JapanNewbie Leaves Japan

May 18, 2008 on 8:34 pm | In About | | Email This Post

Big news everybody.

After 5 years of eating rice and miso soup, the JapanNewbie, who is no longer a  newbie anymore mind you, is leaving Japan.

That’s right, I got a nice fellowship for graduate school so I’m going to be a student
again for the next two years. I’ll be in Boston, so I’ve got my eyes peeled for a
BostonNewbie website… Let me know if you know of any. After graduating I’ll most
likely be back in Japan for another few years before hopping off to some other country again.

I just found this out in March, so things have happened really quickly! I’m in the airport on my way out this very minute.

As for JapanNewbie, I’ve decided to keep it going. There are plenty of Japan blogs
run by people who are not in Japan… and besides, with my continued study of
the language, Japanese friends, wife, relatives, and constant influx of questions
from JapanNewbies around the world, I’m sure I’ll always have something to blog about. I’ve got a bit of a post and picture backlog anyway, so I think I can keep going with tidbits straight out of Japan until probably July or so.

My guess is that for the next two years my posts will become more and more
culture and language focused, rather than the frequent “Look what I saw!
Look where I went! Look what I ate!” posts that are so easy to do while living
in the country. Hopefully this new angle will be just as enjoyable for all of you!

It’s been an amazing 5 years here in Japan. Really. I came, I passed JLPT 1, I started a blog and stuck with it, I established myself as a professional translator, and even got married (even though I said I wouldn’t). I think I’ve accomplished quite a bit and gotten a lot out of the gaijin experience. I’ve lived in Kanto and Kansai for approximately 2 years each, and yes, I like Kansai (specifically Osaka) the best. Hope all the JapanNewbie readers will continue to stop by! And hopefully I’ll be able to continue feeding your curiosity about Japan!korekaramo, yoroshikuonegaishimasu  - Harvey

Related Posts... (in theory)   Minoo - Leaf Tempura    Wasabi!    Greggman Leaves Japan  

Click here to Stumble Upon it!

23 Comments »

RSS feed for comments on this post.

  1. Gravatar

    Best of luck with your second student life! Hope all goes well for you and I will stay subscribed by RSS so I hope to keep hearing updates from you. (^_^)

    Comment by Alec — May 18, 2008 #

  2. Gravatar

    ご多幸を祈ります。

    ボストンのアクセントを身に付けないようにご注意ください。

    Comment by Alex — May 18, 2008 #

  3. Gravatar

    Congratulations! Sweet deal! What will you be studying?

    Glad to hear you’ll keep the blog going!

    Comment by Thomas (nihonhacks.com) — May 18, 2008 #

  4. Gravatar

    Five years of rice and miso! Amazing! Now spend the next two years gorging on Double Quarter Pounders with Cheese, so you can come back and show these scranwy Japanese what a real [i]American[/i] physique looks like!

    Comment by Joe — May 18, 2008 #

  5. Gravatar

    Thanks to the magic of RSS, I’ll see you when I see you. Congratulations by the way.

    Comment by Brian — May 18, 2008 #

  6. Gravatar

    Wow! Congratulations!!! Fantastic news! I’m really looking forward to reading “JapanNewbie Boston version” or should I write “BostonNewbie”?.
    I’m sure you can enjoy your life in Boston! 頑張ってね！

    Comment by kayo — May 18, 2008 #

  7. Gravatar

    がんばれ！

    You always make people surprised! That’s Harvey.

    Comment by nory — May 18, 2008 #

  8. Gravatar

    Congrats! What will you be studying?
    Personally, I’d love to hear more stories about learning Japanese (of course) as well as culture. i’ll keep reading - but not so interested in a “boston newbie” website, lol.

    Comment by Goddess Carlie — May 18, 2008 #

  9. Gravatar

    行っちゃうんやねぇ。
    ボストンでの益々の活躍を祈ってるで！

    Comment by hisaya — May 18, 2008 #

  10. Gravatar

    Go get ‘em, Harvey! (Though…I’m with Alex…you gotta watch out about the accent. Ha ha.) Where will you be studying?

    It’s a bummer we never met up in Osaka…

    Comment by Deas — May 19, 2008 #

  11. Gravatar

    Thanks for all the comments!

    By the way. I realized I have totally been fooling myself. I came to Japan July 2002. Clearly 6 years. Not 5.

    I’ll be studying international relations! For those who want more details send me email and I’ll reply personally!

    Peace out! I still got lots of Japan content to post though!

    Comment by harvey — May 19, 2008 #

  12. Gravatar

    Congrats, dude. Best of luck in grad school!

    Comment by James — May 19, 2008 #

  13. Gravatar

    hey Harvey!
    Congrats and all the best! We will keep in touch:-)

    Comment by Karthik — May 19, 2008 #

  14. Gravatar

    ボストン行っちゃうねんな
    カンボジアで出会って以来会えてへんのが残念やわ

    ブログ楽しみにしてまっせ

    Comment by gimpei — May 19, 2008 #

  15. Gravatar

    え～っ、驚きました！
    でも、おめでとうございます。
    お身体に気をつけて、頑張って下さいね。
    これからのJapanNewbieも楽しみにしています。

    Comment by まゆみ — May 21, 2008 #

  16. Gravatar

    Congratulations! Thanks for the advice and great posts!

    I once DJed in Boston. Can’t remember the name of the club but it was in the back of a seemingly normal Irish pub. I guess that’s every bar in Boston though: “seemingly normal Irish pub.” And watch out for the winters!

    Comment by Adam — May 21, 2008 #

  17. Gravatar

    Congrats from a random internet stranger/reader! I’ve really enjoyed your blog for the past year I’ve been visiting. Thanks for sharing your life with us all. BTW, you just passed up the perfect opportunity for a post titled “So long, and thanks for all the fish”! :)

    Comment by mapmaker — May 21, 2008 #

  18. Gravatar

    mapmaker, hilarious. Douglas Adams all the way!

    Comment by harvey — May 21, 2008 #

  19. Gravatar

    You have to love and respect a man who creates a five book trilogy!

    Comment by Joe — May 21, 2008 #

  20. Gravatar

    good luck, and thanks for the inspiration. boston’s a great town, I hope it’s good to you and your family.

    Comment by kole — May 25, 2008 #

  21. Gravatar

    OMG - JapanNewbie not in Japan! I can’t get my head around it. But I wish you the best of luck in Boston!

    Comment by Jessica — May 26, 2008 #

  22. Gravatar

    Gratz on the life changing stuff and thanks for sharing your experiences over the years. Your blog and others like it have been a great help over the past few months as I prepare for becoming a “trailing spouse” in Nagoya when we transfer there for my husband’s work. We were house hunting in Nagoya last week and move on June 19th and I know for sure that things will be smoother and happier thanks to the information ex-pats like you share. I will be following your example and passing the kindness on by sharing my own experiences on my blog while we are there - you never know who will stumble upon your blog in need.

    Good luck!!

    Comment by Dani — May 26, 2008 #

  23. Gravatar

    There is this saying about foreigners who come to Japan that “in case you come alone, you leave as a couple. And in case you arrive as a couple, you leave alone.” Apparently you belong to the first category.

    Have a good time in the USA and don’t forget about Japan.

    Comment by J. — June 7, 2008 #

Leave a comment

XHTML: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Study Japanese with help from J-List!
Study Japanese with help from J-List!

Credit Card Consolidation - Loans - Wills - Credit Cards

Powered by WordPress with Pool theme design by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds. Valid XHTML and CSS. ^Top^