insight on her daily life in the subtropical paradise that makes up Southern Japan.

Naturally, acclimating from Japanese culture to American culture is extremely difficult in almost every way. The stark differences in even just the language makes it hard for Japanese natives to learn English, and vice versa. Societal expectations are wildly different and traditional values are treated differently. It takes a brave soul for someone to step outside of their comfort zone to embark on a year-long experience through a new world – and Yume happens to be one of them.

Wanting to practice law internationally, Yume decided to seek an exchange program that would work on her English skills in order to stand out in the future. Speaking nearly no English beforehand and having very limited exposure (aside from a Boston trip through her school), she signed up for a program that would put her in an English speaking school.

Yume studied English rigorously after deciding to do a school-year abroad. She still finds it hard to understand speech, with reading and writing being her strong suit. Classes are difficult to comprehend, especially English-heavy courses like US History. However, she tends to excel in math courses because Japan’s high school curriculum is more rigorous for the most part.

She could’ve landed a spot in Australia, Great Britain, or any other English program. In the end though, she got selected to live in Victor and will soon be exposed to the brutal winter conditions of Upstate New York. The weather in Kumamoto, Japan, her home city, rarely ever dips below freezing. Having never experienced the joy of building snowmen or laying down in the fluffy snow to make a snow angel, these are things that Yume is looking forward to, showing me that we take the heaps of snow in our region for granted.

Yume is a soft tennis athlete, a sport that’s been popularized in Japan due to its appeal among elders and children. It is played on a regular tennis court and utilizes a softer, lighter ball and racquet. School sports work differently in US high schools versus Japanese high schools, as Japanese high school athletes pick one sport and play it year-round. Yume noted that she’s been playing softball for 365 days a year for multiple years in a row. Despite this, she finds it fascinating that so many world-class athletes are developed through the United States’ “seasonal” high school sports culture.

Yume’s home life in Japan is extremely busy, leaving her house at 8:00 AM and coming back at 10:30PM after school, sports, and “Juku,” which is an after-school supplementary tutoring program that’s widely popular among older high school students preparing for entrance exams. Some estimates show that over half of Japanese high school students attend Juku, creating a pressure on students to attend one if they want to succeed in post-secondary academics. Wanting to study in Kyoto or Osaka, where entrance exams are known to be difficult, Yume studies everyday for multiple hours on end. Dinner is often eaten at Juku, before returning home at a late hour, typically around 10:00 PM. During her daily morning and night commute, she gets to see a beautiful castle on the way to school.

Culture shocks are a regular occurrence for Yume. She takes note of everything shocking to her on her phone and was able to share some with me:

One thing she noted was student participation during homecoming week. She said that at her school, it’s normal for girls to be shy about dressing up for school events and school spirit tends to be dominated by boys, whereas here in Victor lots of girls (along with guys) put a lot of effort into spirit week and overall feels more lively.

Maybe not as unexpected, but one thing that stood out to her is the use of cars in daily commute. In Kumamoto, most kids walk or bike to school and cars are not a preferred mode of transportation over public transit. America also has very wide lanes, a strong difference from Japan in general where lanes tend to fit the width of a standard car and nothing more.

PE units in Victor offer a much larger variety of sports, she said. Specifically, mountain biking or fly fishing are things that aren’t ever even considered in Japan. It is typical for Japanese schools to offer more classic sports like soccer, baseball, and sometimes even martial arts, where emphasis is placed on athletic ability. On the contrary, it is clear that Victor’s physical education prioritizes the safety of students, allowing them to offer safer alternatives to traditional sports like floor hockey, flag football, and speedball.

Lifestyle factors in Japan, such as dense urban living and apartment restrictions, cause house pets like dogs to be much smaller on average than American dogs. Popular dog breeds in the US like Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds are quite rare and smaller dogs are generally preferred.

These are only a few of the numerous culture shocks she shared with me.

It was interesting to me how fascinating she thought everything was in the US, whereas I (along with a lot of people in Victor, I’m sure) find culture and life in Upstate New York quite “normal” and sometimes even boring. What she takes for granted at home is what I find extremely interesting and cool to learn about, and what I take for granted in my home town is what she finds interesting. This made me realize that all places around the world have their own individual beauty and unique qualities, and I’m very happy that she’s enjoying her time here in her second home.

Despite all of these differences in culture and society that Yume grew up in, it’s still fun to find middle ground with somebody who seems so different from you on the surface. She’s a big fan of La La Land, Sashimi, TV shows, and it was very easy to relate to her on a lot of things. She misses her sibling like we all would and it was nice to know that no matter the differences there may be between people we’re all part of one small world.