the Filipino-Japanese living it up in Shanghai



With a formal black shirt and grey pants, Mario San Pedro Yamaura, a man who is half Japanese and half Filipino, looks crisp and professional during his working hours as a performance marketing manager.To get more news about lifestyle news shanghai, you can visit shine news official website.

But during his casual time he's a little more relaxed, playing darts, squash, and biking with his close friends in the city.

The 27-year-old came to Shanghai alone six years ago, just three days after his graduation, for a half-year internship in Shanghai.

“I’m still trying to figure out what I should do with my life,” San Pedro Yamaura said with a serious voice.

“If I stay in the Philippines, it means I would have to deal with the traffic, or move back to Japan with my parents,” he said. “I feel like I want to be more independent.”

San Pedro Yamaura has a unique experience living in the Philippines, Japan, and China, and he said these three countries offer him different feelings, especially when it comes to winter.
Q: You said you are half Japanese and half Filipino. Can you talk more about your family?

A: My mum is Filipino, my dad is Japanese. I was born in the Philippines and we moved to Japan for three to four years. But then my mom decided to buy a house in the Philippines, so we all moved back since then.

I have two siblings — I’m the middle one. My older sister gave birth recently and they are in Japan. And my younger brother and my grandma both live in the Philippines. I would say that I am more close to my mother and also my little brother.

Q: So, you have lived in the Philippines, Japan, and China — did these three countries offer you different feelings?

A: I would really say I like living in the Philippines, in Japan, and here in China, because those three countries can offer different things. Of course, there’s like pros and cons, good sides, bad sides. But I’m a very easy person, and I always like that kind of uniqueness of those countries.

I think all countries are very different. The Philippines is very nice, but there’s a lot of traffic. It’s a little hard to make new friends there. Like all you can do is always just hang out with your own group of friends. In Japan where we live, it’s a little quiet. So of course, it's a lot harder to make friends and I always just hang out with my mom and dad when I go there. And talking about the seasons, winter is very cold.

But in China, I think everything is more like the better of those two. The winter is not that cold, there is no really bad traffic here, and it is so easy to make friends or to hang out with other people.

Q: Did you remember your first moment, or the first impression of Shanghai?

A: My first impression in Shanghai was so different than what I’d expected because I thought that China itself is very traditional. China has like, the image of Chinatown, like very Chinese, but I arrived here in Shanghai, I was like so surprised because it’s very international. People are friendly. Locals, expats and the scenery or the feel, is really different from what I expected.