About

Who is this guy?

Fernando, nice to meet you! I'm an electrical engineer from the United States who picked up learning Japanese and recently moved to Japan to acquire as much of the language as I can!

What you can expect from this blog?

A sporadic and unorganized collection of stories, photos, memories, and advice for the folks back home and those interested in learning more about what its like to travel and live in Japan. Enjoy!

Why Japanese?

Growing up, my dad had a Japanese friend who introduced my family to his culture and ran an anime shop in town that we would frequently visit. My favorite memories from that shop were the epic battles I dreamed up between the Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah toy figures. Occasionally, my dad's friend would come over to our home with Japanese candy and cook us up some yummy Yakisoba (Japanese stir-fried noodles). Thanks to this friend, my dad would keep up with new anime series and share his favorites with us like Naruto and Ranma 1/2. Following those recommendations, my older siblings would seek out their own favorite series based on their tastes but I never actively sought out new shows.

It was not until high school when I met one of my best buddies who happened to be Japanese. I always enjoyed listening to him talk with his parents in Japanese thinking it was the coolest thing ever, but even with this exposure, I still did not have the motivation to start learning. I instead focused on other things that seemed more reasonable in my mind like getting a degree and finding work.

After finishing university and starting work, I found that my schedule had become stable. Suddenly there was always a consistent time in the evenings to meet with my buddies online and watch anime or play games. I slowly started noticing that my Japanese buddy would always be watching anime in the background while playing games together. When I asked him how he was able to do that so easily, he nonchalantly responded, "Well I can understand Japanese so multi tasking like this is no problem for me. You could do it too, just learn Japanese!"

It was probably at that moment where everything clicked and I said why not? What did I have to lose? From there I jumped right into studying and have enjoyed making small steady progress ever since!

Why move?

Turns out, when you learn a language, you get pretty invested in learning about the culture that speaks it. I spent about two years studying at my pace with two teachers I found online, slowly learning more about their culture little by little through each lesson.

About a year into this online study, I spent a month traveling throughout Japan after the borders reopened in 2022. Despite my basic Japanese, I felt proud of my first year achievements and cherished the time spent with my teacher's family in Osaka. Sharing moments with those kind enough to open their home and impart their culture was an amazing experience I'll never forget.

Eventually, the time came for me to return home from my vacation. While I was looking forward to returning home to a loving family, fantastic friends, and an amazing job, I couldn't shake the persistent feeling that there might not be a more opportune moment in my life to explore living abroad. Faced with an endless list of considerations, I convinced myself to take the leap and now here I am writing this blog!