My Japanese journey actually started more than 5 years ago. I think I’ve had a lifelong fascination with the eastern part of the world but there just wasn’t much around to expose myself too where I grew up. With the huge growth in Japanese pop-culture over the last 10 years or so, that began to change. I also happened to be working in a store that sold a wide range of books, videos, music, games, etc. When I began working there we had no manga and almost no anime. I remember the first time I saw manga, I really didn’t know what it was but it was so different from other things I’d seen I just bought it. Fast forward a couple of years and we had large areas devoted to anime and manga. I also discovered a few of my coworkers had been into Japanese things for years already and when I expressed my interest they began introducing me to more. I think things really fell into place when I was introduced to the music.

Music is a huge thing for me, I can’t live without it and I’m always looking for new things, though recently finances have slowed this down. Anyway, I particularly enjoy rock music but at that time I was feeling unsatisfied with most of the new rock that was coming out in the American music scene so I was really ready for something new. When my friend shared a sampler cd of some of her favorite artists I quickly embraced J-rock and started accumulating as much as I could, of course this meant I had to import a lot. I even began some basic studies of Japanese on my own in hopes of eventually understanding the lyrics without depending on translations.

At the same time I was becoming increasingly bored with my life in general. I felt I was really at a kind of dead end and wanted more, the problem was just figuring out what I wanted. Then it hit me. I decided I would move to Japan. It was one of those things that I pretty much knew I was serious about the moment I came up with the idea though nobody else believed I was for about a year. I knew planning and preparation, mostly saving money, was going to take me about two years, I had the timeline pretty clear in my head and it was something I was almost constantly thinking about during that period. I started working two jobs for the first year and then changed jobs the second year, in order to make more money, not only for the move itself but I didn’t even own a computer at the time and needed one to help me to find a job before heading out there. I also worked on my Japanese, mostly using the Pimsleur audio CDs, which I found effective in the basics but they were pretty pricy. I taught myself hiragana and katakana as well. I didn’t have anyone to practice with and it was slow going but I was getting somewhere.

I managed to follow my timeline almost perfectly and just about 2 years after making the decision I made the move.

This is about where my active studying methods pretty much died. You’d think actually living in the country where this language is everywhere would encourage greater study but it just didn’t happen. I’d study for a while and then stop. It was really sporadic and I was still surrounded by English most of the time. I was teaching English and what Japanese friends I made were usually more interested in practicing their English and my Japanese was just not up to more than the most basic conversation. It may be that I just ended up kind of overwhelmed and because I lived in the city it was easy enough to “get along” without knowing a lot of Japanese. However, this has led me to feeling rather ashamed and frustrated with myself.

Recently a lot of things have changed for me. I live in Tokyo and have been here 3 years now. The last couple of years have seen a lot of challenges and difficulties. I recently decided to be come a freelance model/English teacher. This has a ton of its own challenges I’m wrestling with now. Really, life here hasn’t been easy on many levels but I also don’t want to leave, I do love living here. I’ve ended up with more freetime than usual since shifting my “career direction” and really can’t even pretend that time is an issue for my studies anymore so its time I start really trying to improve my Japanese to give myself the best opportunities for my life here.

So here I am. I still know a lot of the very basics, hard to forget everything when it does surround you every day, and I’ve picked up a lot of random stuff. I’m hoping this site and some focus and work will allow me to start building on that knowledge into something I can really use to be more confident and functional and independent in my daily life. This is a great country and knowing the language better will help me to enjoy it even more. がんばります!!!