Prologue

In 49 days from today, I will be sitting in Detroit Wayne County Airport, most likely eating my last American meal, waiting to board a flight headed to Tokyo, where I will spend a minimum of one year; hopefully becoming slightly more fluent in Japanese and hopefully be able to secure a job teaching English.

Originally, I wasn't going to start this blog so early, but in the midst of visa crap and a whole lot of other shit I need to take my mind off of, I thought it'd be a good idea. Plus, under 50 days seems like a nice number to start from, doesn't it?

As a Japanese major, the number one question I get asked is "Why Japan, man?" in order to find the answer to that question, we have to go back to 1989. The Sesame Street special Big Bird in Japan is released on video cassette. A one-year-old me watches this and thinks "OH MAN THIS JAPAN PLACE LOOKS AWESOME I WANT TO LIVE THERE ONE DAY" putting the thought in my subconscious that remains there to this day.

Okay. So, I don't actually have any proof this ever happened. But it's like, if you look at the list of Japanese Emperors, the first 14, are all "presumed legendary" as in, they most likely did not exist, but, you know, it makes a good story. Or something. And the fact that I absolutely loved Sesame Street when I was a kid, the show seriously taught me how to read. I must have seen this special at sometime in my life. So basically, Big Bird is my Emperor Jimmu. Deal with it.

Japanese culture also came into my life via my parents. Who unknowingly bought dubbed Japanese cartoons for me as a child. The most prominent of these is the Studio Ghibli classic, My Neighbor Totoro (となりのトトロ）and Bumpety Boo (へーい！ブンブー). Of course, at the time, I had no idea that these were Japanese in the slightest. I didn't even know Totoro took place in the late 50s (this is what I get for living in Vermont) it wasn't until later that I discovered that the Cat-Bus and talking car that I've watched 500 times each were Japanese.

Fast forward to middle school, and I discover that this small company called Nintendo that I've been spending my parents money on for at least a decade, yeah, they're Japanese. As was this little known game/TV series/card game they released called Pokemon. Maybe you've heard of it? Also, around this time, I discover sushi is pretty damn delicious, and my friend introduces me to this rock group named B'z.

All this basically led to me enrolling in Japanese my freshman year of high school. I didn't really learn a lot, just the basics really. And over time, I kind of lost interest in Japanese culture. I ended up taking all three years of it, but it was more out of the fact that everyone in my class were friends, and it was more fun to hang out with them than do nothing.

Despite my lack of interest in Japan, I still wanted to go there. I finally got my chance, the day after I graduated high school, I went on an exchange to Hokkaido for around three weeks. The entire time, I had an absolute blast. My first words upon seeing my parents in the airport were "I want to go back." As I had just graduated high school a day prior to leaving Japan, without any idea on what I wanted to do. Being the lazy student that I was, I was planning to go to community college for two years, before eventually transferring to a four year university. But my actual plans for the future, were pretty vague. Before I had gone to Japan, I think my plan was to become a radio host or something. But upon returning from Japan, I had decided that my plan was to eventually study abroad in Japan, become fluent in Japanese, and move to Japan to teach English.

After spending two years at community college under a communications degree (though, I ended up just taking a bunch of English classes) and then transferring to a four year university under a Japanese degree, in my fifth year of college, I'm making part of my goal come true.

I know there are lots of blogs of people living in Japan around. In fact, I can recommend some to you. However, I'm hoping to add another opinion on the matter. Seeking out maybe things commonly passed over by the typical people who write about Japan, especially as I've been there (twice) before. Sure, everyone has the "HOLY SHIT THESE TOILETS ARE CRAZY" moment, and those aren't necessarily a bad thing. They're necessary even. But I'm looking to try and describe the things that aren't covered by everyone. And I hope it's as interesting to read, as it is for me to experience.

I promise it will be more interesting once I'm, you know, in Japan.