250 years of US history, seen from Japan

The United States turns 250 this year, which sounds both very old and somehow still quite young at the same time.

What I always find interesting, living in Japan, is how that timeline overlaps in slightly unexpected ways.

When the US was founded in 1776, Japan was deep in the Edo period. Closed off, stable, and not particularly interested in what was happening across the ocean. For a while, the two countries mostly existed side by side.

And then Commodore Perry showed up in 1853.

Black ships, a very direct request to open up, and suddenly things moved quickly. What followed was not just the opening of Japan, but the beginning of a relationship that has evolved into something that now feels completely normal.

That is the part that still surprises me.

Because if you are in Japan today, the connection is everywhere, but in a very casual way. Baseball feels completely local. You see American ideas, products, and traditions, but always slightly reinterpreted. Familiar, but never exactly the same.

And it goes both ways. Spend enough time here, and you start noticing how much Japan has influenced the US too, often quietly, in design, in attention to detail, in how things are made.

One detail I really like this year is that Japan marked the 250th anniversary by gifting 250 sakura trees to the United States. A small gesture, but a very fitting one.

And on a personal note, as a new US citizen married to a Japanese citizen, I probably enjoy this connection a bit more than most. It feels less like history and more like something you live every day, in small, ordinary ways.

For something that really only took off in the last century and a half, the connection feels surprisingly established.

Fun Friday thought. Some relationships feel timeless, even when they are actually quite recent.