![]() Together they navigate life in a foreign country, taking their first steps into adulthood cast free of the expectations they left behind at home. For Nao, Japan was once home, but now she feels just as cast adrift there as Tina and Hyejung, an adult with the language skills of a young child. ![]() She moves into Himawari House, where she meets Tina and Hyejung, who have come to study in Japan, and Masaki and Shinichi, two Japanese brothers who also live there. Recently graduated from high school, she decides to spend a gap year in Japan, trying to regain the mother tongue that has largely slipped away from her growing up in America, and feeling the pressure to assimilate. Nao’s family left Japan for California when she was young, but in many ways her heart remained behind. Every new word I learn lifts the fog around me a little more, revealing the colors and shapes of the world around me.” ![]() “The storefronts and signs, once faceless strangers, now greet me like new friends. ![]()
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