ALOTI: Hi, Tomo, glad you let us chat with you. Hopefully we can learn a bit more about you today. You said you didn't come to the States till you were 19. Did you study English in Japan or was it a brand new experience when you arrived?
TOMO: I studied English for one year in Japan, that’s all.

ALOTI: What was your goal as a teen in Japan? Did you desire to come to the States and why?
TOMO: My whole life I’d never been anywhere, except Japan. So I wanted to go to America.

ALOTI: Did you have somewhere to stay when you came to America? TOMO: I stayed with a host family. They didn’t like it when I stayed out all night!

ALOTI: Do you have any brothers or sisters?
TOMO: I have two sisters, both younger than me. They’re in Japan.

ALOTI: Were you a quiet girl in school or devilish?
TOMO: I was quiet. I really didn’t talk with people. They didn’t know what I was always thinking!

ALOTI: Any boyfriends in High School? Or did you just hang with girl friends?
TOMO: I just went to school all day and worked a part-time job all night. Usually I would go somewhere with work friends, like to izakaya. I almost never went somewhere with my classmates. But I think that’s most people in Japan. Everybody goes to school for sleep, or read manga. Nobody studies.