[Nyororin]

The first and foremost reason I came to Japan is both simple and not so simple...
I wanted out of my house, away from the horrific life my mother was dragging all of us into, as soon as possible. But that isn`t why I went to Japan - I figured the best and fastest way to achieve independence would be to get a degree and a good job. Back when I started university, at 16, I took a short Japanese class... And thought it was the easiest thing ever. At the same time, I noticed that most people didn`t find it easy at all. As the university would let you test up and out of classes, I saw the Japanese language as a shortcut to a degree... And being as there was no way I`d ever be able to afford a degree the normal route it seemed like a much much better deal to sell everything, make a trip to Japan, learn as much as I could, then come back and test out of a chunk of classes.

My initial aim was an Asian languages degree - Japanese first, then Korean, then possibly work on Chinese. Asian languages were not popular back then, so it would have put me in a great position to get a good job.

Once in Japan though, I found it wonderful, and the sort of life I had always dreamed of seemed literally at the tip of my fingers. And then, to add to that, I fell in love and got married. And it all literally fell into my lap.