One question I have always found difficult is, "Where are you from?" While most people I meet are able to answer it with a single word — Japan, England, India — for me the answer is a lot more complicated.

The question itself is innocent enough, and rolling in multicultural circles also makes it unavoidable. At worst, it can come off as a less polite "What are you?" and, over time, I've shortened my response to "It's a long story." Here's the abbreviated version: I was born in the Netherlands and grew up in Italy. My mother is Korean and my father is Japanese. I studied and worked in the United States, but six years ago I moved to Japan and it is the first Asian country I've ever lived in. What am I? Well, a little bit of all of these places.

The main thing that makes me uncomfortable about the "Where are you from?" conversation is that my answer tends to involve a lot of explanation, and the process of having to explain makes me feel like I am exposing way too much of myself to a complete stranger. It can sound particularly out of place in Japanese since people don't tend to go into so much detail when they first meet one another.