I lived there as a military kid for a while.
Everything is so exotic and different.
And beautiful, the kimonos, food, tea, art, etc.

Beautiful granddaughter, looks like their grandma!

It would have been highly unfortunate if she had turned out to look like me!

I'm curious if she and her sister end up wanting to return again and again to Japan. Our own daughters acquired that same longing to always return to Cape Cod, which they had known from birth, and now, forty years later, still try to get back to every year.

I was in the Asian culture for over four years as a child.
I still love everything Asian.

She takes after her grandma more than she does after me:

My granddaughter at age 5 has been to more countries than I have at age 57…

Of course, I am very happy that my son and his husband are able to give her such opportunities, as I’m sure you are. 🙂

From day one, we tried to expose them to as much outside culture as we could. We didn't have the time to take them on two week jaunts to Japan, but we went for more accessible places. Fortunately, Germany is a country with other lands close by. We regularly took them to the Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland. There were occasional visits to Spain and Denmark, and my younger daughter spent a semester of college in France, as well as a stay in Sierra Leone with the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal. That last was hardly a vacation, but it was certainly part of her education. They have also been to the Maldives and Israel, places I have not seen.

Growing up in Europe, especially with parents from two different countries and languages, gives children the chance (no guarantees!) that they will grow up aware and tolerant of other cultures, and that was certainly our goal. Whether the grandchildren actually develop an affinity with and for Japan is really secondary, as long as they retain a latent knowledge that there ARE such places out there, and that the vast majority of people on this earth are not like they are.