Having now spent almost her entire adult life in London, Osaka-born tour guide Miki Bartley admits to being less comfortable in her native culture than in her adopted one. The feeling of being different is stronger while working, when she accompanies Japanese tourists and businesspeople around England on tours designed to both entertain and educate.
Bartley, 47, vividly recalls some clients complaining about how rude checkout operators in the U.K. appeared because they are seated when customers are standing, while others said news presenters on British TV seemed impolite because they put their arms across the set's sofa.
On both occasions, she says she was astonished by their comments and unable to understand the reasoning, which reinforced her notion that she has led two very different lives: one in Japan as a child when she "wasn't aware of culture" and one as a working adult in the U.K.