Q: How long have you been in Japan?
A: I first arrived in Japan in January, 2003. I had a one-year contract, after which I planned to return to North Carolina. (Didn’t happen.)
Q: Why did you come to Japan?
A: There are several reasons. I first became interested in Japan when I read a National Geographic Magazine article about the Sapporo Snow festival. I think I was 10 years old at the time. As a kid, I watched Japanese anime on TV after school. In high school, I studied Karate for a short time. Much later, I studied Aikido for a few years. For several years before coming to Japan, I had a friend whose mom was Japanese. Finally, I lost my job as a counselor in a juvenile prison at about the same time that the North Carolina legislature decided to cut funding for prison counselors. With few career opportunities at home and a friend who had just come over here and liked it, I decided, “Why not go to Japan for a year?”.