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26 January 2010

Some Twenty-Ten real-talk... ちょっと久しぶりな〜


As I sit here on a clear, cold, Tuesday in January--in TwentyTen--I reminence upon the journey that led me to this island country.  I've spent maybe about 16 years preparing to live here, if you count the hanging out with my Japanese-American friends back in L.A. in middle and high school...  In fact, if it wasn't for those guys in the first place, I wouldn't be here at all.

Most recently I decided to move back to Japan just because I wanted to see if I could make it.  I mean really make it.  I wanted to be a pioneer.  Do something that no one around me has done before, and inspire those same people to go after their dreams.   I gave up a perfectly decent, yet way-outside-my-intended-career-path job to come here.  I was making about $55~60k US /year.  and I gave it up to come to Japan by way of taking a job that pays less than half that...  Why?!?  Am I  c r a z y ????
The short answer is, yes, but I'm hoping I'm crazy like a fox and not crazy as a loon...  There are many opportunites for someone like me in Japan...  Sometimes I feel like I'm more valuable here than I am back home in the States....  Maybe I'm embellishing too much, but it's true in a certain sense.  I've tried numerous times to start businesses and work my way into a decent career path...  But for all the work I've achieved, I just get layoffs or no backing...  Here though its different...a little anyway...  
Within one year of my being in Nagoya, I've become Editor and part Founder of a magazine that the people here--both Japanese and Foreign--can't stop talking about.  RAN.  If you haven't read it, please read!   I've also managed to align myself with a large group of people here in town that are culturally motivated, active, and dedicated.  Again, both Japanese, and Foreign.  These people are artists, photographers, writers, musicians, singers, speakers, activists, students, teachers, office workers, bus drivers, doctors, professors, and more.  They are all dedicated to their art and don't mind sharing it with the world.  The old saying rings true:  Surround yourself with the people who are going where you want to go, and you eventually get there together.  Better yet, find people who are already where you wanna be, and you know then, it ain't impossible after all...
Could things be better?  Yeah, I could rant about how Japanese houses are too cold in the winter (at least mine is !)  I could talk about how I never seem to have enough money to really do everything I'd like to here in this place...  But why would I?  My Japanese Experience™ is just that, an experience and something that is worth more than all the hot wings in Atlanta (and I love me some wings man!)
As TwentyTen gets going (and damn its going FAST; it's almost February!) There are some things I hope for by 12/31/2010...
  • Success in business: I want the best for RAN, StreetSide Media, and my other ventures here in Japan.  A friend related to me that it's a shame we have to work full-time jobs as english teachers to get here, and since they pay so little, have a side-job 2~3 evenings a night to make ends meet... When most of us don't really wanna be teachers at all.  So this, I hope, is my out.  Either that, or find me a teaching gig that can pay ALL the bills.
  • Success in romance: *sigh* This lonley boy can't get this right no matter where he happens to be in the world it seems...   I hope I do things right this year somehow.
  • Success in friendship: I've met lots of new friends here, but the challenge is to keep the old ones.  Thank God for internet.
  • Success in learning: Japanese language is hard.  But Japanese society and how to fit in somehow is the most difficult lesson I've yet to wholly learn.  I want to get in where I fit in over here.  It was a challenge just to come back here.  Now I'm here, and it's high time I get in where I belong.
  • Success in being: This is maybe both easy and hard.  I want to exist without regret.  Sometimes I wake up and wonder "why the F did I come here again?"  Then I go to sleep thinking "Thank you JESUS I'm here in Japan."  I want to be able to be here without having both of these statements in my mind.  I want my being here in this space to be as natural as breathing.  
Posted via email from ...all about starrwulfe...

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