The Scariest Place: TUJ Cafeteria

The scariest place: Temple University Japan (TUJ) Cafeteria

By Marvin Starominski-Uehara, October 31st, 2024

Yes, you read it right. TUJ cafeteria is a scary place, a very scary one. It is so scary because it is not ordinary. It is not even unique since places like this are not supposed to exist. TUJ Cafeteria is a place where 99.99% of the world population have never experienced or can even image exist. You step in there and instantly feel out of place, something weird going on. On any given day, you will find in this cafeteria around two hundred college students from more than eighty countries and over a hundred different regions of the world casually walking around and having a good time with people who are, theoretically, so different from them. How is it possible that so many young adults from all these corners of the world can hang out together as if it is the most common thing to do, day in, day out?

Well, it might help to mention that in this environment, everyone has a very good command of verbal communication in English. I would also guess that more than half of those people bonding in this cafeteria are bilingual, and a third of them can speak multiple languages. Okay, you might be thinking now that all those young adults are a bunch of privileged individuals coming from elite education systems around the globe. I cannot deny that. Among these foreign students, there are children of political and business leaders who relocated to Tokyo. There are also many non-native English speakers whose parents invested heavily in international education for their children from a very young age. So, you might argue that this cafeteria is not representative of the global population because of the economic disparities within and between countries and regions. This is a fair point! I live in Miyazaki, one of the poorest prefectures in Japan (by Japanese standards), and I have yet to meet a student in my TUJ classes who was born and raised here.

But that is just the face value of the ‘scary’ diversity you feel when you are in this cafeteria. In this environment, there are also a number of students who come from low-income single-parent households. You will come across many students who decided to bet on themselves and take out loans to invest in their future. You will listen to many stories of personal struggles from students coming from marginalized, minority, and persecuted groups. These are real testimonials of resilience and perseverance, and they are not uncommon to be shared over casual conversations. So, there are many other elements, beyond the financial and economic ones, that explain the mix of people enjoying themselves in the TUJ Cafeteria. But this more nuanced understanding of this diverse community does not alleviate the anxiety one will certainly feel when being there for the very first time. It might even add more stress to those operating under expected rigid norms and attitudes. Like I said, TUJ Cafeteria is a scary place, a very scary one.

TUJ Cafeteria is scary because it is not what the world is but what it should be. Most parents would be totally overwhelmed stepping into this cafeteria. They would have little to no clue of what is happening in this environment. How can so many different looks, different clothes, different genders, different colors, different languages, and struggles co-exist? How is that even possible? This is not how 99.99% of the parents around the globe, including myself, grew up. This is not what we were told. This is far removed from what we have ever experienced and even imagined in our wildest dreams of diversity or just enjoying a glamorous cosmopolitan lifestyle. But here is the flip side: most of these same parents, like me, would be incredibly proud to see their children confidently navigating a world that values people for who they truly are, what they say, and how they act with respect and empathy toward everyone around them, especially the most vulnerable and marginalized. Sure, culture, physical traits, beliefs, and nationalities all shape who we are, what we believe, how we connect, and what we can dream of. But these institutional labels that are supposedly meant to help us feel more comfortable while growing into a predictable world of rules and customs are unceremoniously left behind the doors of those entering into TUJ Cafeteria. And for many of us, being stripped of what we have believed and experienced throughout our lives is quite unnerving. AT TUJ Cafeteria, 99.99% of the world population is asked to be naked. How much money you or your family have does not matter. What does matter, and what really helps you navigate diversity with confidence and make the most of it, is how proactive you can be, how willing you are to listen and learn, to compromise, to turn ideas into actions that help communities beyond those doors become less divided and more united. TUJ Cafeteria is indeed a very scary place, a place where dreams are never too scary to be dreamed of and achieved. And as a student of mine recently said in class: ‘Experiencing diversity can change the trajectory of your life. It really can!’

keywords: what it’s like studying in a highly diverse international university; how to navigate extreme cultural diversity in real life; cross-cultural communication skills for students abroad; real experiences of multicultural university life in Japan; how diversity changes your perspective and behavior

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