What I am still not used to is…

What is one question you hate to be asked? Explain.

“Where are you from?”

I never understood why this question might rankle some people…until I moved to Japan.

I’ve been in Japan since 1999. “Where are you from?” was one of the first questions people asked me at the time, when I was teaching in junior and senior high schools.

No problem, I thought. I’m from Upstate.

“I’m from New York.”

Nods of understanding. “Ohhh, the Big Apple.”

Uh, no. Upstate.

“New York is a state?”

Sometimes people would ask me “Where did you come from?” (Literally “doko kara kimashita ka?” どこから来ましたか？)

I later learned that that phrase was basically invented for foreigners. The native phrase is “go-shusshinnchi ha dochira desu ka?” Literally “from what area do you come” I.e. “what’s your hometown?”

I actually had a problem answering that.

I was born in Troy, NY. But my family moved to a small hamlet west of Albany when I was not quite 8. Then moved again to the Adirondack Mountains when I was 12. Then I went to a different small town an hour south of Albany for college and barely went home after that (I more or less left permanently after the age of 20).

I spent one more year in Michigan. Two in Indiana. Two more in Bahstin (sorry, Boston).

Then Japan.

So where is my “hometown”? Where do I “come from”?

Even now, after nearly 25 years in Japan (most of my adult life), I still get asked this question. I’ve lived 12 years in our house now, in the Kansai area of western Japan. The longest I’ve ever spent in one physical location my entire life.

So I’ve taken to responding to the “where are you from?” question cheekily:

“Japan, of course.” (mochiron Nihon desu wa もちろん日本ですワ)