I was on my way to vacation in Australia in 2006 and ended up having an open jaw layover in Tokyo for 5 days. That 5 days changed the rest of my life. I had zero expectations for Japan as I had only researched about Australia. Japan was a complete culture shock in the best way. Everything was clean, everyone was polite, and everything in Japan was completely different than what I knew in the United States. Additionally, I ran into a wonderful Japanese woman while I was there. After spending an afternoon and most of the next day together, it was clear we had a real connection. I continued with my vacation in Australia, but those 5 days in Tokyo were by far the highlight of the trip.
Fast forward 18 years, and that woman and I are married and have a 10 year old daughter. We stayed in touch after my vacation and a year later she quit her Job in Japan and moved to the United States to be with me. Two years to the day after we met, we were married!
Along the way I studied Japanese. I studied Japanese culture. I studied everything I could with a genuine interest in everything about Japan. We get to travel to Japan about once a year (minus Covid shutdown) to visit family and scratch my curiosity itch. We live in Los Angeles now which fortunately has a decently sized Japanese community. Our daughter, at 10, still says she feels like Japanese is her primary language (which is extremely hard, especially with Kanji) and she excels at Hoshuko (Saturday Japanese School).
So, the Blog! I simply want to provide random information about the country and culture I am so interested in and has such an influence on my family. There are lots of curiosities about Japan, facts to learn, and cultural information to share. I will do my best to tackle not only the topics that interest me, but the topics you wish to learn more about. If you have any topic suggestions, please email me!
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