Growing up and learning about new places, there are always locations that stand out. Some, like the exotic far away from everything easter islands of rapa nui, and the south pole, I will probably never travel to, but there are some that I do. My bucket list currently consists of just a few places: Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Africa.
Now three of those places are based on history and scenery alone. I wanted to visit the cradle of civilization and Mesopotamia, the untouched jungles of the African wild, and see the naturally scarce and dangerous stretches of the Outback. Articles and stories of those who visited always astounded my childhood mind and that unabashed wonder turned into actual desire as I grew up.
Joining the military and traveling to “the cradle of life” put a slight damper on my hopes of travel. When I got to Iraq, saw the Tigris and experienced the sandstorms that I realized I’d signed up for the wrong tour group. It wasn’t until I came back home and went back to school that I realized the last time Iraq had any green fertile land was before all their irrigation infrastructure was destroyed during a series of raids and sacking by the mongols in the 13th century. Since then, the desert has slowly encroached on the land and turned it into what I experienced.
Even though I had a bad taste in my mouth from that experience, I still wanted to travel, but needed to be more specific with location. I wanted to see the jungles of africa, untouched by human hands… Today that is much harder to do, albiet not impossible. With Africa transitioning from and undeveloped continent of nations to one with infrastructure and unity, the opportunity to do that is becoming scarce. I decided I wanted to specifically visit South Africa, and see the southern tip of the continent where I can actually see the different biomes it harbors in a small area and see the land of apartheid and Nelson Mandela’s struggle.
I wanted to visit Austrailia for its expanse of desert. I don’t think there is much to change that anytime soon. I certainly got my fill of sand in Iraq, but this is still something I want to experience, to see what wide variety of life can still exist in extreme conditions. New Zealand is kind of on the same bill. The lands of New Zealand were and are extremely beautiful. I remember seeing pictures of it and thinking as green as it was, I must be seeing Scotland or Ireland. I think its vast expanse from roling green fields to enormous rocky outcrops is one of the reasons it was chosen as the shoot location for the Lord of the Rings films.
It’s simply beautiful. Just typing in New Zealand into a google image search is singularly astounding. The Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand are also of interest to me, partially due to my interest in poi and their being responsible for creating it.
Lastly, we come to Japan. While the rest of the locations that I want to visit are primarily based on natural beauty, I wanted to visit Japan for its people and culture. Not to discount the serene landscapes that the islands naturally have, but growing up I was ensnared by the technology, history and culture of their people more than the majesty of their lands.

I grew up heavily influenced by books, and had a keen interest in both history and fiction. I strayed more to books on weapons, and history of wars for non fiction than any others, so it wasn’t long before I read about the atrocities of war experienced by our people at Pearl Harbor by the land of the rising sun. It’s not hard to bias a book on history, especially when they are written by the victors as it is often said, but I never grew concerned or harped on who did what to start the wars, mostly just the weaponry they used to fight.
Undoubtedly, I read about the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in an attempt to end the war and the fallout resulting antebellum. I read of the surrender and the build up of Japan post war and saw evidence in everyday life the success they had in working towards it.
Competition is a direct contributor to success of innovation and Japan has always been on the forefront of new technologies. I’ve found my passion in electronics and their inner workings and repair and this has definitely  sparked the desire to visit a country that helped drive the influx of new technology.

I’ve also been separately fascinated by Bushido and the story of Samurai. From a young age I read about  the isolated Island of Japan and their tales of honor and duty. The more I read the more I was intrigued, reading about their unique type of theatre, like Bunraku and the like. I guess the more that I read about Japan, the more I wanted to learn and experience it for myself.

Of course I was eventually exposed to anime, and at first didn’t really latch onto it like some of my friends did. My first exposure was shows like Sailor moon and Dragon ball Z. While they were drawn interestingly enough, I couldn’t really get interested into them, because they had weak story lines and plenty of repetitiveness. It wasn’t until I caught a late night airing of Ghost in The Shell that the idea of anime really grabbed hold.
I was blown away by the artwork, background music and the storyline. I didn’t think such a story could be told with cartoons. I started looking into more movies like that, and during the time, internet access was slow and limited, so one of the best ways was to go to a store that specialized in otaku related things.

An independent video game store in my hometown had a few imported DVDs in their store to rent right after the playstation 2 came out. I saw a particularly brutal scene being played on their big screen of a woman about to be raped, then a man saves her by brutally cutting the men down. I was shocked. Of course at my young age, I didn’t think that that kind of content was present in anime. I asked what it was called and if I could rent it.
They told me it was “Sword of the Berserk” and no, of course because I was too young. In retrospect, I didn’t even have a DVD player to watch it on, and wonder why they were even playing it in a public business, but serendipity isn’t always poetic I suppose. I somehow managed to procure a DVD of the first 5 epiosdes and was taken away. I was almost breathless for those short few episodes. I couldn’t believe how brutal, violent and touching it could all be. From then on I was hooked on anime.
I suppose I have specific standards for what I specifically watch, preferring the more serious, indepth storylines to watch over minless antics and silliness, but I have watched quite a bit of Sgt. Frog, Puny Puny Poemi, and other “trash” anime. I recently went back and started watching all the older Miyazaki films. I never realized Grave of the Fireflies was one of his works. Such a touching film!

So with all this background into why Japan interests me, of course it’s been on the list for quite some time to go visit. I never really intended to learn the language, for one because as such an arduous task, I don’t think I could commit to the constant study required, and because “most” Japanese know English (or so I thought) There wouldn’t be such a language barrier when I went to the more touristy areas.

I have been dating my girlfriend going on about eight years now, and we have always shared a passion with Japan, although from different sides. She’s a linguaphile and already speaks several languages fluently, and is an excellent, though modest artist. Since I met her in  high school, she’s planned on trying to go teach (another of her passions) in Japan. I learned about the JET Program through a series of zany and well written editorials by a large black man teaching there named “Azrael”. Some of you may be familiar with the Outpost Nine/Gaijin Smash posts. When she mentioned this to me of course I didn’t think of it as something that would affect me, something she would or wouldn’t do and that I wouldn’t be there with her when she did.
We’ll fast forward a few years later, and we’ve been together and in love through the thick and thin of it, deployments and being worlds away from each other, and being together but focused on our own lives. We’ve been ready to marry for a while now, but we felt it would be smarter to be more established in our careers and save money for a while. October 2012 came around and she applied for JET. I still didn’t feel like the decision affected me. So what? I said to myself. I’ve been away from her years at a time while she was at home. I can do the same when she goes. Of course she has to get in first.
I took her to the her interview and while I waited I talked to a JET alumni who asked what we were to each other. After giving her our background, she asked why I don’t marry her and go to Japan with her. What an idea! I had no idea I could go with her at all! The idea of visiting her sometime throughout the year was promising, but the idea of moving to another country, a country that I’ve admired from a far for a good part of my life!

So we talked logistics; What if, could we, should we, how about.. For a good while, and decided that if she were to get short-listed, that we would elope and change both our lives. The results came back just a week ago, and has completely transformed my current 5 year plan. While satisfied at my job and happy where I am, I would be crazy to give up the opportunity to go live in another country, especially one I revere so much.
There’s still a lot left to do, but the plane leaves in August, and that only gives me a few months to get things ready. Of course, now I have a reason as good as any to learn the language, and I’ve been pooling resources together to be able to teach myself at the proper pace.

You wouldn’t believe the old, outdated, sometimes backwards articles, books and ideas I’ve come across over the past few days trying to determine what to use and how in my quest for comprehension. I’ve settled down to just a few places to get my information and help, TextFugu being one of them. I have yet to get into the crux of the language given my rough work schedule, but think I have a firm grasp on the hiragana, and their pronunciation. I hope to be an active and continuing contributor to the forums. /introduction

• This topic was modified 11 years, 7 months ago by  Tachypsychia. Reason: Indentions for easier reading