When I was a senior in my high school, I declared to my parents, “I am going to America to meet people of my age to see what they are thinking!”
While many of my peers were concerned about entrance exams to universities and colleges, I doubted if going to a university in Japan was my true desire. I had excellent teachers up to that point, but I was searching for deeper meaning in life. Somehow, a college degree seemed someone else’s goal, not mine.
I always felt that thinking, reasoning, and expressing one’s opinions were not encouraged in Japanese education. In Japan, we have a saying, “The nail that sticks out gets hammered.” It’s quite a contrast to the Western saying, “A squeaky wheel gets the oil.”
