Chosen Places: Kamikatsu Village, Japan

Kana Chan takes us to rural Japan.

I found

Kana Chan

’s newsletter Tending Gardens almost three years ago, and have enjoyed her reverent, thoughtful style ever since. She transports with every issue, and she was on my short list for this series. You’re about to see why.

Kana, take us away.

Where have you lived so far?

I’ve pondered the concept of home for (almost as long) as I’ve been a living being. The concept of home seemed to many around me like a given, inherited concept. You are from here. We are from here.

But perhaps being born to immigrant parents was the first seed of curiosity as to what it meant to have, to find, and to accept (as a chosen place) a home. I was born and raised in Canada to a Japanese mother and a Hong Kong father. My parents met while studying abroad and later immigrated to Canada. At a young age I had the immense privilege of visiting and spending time in my parents’ homelands. I was always a visitor in Japan and Hong Kong, but in those early and formative experiences I could understand that identity was a shifting and nuanced thing.

After my undergraduate studies in Canada, I longed to absorb more diverse and multifaceted perspectives. For my graduate studies, I moved to Europe and spent two years divided among Denmark, Slovenia, and Spain. I chose the program specifically because it allowed me to be so untethered to one place. This experience changed my life!

Upon graduating, I did work that allowed me to spend months in various Asian countries and then I moved to Bangladesh. I now live in rural Japan in the smallest town on Shikoku Island. For much of the past decade, my life felt semi-nomadic, but for the first time ever I don’t have a set departure date and it’s been such a joy to call this village home.