To some in Japan, the word "expat" is often associated with negative images — isolation, language and culture barriers, and a general lack of interaction, connection, acceptance and/or understanding. For California native Francesca Conate, however, the life of the expatriate means opportunity — the opportunity to open one's arms wide to whatever experiences one chooses to embrace.
In Japan about seven years now, she finds her life here filled with "serendipity, coincidences and amazing opportunities." Japan, specifically Tokyo, is a place where she is "exposed to things I wouldn't be exposed to otherwise, the opportunity to meet people and to do things I wouldn't do otherwise."
Energy embodied, the 38-year-old Conate takes on life with a passion: things Japanese, things not, things African — and above all, things of Sierra Leone.