2007 – Made my first trip to Japan. I visited a friend, and he acted as an interpreter and tour guide.
2008 – Visited my former Japanese teacher and his wife. Daytime I was on my own; at night we partied.
2009 – Went with friends from Texas where I acted as tour guide and a poor excuse for an interpreter.
2010 – Moved to Yamaguchi, taught English for a while, resigned, job hunted in Tokyo for two months.
2011 – Didn’t visit.

This year, I’m visiting Tokyo for a week with Rainman. I’ll again act as a guide and interpreter. Rainman has never visited Japan before. We’ll meet up with many of my friends, go sightseeing, drinking, karaoke, etc.

That’s one purpose of the trip. The other is to visit a Japanese language school I’m applying to. Located in Shibuya, the plan is to work this year, save money, then begin classes in October 2012. The purpose is as it sounds: to study the Japanese language in an immersive environment. Classes are taught in Japanese, I’d live in Japan, and it’s looking like I’d live with a Japanese family.

My goal with the school is to improve my Japanese from the paltry JLPT N5 level to JLPT N2. A tough goal I feel, but something doable.