Ethiopian | Japanese

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My Mom is Ethiopian and my Dad is Japanese. My Dad used to work in Ethiopia as an Architect and my Mom was also working in the same company. I’ll say everything was pretty smooth, my Mom hooked my Dad up with some Ethiopian music and until today he listens to some of the old music even though he doesn’t exactly know the meaning of it. When it comes to food my Dad struggled with having Ethiopian food because he couldn’t have any spicy food, he always used to get stomach aches after even having a little bite. On the opposite side my Mom loves Japanese food, she didn’t have any problems with it. 

My Mom struggled a lot when we moved to Japan, it was a total cultural shock for her since she’s from Africa and African people are family oriented. But in Japan they don’t do that often and the second thing was we lived in a city where there were not a lot of Black people so anytime we went shopping or groceries people would stare at her which she really hated the most. My parents didn’t have any problem communicating with each other. Since my Dad lived in Ethiopia for more than 5 years he was able to speak their language, after that he taught my Mom Japanese and now we always communicate by mixing two languages which is a little weird.

I’ve always been proud of both of my countries. The world we live in now there’s lots of interracial relationships and it’s very common but it was such a big deal back then as my Mom told me. I lived in both countries and I love everything about it. 

If I had the opportunity to be reborn I would like to return the same way.