July 4th in Japan

07/3/09  Print This Post Print This Post    4 Comments      Written by Sarah Menkedick
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Photo by Damon Garrett

Where are you this July 4th?

It’s July 4th.

I’ve got a red hot cup a coffee in my hand, and I’m stuffing socks in a backpack, getting ready to race out the door for a 7 a.m. slow train to Kyoto.

July 4th has been a bizarre holiday for me in the past five years—celebrated anywhere but “home,” if we define home in terms of birthplace.

It has reinforced that strange connection to Americans I feel when abroad, and the distance I sometimes feel from them when I’m at home. One of those traveling paradoxes I just can’t put my finger on?

In any case, today, I’ll celebrate it at a friend’s house in Kobe, with one fellow American, a Canadian, an Australian, several bottles of wine, and the dangerous, looming potential for karaoke.

And you?

Thanks for keeping up with us here at Abroad; we love your comments and your insight. Happy July 4th!


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About the Author

Matador ID: SarahMenkedick

Matador Contributing Editor Sarah Menkedick is a freelance writer based in Oaxaca, Mexico. Her writing has appeared in print and online publications, including Literary Traveler, Abroad View magazine, and National Geographic Glimpse. She has traveled, lived, and taught on five continents, and is constantly in pursuit of spicy food, dark beer, and new places to run. Check out her website of photography and creative nonfiction inspired by travel.

4 Comments... join the discussion!

  • Tim Patterson replied on July 3, 2009

    I’ll be shooting off fireworks in Vail, Colorado.

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  • Turner replied on July 3, 2009

    Last year, I bought some fireworks from a Chinese vendors and set them off in the dead of night with a fellow American on a deserted beach in Thai Muang.

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  • andrew replied on July 5, 2009

    in Fukuoka ATM and for the first time in my life, july4 was just another day. not sure what to think about that though

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  • Jason replied on July 8, 2009

    I spent last year’s 4th of July lighting off cheap fireworks by the Kamigamo river with my friend’s Andrew and Kana and for the first time in a long time…. I felt very patriotic.

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