[SSJup81]

LorenPaul: IMO, I feel that those who get chastised for wanting to live in Japan, are those who expect the country to be like his/her favorite anime/manga series. The types who aren't serious about learning the culture and only knows maybe a few words in Japanese from anime/manga they've read or watched and doesn't make much of an effort to properly learn something else. I feel that those are the types who get criticized. I like anime/manga too, not as much as some (anime wise), but I still do watch/read it. I'd like to say that I have a normal interest in the country.

That aside, as for myself, my interest in Japan started when I was about six or seven years old. Maybe five. Ironically, I was drawn in because of anime or manga since I had no idea what anime or manga was. I was watching it before I knew what it referred to. When I was a kid, as long as it was animated and entertaining, I could care less where it came from.

Anyway, I was watching VH-1 with my father. In the 1980s, my parents watched MTV and VH-1 a lot, and, imo, both stations were very good back then since they actually played music videos. One of the videos to play was by the group Hiroshima. The name of the song was One Wish. I really enjoyed watching the video. The woman in the video, was doing a fan dance, and now that I've looked into it, I'm assuming that it's Odori style. She was also wearing makeup, like Kabuki artists did. I was drawn in by it. I liked the "dress" she was wearing too. My father had to tell me what the name of the group was because I couldn't figure it out on my own.

I've been interested in Asia in general since then. As a teen, mostly interested in places like China, Thailand, India, and then Japan. I noticed that my liking for Japan was bigger, though. The culture interested me a whole lot. A culture that seems to strive on politness and balance is cool to me. I'm also interested in education.

For the most part, I'd like to live in Japan for a while to experience the culture and to learn more about it firsthand. I also would like to live there for a while as a way to improve my language skills and to hopefully improve my ability. I feel that it would be a grand experience and opportunity to do so, especially since I am trying to learn the language. I lost my Spanish ability because of my not being able to practice it or use it in an all-Spanish atmosphere. I'd still love to actually go to a Spanish speaking country someday, but have to brush up on Spanish myself.