Hello, I hope you are having good fall break!!

We Japanese have no particular religion.  When I was in Japan, I remember having discussion with my friends about religion. 　Surprisingly, we had similarly negative views on religion.  In Japan, there are some religious groups that force people to join their community, and in the extreme case, there are religious “cults” that are borderline insane, such as the “Aum Shinrikyo” which was responsible for a sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995.  As a result, we often tend to regard religion as a dangerous thing.  I once asked my mother about why I don’t belong to any religion.  My mother told me that we have rights to choose our own religion freely.  I don't go to church because my mom told me that would change my way of thinking.  The fact that going to church might affect how I think and behave made me cast religion in a negative light. That is why I don’t belong to any religion.  In contrast, Kansas appears to be quite religious in nature.  I even had the chance to go to church, which was actually the first experience for me.

I am trying to understand American religion and culture. Because of all this, when I first came to America, my first impression was the religion aspect of American life. This is one of our cultures differences.