Back when I was in the U.S. I thought to myself, “Wow, Japan is fun to visit. It’ll be even greater to live there, even if I have to use teaching English as a vehicle to get myself over there.” Well, it turns out teaching English isn’t really what I want to do with life, let alone a year. I wanted to wake up in the morning and yell out, “Yes! I’m a teacher!” But, I never felt that. Not even once.

Five months after coming here to teach English, I quit and moved on up to the Tokyo area. Tokyo is pretty sweet. If you’re bored here in this city, it’s probably your own fault. Or maybe a lack of funds, though you can still have fun on the cheap.

Yamaguchi-ken, where I was teaching, was all right. Rent was cheap! An equivalent apartment to what I had there (roughly $600/mo) would be at least $1,500 here in Tokyo, I think. The prefecture had a lot of nature and countryside things to see and do, but I’ve always been more of a city boy. I grew up in a city. Went to college in a small town of 30,000. Then I moved to Houston. Afterward a “small” town of 150,000 in Japan. Now, I’m in Tokyo, a place with more than 8 million people!

So, I quit my job teaching, right? Just what have I been doing? I’ve been looking for work. Just about any non-teaching job I can find. I must say though, that with my lack of amazing programming skills or strong grasp of the Japanese language, it’s challenging.

I have met some interesting people here in Tokyo though, such as Fabrizio Bortolussi, an Italian who designs creatures and models. Perhaps you’ve seen his work in Avatar or District 9.

The same day I met Fabrizio, I also met Nakamura Tomoyuki, one of the three people behind chiptune band YMCK. Speaking of which, it appears I’ll most likely head out to Blip Festival Tokyo next weekend.

Truly Tokyo has many amazing experiences to offer. I hope I can stay here longer and report on what I find. But first, does anyone want to offer me a job? Writing, PR, publication design? Maybe even photography?