Now it has been almost a year since I started my life in Germany, the land of beer and sausage.

My relationship with the country is long. I studied German, the language for the horse, at university. Every time I was asked "Why?" I struggled to find an explanation. All I can say is that there are lots of things I love about Germany and its culture.

Before I moved here, I had taken short holidays in Germany on a number of occasions, and every time I had great experiences. On my first trip to the country I visited an old monastery town, close to the former borderline between East and West Germany. Being from Japan, seeing a place with such a long — and very "European" — history was very interesting. The 300-year-old architecture seemed to take me to another time in a way I haven't ex-perienced in Japan — even in Kyoto.

I met a small group with a guide there, and they invited me to join their tour, though my German was not so good at that time. This friendliness may come as a surprise to those who consider Germans to be aloof.

Once I began to settle in Germany, however, my enthusiasm for the country began to fade away. I discovered the country was not an easy place to live as a foreigner. I had never lived in a foreign country and the first couple of months were particularly challenging — perhaps even horrible. Every time I lost track of a conversation I would become stressed and depressed. There is an old proverb in Japan that means the same as the English, "it is like talking to a brick wall": Uma no Mimi ni Nembutsu. This literally translates to "chanting a Buddhist invocation to a horse," and some-times German sounds almost like a Buddhist invocation, not only for horses but also for me.

The reason for this is that Germany is such an inclusive society I often feel that my "foreignness" goes unacknowledged. I often feel free because of this, but I do wonder, would life be easier if foreigners in Germany got special treatment as gaijin in Japan often claim they get?

Anyway, I now enjoy it here and have learned a lot about "real" German life.

A few months ago storms brought hurricane-force winds to Europe. At that time, I was on a train heading from Berlin to Munich. Due to the storm, train services stopped throughout Germany. The conductor announced that we could go no farther and we stopped at a small station in the center of the country. Upon leaving the train I was confronted by chaos. Many of us were traveling the length of the country so we were carrying suitcases and had no idea what to do. What amazed me was that people stayed calm while trying to figure out what to do to get out of this horrible situation. Everybody worked together to make the best of the situation. For example, passing cars picked up passengers who lived in nearby towns and drove them home out of kindness.

The town's hotels were almost full, but I was lucky enough to find a room in which I could sleep and wait out the storm. Next morning, the weather was back to normal again and I took a walk around. When I came to an old cathedral, I realized that I had been here before. It was the old town where I had joined the sightseeing tour almost 10 years ago. I was surprised at the coincidence, and grew nostalgic about how much Germany had come to mean to me.

With its long history and economic power, it is strange that Germany does not attract as many tourists as other European countries like Spain, England or France. But there are many reasons to visit. As a foreigner living here I have been lucky enough to see a country that has far more to offer than just the beer and sausage for which it is famous.

The Japan Times Weekly: June 16, 2007
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