Mark

Just after the Fourth of July, my best friend and I headed out from Austin and lit out west, ending up in San Francisco by way of New Mexico, Arizona and LA.

We met up with a mutual friend and stayed at his place for a few days, then the three of us drove up to Portland and then Seattle.

After dropping off our third in SF, the two of us went back east through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado, where we spent a few nights in Denver sleeping through the day and soaking up their crazy public art.

From there, I dropped my friend off in Dallas and after a couple of days worth of hiatus, we drove out to New Orleans and spent 48 hrs there in the first week of August. As it turns out, just before it was devastated by Katrina.

Growing up I started to realize that a lot of really interesting pieces of media were coming out of Japan. I got curious enough to try and learn the language in order to be able to understand more of it. Since then, my fascination with Japanese media has waned somewhat, but I enjoyed learning the language enough that I kept on consuming the culture for the sake of learning the language.

Going to Japan and living there for a year or more will hopefully solidify my Japanese proficiency so that I’m able to focus on learning other languages.

Right now I intend to apply to the JET program in order to accomplish this goal. If I’m not accepted, I may seek employment with one of the Eikaiwa schools in Japan instead.