Here's a little background information, for those of you who don't know me all that well, or that I've fallen out of touch with over the last couple of years. Even those of you who DO know me may not quite understand my motivations, so I'll explain myself, briefly.

Ever since I was little, I've been interested in Japan, albeit on a superficial level. I liked to play with Origami. My older sister went to a Japanese language camp. When I was in high school, I liked watching Anime and playing Final Fantasy 7. These are all simply on an interest level. To be honest, I knew very little about the country and its people.

In College, however, I took many courses about Japan. With Professor Hauser, I took history courses about Ancient and Modern Japan. With Professor Pollack, I read the tale of Genji (again). With Professor Bernardi, I took a closer look at Anime and realized that I may not like it as much as I used to. Perhaps I grew out of it. Some Anime I will always like, but others... not so much. Also, I studied Japanese Women Writers with Professor Bernardi, which basically covered any woman writer of any notable fame in the last century in Japan. In my Silent Cinema class, we watched 2 silent films from Japan. While I found that I understood Japanese history and literature very well, I remained completely ignorant of its Modern, current culture. Then, I took Modern Japanese Culture in my final semester, which made me realize that, as with many modern cultures, Japanese culture is really messed up. Politically, Socially, Economically. But, I'm not one to talk about other country's problems.

With all my interest in it, where are the language courses, you may ask? I took Japanese 101 and 102 with Shino-sensei, and 151, 152, 202 and 203 with Tamate-sensei. They are both very good, helpful teachers. After that point, I had to graduate, as I started in my sophomore year on the language track. Kind of disappointing, as it merited me only a culture major and not a language major. Had I started my freshman year with Japanese language Classes, it would have been a different story.

The high point of my college years was definitely the 2 months I spent in Japan. I lived with a wonderful family who were very kind to me and helped me in any way that they could. I met good friends and went to a very excellent school. I climbed Mount Fuji and saw the parks and temples of Nikko.What resulted from my time in Japan was the realization that I don't know nearly enough Japanese to claim that I know it. I'm not even close to fluency, even after all my studying. The exposure to the culture, the language, and the people, however, made me want to go back to Japan. Very badly.

Now that I'm out of college, and I have no desire to go back to school any time soon, I will need to continue my own study of the language. It will require much discipline.

Of course, the best way to learn the most Japanese in the shortest amount of time is to go to Japan. That's where this Blog comes in. I intend to use it as a record of my Job Search, my move, my stay and my departure. It is a good way to stay in touch with people in the States, and let them know what I am doing.

So, there you have the background. It will be, of course, chronologically organized. It is very possible that I may not even go to Japan right away; I may need to pass one of the Proficiency exams first to increase my marketability to Japanese companies, or American companies with operations in Japan.