Introduction

March 7, 2010

After three wonderful years of serving as an ALT for the JET Programme in the small town of Kanoya in Kagoshima Prefecture, I am now preparing to leave Japan and venture back to my home of Southern California.

In the midst of reflecting, I stumbled on this old blog, I started ages ago and didn't bother to update. Originally, I meant to post all the emails I sent to my famiy and friends. That didn't happen, but I did save the letters I wrote.

Why not post them now? I thought. What harm would it do?

And with that, I set out to revise and redo my failed blogging attempt.

This blog is divided into two parts. The first part, from September 2007 until April 2008, chronicles with tedious detail my experiencing adjusting to my new job and my new life. At that point I made a serious effort to write these "newsletter" emails every two weeks. Although I cringe at the quality of my writing now, still, there may be some precious gems of knowledge to be gleaned from my experiences, especially for new JETs or anyone interested in daily life in Japan.

The second part, from April 2008 to (hopefully) August 2010, is a briefer, more casual record of my life, punctuated with lengthy, intensely-written travel logs. I especially recommend Yamaguchi, Northern Japan, and some of the anecdotes from Kyoto as I put a lot of effort into them.

Also, if anyone has an interest in the Bakumatsu (that is, the period between the collapse of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Meiji Restoration), I have a lot of history speckled here and there, including my own translations of signs, museum pamphlets, etc. pertaining to the era. I try to include pictures of my original source material under my translations.

Most of the posts will be in March, but you can ignore that label. I've posted the real dates at the top of the blog.

Well, I guess that's all. Have fun!