After I began living in the U.S., I came to take a more detailed notice of my eating habits: I am mostly made of rice! I thought. In 100 Pounds of Rice, the self is literally and symbolically reconstructed out of rice. Using Elmer’s Glue and rice, even translucent rice noodles as hair, I re-created my likeness as a “rice woman.” The sculpture is standing on a mountain of rice that the female figure both triumphantly emerges out of and drowns down into. Ordinary things I had never paid attention to in Japan became unique in my everyday life here. I look different; I eat rice; I am an Asian. I drink green tea; when I speak I have accent; and I do in fact behave differently. I find myself torn—sometimes I deliberately try to appeal to my natural existence and sometimes I just want desperately to blend in.