Introduction to Japan

My first semi-official introduction to Japan came when I first attended an anime showing in first year University. After watching some of the excellent anime movies that were produced in Japan, I knew I wanted to go there and see what the country was like. The first full length anime movie I watched during that first show was Hayao Miyazaki's "Majou no Takyubin" or the English title "Kiki's Delivery Service". To this day I still enjoy watching this heart-warming story of a little witch (Kiki) trying to make it on her own in a strange city with no friends or family around to help her out of her difficult times. Although probably considered a children's movie, I'd recommend it to anyone who likes feel-good movies. Most of Hayao Miyazaki's other movies are just as great, and are worth watching as well.

Big In Japan

Thanks to the excellent co-op program offered at the University of Waterloo, I was able to get an interview and eventually a one year internship in Japan.

It was an excellent year. Admittedly there was at least as much partying and meeting new people as there was work involved. People at work and everywhere I went were helpful and patient, especially since I spoke little-to-no Japanese at the time. Since I was in the northern Japanese city of Sapporo the climate was very similar to my home town of Windsor, Ontario in Canada and so adjusting to that was very easy. I made lots of good friends, learned a whole lot of Japanese and generally had a great time. Also an extremely awesome place to go snowboarding during the winter!

Return of the Intern

After graduating I decided that I would like to work full time in Japan, at least for a couple of years. That was during the time of the .com crash, so jobs were scarce enough in North America that it was an easy decision to move back to Japan. I was gladly accepted back to the company that originally sponsored my internship.

... Time Passes ...

Seems like I have lived here forever now! Just finished re-reading my words above after about 3 years. A lot has happened during that time, but alas I am still living in Japan. Plans to move back to my home country should come to fruition in the near future, but one can never tell. The move back will be much more difficult and time-consuming than the "Just graduated, time to move to Japan" process was. It's all part of the experience though, and I'm sure that in the end it will all be fine. But be fore-warned potential overseas employement shoppers: it is usually easy to go overseas to work, but will most likely by much harder to come back!