As a Japanese woman and an immigrant, living in Finland and working at an NGO, I would like to share my journey of finding a place where I feel I belong to as part of a life-long learning process. Also, I have been dealing with mixed feelings from having to establish a place where life goes on in Finland while not being able to physically be at the home where my family lives in Kyoto.

I see my journey in Finland as a learning process, because it involves continuity such as understanding the country’s system, culture, learning the language, making new friends and finding work. It has been a process for me to increase my feeling of belonging alongside finding people who I care about and who are supportive of me.

I would like to also emphasise the importance of taking care of myself in a rapidly changing world, where in the middle of chaos, I seek a state of mind that can focus on positive things and reflect on things to improve on. This ability has become crucial to balance a life where the physical home exists somewhere outside of where I currently am.

I hope to have active discussions with participants and exchange thoughts on the learning processes behind finding one’s own home.