One of the more common reactions I get from people newly learning that I’ve lived in Japan is “I wish I could do something like that.” It’s actually not all that hard; all you need is a bachelor’s degree, some patience during the application process, a few thousand dollars to get you over there and [...]
My entire stay in Japan originated because of my interest in Japanese. It wasn’t a particularly serious interest at first, but I discovered somewhat to my surprise that I really liked studying that language. It was only natural that once I actually got to Japan, I continued my studies, even though it meant paying almost [...]
Today marked my third attempt at getting a bank account. It ran into the same snag as at the previous two banks–the process was rolling along fine (where ‘fine’ is defined as the original teller calling over whatever colleagues speak a little English, and having me write everything down, and hurried conferences with the floor [...]