Introduction

I have decided to (yet again) change the website I use for my blog. Why have I switched the site I use a number of times? For those of you who write blogs, I’m sure you know how difficult some blog sights are to use, I’m also sure that you’re familiar with how many sites limit the amount of photos you can upload based upon the file size (unless you pay a fee). I apologies in advance for any inconveniences caused by me changing the site that I use, but I hope others can continue to read what I post.

Seeing as we’re on the subject, I’d like to take the opportunity to write a little bit about why I first started writing a blog in the first place. I did so for 2 reasons: so that I could practice writing in Japanese, click here for my Japanese language blog, and so that I could share the culture and lifestyle of Japan with friends and family who aren’t in Japan. I’d also like to share Japanese culture and so on with as many people as I can across the globe, but at this moment my blog doesn’t gather as much traffic as I’d like. If even just the few people that do read my blog could find the land of the rising sun to be even just a tad interesting, it’d make me a very happy camper.

I hate to say it, but there are many young Japanese people nowadays who find Japanese culture ダサい (dasai) or uncool, many young Japanese people who find foreign countries to be more interesting than their own. If you compare Japan with a number of other countries in this world, you’ll find that Japan is a country that has a very rich and unique culture that unlike many other cultures across the world is very easy to come into contact with. Seeing as that Japanese people live in a county full of an easy to reach unique culture, I’m myself find it a bit of a shame and a waste not to come into contact with this culture (more often).

In Tokyo and many of the other major cities in Japan, an increasing number of tourists (particularly those from China) are visiting each year. What’s sad is that among these tourists are many people who don’t seem to have an interest in and don’t try to learn much (if anything at all) about this unique Japanese culture. Some people might say I worry too much, but one of my fears is that this unique culture in the land of 相撲 (sumo) and 芸妓 (geiko) is that it’ll all someday die out. There are so many foreigners in Japan nowadays that some areas don’t even feel like Japan at all, I’m worried that Japan (particularly the bigger cities) will become overrun with foreign culture.

During my spring break, I had the opportunity to visit Japan’s most southern island of 九州 (Kyushu). During that visit, I stopped in 熊本県 (Kumamoto prefecture) and visited Lafcadio Hearn's Former Residence, which was a house that was once occupied by probably the most famous foreigner and Japanophile in all of Japan’s history, a foreigner that you might better know as 小泉八雲 (Koizumi Yakumo). He and I share something in common, he too was apparently concerned about Japan loosing it’s culture. When Koizumi Yakumo was alive, Japan was apparently modernizing at an extremely fast rate and (just like me) he was afraid that this modernization would replace the rich unique Japanese culture. I’m sure that there are some Japanese people who’d find this mentality to be ridiculous, but seeing as it’s your country, I feel as if that more Japanese people should at least have a thought about what direction they want there country to move in.

Before I say my goodbyes and finish off this blog, there’s something I don’t want others to misinterpret, I don’t loath other foreigners in Japan. Off the top of my head I can think of a number of foreigners living and working in Japan who I idolize, there’s Matt Alt, Donald Keene,  Daniel Kahl, and Danny Choo. At some point I’ll get around to writing a piece about why these foreigners appeal to me as much as they do, but for now feel free to check out the links I’ve provided for each of these people that can be opened by clicking on their names.

Sorry for the unnecessarily long post, but I’d just like you to know that I’ll be posting blogs on this site from now on. At some point it’d be nice to have my own website, but this’ll do for now. Thank you.