I spent fifteen years of my life living in Tokyo, the most densely populated urban center on earth. In twenty minutes I could step off a train into a Blade Runner-like cityscape, where three-story-high television screens greeted me from the surrounding buildings. But from home, I could actually see a small river from my kitchen window, and at night I heard ducks. Ducks are chatty at night, apparently.

As you might imagine, living on the opposite side of the planet from my home in the US had its challenges. I became a child again, having to be helped (at least at first) with every aspect of my new life. Over the years, I was utterly stumped by simple machines, hopelessly lost more times than I can count, and reduced to charades with hapless strangers who became unwitting victims of my failed attempts to communicate (more about that in my first post!).

I am not the same person I was eleven years ago before embarking on this journey. I look at the world differently, now, having lived on the other side of it, having experienced another way of life—another pace, flavor, set of values—and a whole slew of comical blunders. I’d like to share some of my experiences from time to time, as the inspiration hits.