Asylum seekers everywhere face family separation, trauma, poverty, deportation — and the challenges of assimilation. In Japan, that means both learning the language and figuring out unique garbage disposal procedures. For Rose, a refugee from Cameroon, it’s about laughing at how amazing the toilets are in her new country. For Nahed, who still remembers the lyrics to anime songs she learned back in Tunisia, it’s about throwing herself into a culture she has long admired. But as they both apply for asylum, they’re up against a Japanese mindset that resists newcomers. At a high school practice for kendo, a traditional Japanese martial art, a Japanese mother bemoans the decline of her culture and expresses a fear of new immigrants.