Seven times I’ve been to Japan so far. Oh yes, yes indeed, I will go back. However, that’s the future and I don’t predict the future. Anymore. I digress….

Seven times I’ve been to Japan so far. This little list shows where. And why.

1.     The Maiden Voyage. Lived with my then-boyfriend’s family in early July in Fukuoka (thankfully, Mom spoke English). Off on the train to Osaka in late August to begin my year of study in Hirakata, at Kansai Gaikokugo Daigaku (Kansai Gaidai). Spoke numbers and colors, otherwise no Japanese. Hated Japan and was relieved to get back home.

2.     To work. I went back? Was I crazy? No—just homesick. Yes, for Japan. I blame it on Karate Kid II, which I saw with my then-boyfriend who wanted to go home to Japan, himself, after graduating. We’d been having discussions…. Then we went to the movies to see Karate Kid II, set in Okinawa, and I watched it and felt waves of nostalgia wash over me. Soon I’m bawling there in the movie theater, and not about the movie! So, I took a job there to teach English, signing a two-year contract. A week of “training” and visiting prior-said boyfriend in Tokyo/Kawasaki, then off to Tsuchiura where I had my first serious taste of teaching Business English as a foreign language. Only a week of training, what was I doing? I figured it out over those two years, but it wasn’t always easy.

3.     To work. This time I know what I’m doing. I’d gone to Portugal to earn the Certificate in the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language to Adults (CTEFLA). Yes, yes, this is about Japan, but Portugal was a necessary venture all its own. But then I went back to Japan, to Kofu, contracting on a job to teach business English. That I was given kids’ classes for the first six months made me want to kill myself, but that is a story for another time. Finally, they started giving me business classes, and life got great again.

4.     To work. You do realize I went home for years at a time between these voyages, right? This time, I went to Tatsuno. The job sounded good, but once I got there and started teaching kids again, well… I realized my error within ten minutes, but couldn’t get out until three months later. But get out I did, and then I was back in Kofu. I love Kofu. This time, all but two of my classes each week were business English, or at least adult students. Hooray!

5.     On vacation!! Finally, a vacation! To Kofu, of course. Saw all my friends, shopped, walked the haunts. It was great, but also a little boring. It wasn’t the same, having the whole day to do stuff, but in reality, I was waiting for my friends to get off work around 9:00 p.m. so we could go out together.

6.     To work. I went back to Kofu to open my own school. You’d think I’d have stayed. I certainly had planned to stay, but I hadn’t left a neat ending at home, and I had to come back rather abruptly to take care of things here.

7.     Number seven. When was number seven? Hmm, I guess there haven’t been seven times. I must be predicting the future after all.

Total time in Japan so far: just about seven years. There’s my “seven.”

Japan defines so much of who I am, how I see myself. Most of my non-Japanese friends who have lived in Japan feel the same way, so they understand: there’s something about that place that gets under your skin. So often, it feels like a love/hate relationship, but Japan is like a bulldog that just will not let go.

Here are some of my stories.