When Hanako Takiyoshi moved to Toronto, she marvelled at the Eaton Centre, taking photos “just like other excited Japanese tourists,” she admits.

She was thrilled by the food vendors on the streets, something she’d seen in North American movies. During her first year here, she ate a lot of hotdogs.

Toronto’s diversity surprised her, too. Aomori, her hometown in Japan, is much more homogenous.

That was about 10 years ago. As Takiyoshi, who’s in her early 30s, settled in Toronto, she wanted to document her experiences. Her Canadian husband, Kevin James, gave her cartooning pens and paper for Christmas one year, and she decided to revisit an old pastime — drawing.

Last December, Takiyoshi created a blog called The Days of Hanako, which provides readers with anecdotes about her immigration experience in comic-strip form.

The cartoons are often humorous; in one, she fastidiously bundles up to go outdoors in below-zero temperatures. In another, a customer at the bank where she works excitedly wishes her a happy Chinese New Year. She pauses — Takiyoshi is not Chinese — then she smiles and repeats the greeting, noting in an aside: “I have great customer service skills.”

Another comic is about the first Toronto Pride parade she attended, with James’ father. The costumes, colours and glitter left her in awe. She says it’s one of her favourite events in the city.

Takiyoshi’s comics also describe how she and James met. She was a student at Hirosaki University and he was living in Japan temporarily, teaching English.

(“I was not his student, so there is no scandal,” she wrote in a guest post on the blog Texan in Tokyo.) They met through a friend and started dating.

One of her comics depicts them in that period, visiting the zoo. A group of Japanese children stares at James, who as a tall, Caucasian man is apparently an odder sight than the animals.

When Kevin’s teaching term ended, he went back to Toronto to study architecture at Ryerson University. Takiyoshi had two years left in her program, so they maintained a long-distance relationship, emailing daily.

When Takiyoshi graduated, she moved to Canada with a one-year working holiday visa. She’s now a permanent resident.

The couple moved around, living in Halifax, where James did his master’s degree and Takiyoshi studied human resources management, and Vancouver, where James interned.

Takiyoshi likes Toronto best. She and James married five years ago and now live in Leslieville. They had a second wedding in Japan.

“Toronto is just really comfortable for me — not too big, not too small,” she says. “I feel that a lot of cultures coexist in the city, and I feel that you can be anyone. I think that most people respect other cultures, too. It just feels like the city is a small version of the whole world.”

Yet Toronto supplies some of the familiar things of home. She can shop at Japanese grocery stores, read Japanese newspapers at the library and visit a Japanese hairstylist.

The Days of Hanako has garnered more than 6,500 hits so far, and Takiyoshi has high hopes for the future.

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She intends to publish a comic book that incorporates her love of food and creating recipes.

In the meantime, Takiyoshi hopes other immigrants, and Canadians, can appreciate her blog and experiences.

“A lot of funny things happen in my life, and I cherish my memories,” she says. “I thought it would be a great idea to record them in comics before I forget, and share them with people.”

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