I describe my gender experience as being like one of the last things that happened to me as I was leaving Japan. I asked a Japanese lady if she was going to Australia, and she turned to the Japanese lady on her left and answered "Hai." (Yes). The Japanese lady said, in Japanese, "I didn't speak to you. The foreigner on the other side did." Okay, I was acutely aware of being a foreigner, but the fact that a foreigner could be mistaken for a Japanese in language made me feel as though I had blended in. Could I live in Japan permanently? Yes, but there are many things I would miss about Australia, so I prefer to say, "Well, I want to retain those things."

I had lived in denial about my gender and recently, my father said that a guy with a high-pitched voice had served him at a supermarket where I shop, and my father used to tell me that I had a high-pitched voice and others would criticise my unusual inflection. I have been mistaken for a woman on the telephone.

I have long felt wrong about my masculinity, and I thought, "Okay, non-binary, 70% male, 30% female," and I thought recently, "No, it's more than that. Probably 60% female and 40% male." When I'm driving my father's Falcon, I see guys who take off from the lights in fancy Commodores, and I think, let them be the ones to get caught, not me. I have never felt a need for a big powerful car.

I am not into typical male pursuits, and now I say, roll with who you are. Don't try to become more masculine.