I travelled to Japan for the first time in 1998. I was sent there by my company on an "Executive Exchange Programme", which sounds a lot more glamorous than it really was. At the time I was told I was going, I had never travelled overseas. Anywhere. Not even New Zealand. Actually not even Tasmania. I had never eaten Japanese food, I knew no one that had any sort of relationship with Japan. For four weeks before I left, I had Japanese language and culture lessons twice a week. I'm happy to report that I only missed three of those lessons.
I stayed in Japan for six weeks. I lived in the company dormitory, ate with the local Japanese staff and generally lived as a Japanese person for those six weeks.
I loved it.
Sadly, I didn't get back to Japan for another ten years.
Since that time, I've visited Japan nine times. I've written academic papers on Japan and I've read mountains of books and papers and news articles and wotnot. I'm currently enrolled in a Masters degree where I am specialising in the interaction between Japanese law and Japanese culture. I'm far from an expert, but I have a much better handle on the culture than I did in 1995.
None of that explains why I am interested, but I'm not sure that there's a good explanation for that anyway. You just have to accept that I am.
No comments:
Post a Comment