Jikoshokai - Self Introduction

In Japan, it's customary to give a self-introduction to your new friends. Now, most of the people reading this blog (especially at first) are my friends and family, but just for fun, let me introduce myself.

My name is Jessica. I come from many places, but I like to think of Shreveport, Louisiana as my "hometown." I was born there, and went to high school there. This whole "Japan" thing started with an interest in the language and some Japanese culture (namely the pocket monster collecting culture) when I was in 7th grade. I went on to take the language in high school.

When I went to college, I wasn't set on the "Japan" thing but I knew I wanted to learn more. I chose a school with a small but robust Japanese program, SUNY Albany. When I first went there I planned to double-major in Economics and Japanese, then I dropped Economics. Then there was this misadventure into Computer Science...which I also dropped.

Following that nightmare detour, I happened to take an introductory Linguistics class. I finally picked Japanese as my major, and Linguistics as my minor, met my dear boyfriend, and thoroughly enjoyed the final 2 years of my undergraduate career.

Now, I'm about to set off on my second trip to Japan. Last time I stayed 4 months, studying at Kansai Gaidai University in urban Hirakata, Osaka. This time I'll be going somewhere entirely different--to teach at a couple junior highs and elementary schools in rural Nambu, Tottori. Nambu has a population of 12,000 people. So, it's like Brenham, TX, but smaller and without a Blue Bell ice cream factory. Or like Smallville sans Superman.

What Nambu does have is yummy fruit, rice with ducks swimming in it (more on that another day), a number of beautiful mountains, shrines, and temples, and a truly awesome, cheap apartment I will have to tell you all about.

Yoroshiku onegaishimasu! (Nice to meet you)