A lot of people would have killed to be where I was, good paying job in Manhattan, free living at my parent’s house, lots of good friends, close family and really just starting out in life all the ripe age of 23. But with a taste of international travel, ability to speak a foreign language and being the confusing state of not knowing what the F&%# I want to do with my life, as other young 20 something year-olds face, I packed up my bags and moved to Tokyo, Japan leaving behind a somewhat comforting and decent life which I was so accustomed to. Coming to Japan was anything but a random decision. Many people catch on to Japan at young ages from Pokemon and other Otaku-culture like games, shows and trends but truthfully Japanese culture was introduced to me when I began taking Karate/Kickboxing lessons at the age of 13. In college I majored in International Business. As a requirement I was responsible for completing 5 semesters in a foreign language and chose Japanese hoping this would open me up to new adventures post graduation. Why did I choose Japanese to study out of all other languages? The answer is very simple, I wanted to do something that many were not doing. Many people study Spanish, Italian (I am Italian lol), German, etc. but not many choose Asian languages (although there is a scene for sure, I was part of it). I thought pairing this with my business degree would give me an edge of others competing in the same job market as me. Anyway, one thing that did come true was that studying Japanese definitely opened me up to new adventures. Before coming to Japan (my third time and now living here), I really was just your average guy with a small group of friends from a small town. I did always day dream a lot though. There would be times in my room that I would just stare out my window on some of the nicest days asking myself where do I want to be, what do I want to do, who do I want to be. Fast forward 2 years later and although I have not answered these questions, I have good ideas of what I may think the answers could be. I have been living in Tokyo for 2 years and do not have any plans to come back to New York City at this time mainly because of work. If there is something that living abroad has taught me it has taught me how to be myself. When you finally leave your comfort zone which for me was the comfort of my parents house and a small place called Levittown, NY, you put yourself in an environment where everything is a challenge. When you challenge yourself, you learn what works and what doesn’t work and how to make yourself the best person you can be. Recently, I quit my job here in Tokyo as a Marketing Analyst for an exporting company and joined a startup based here in Tokyo. I am now the marketing director for an app we support called Dine. Download it today only for iOS on the apple App Store. Going forward, I will be blogging and updating you on anything from living & working in Japan, Japanese culture, food, travel, dating, reviews of other dating apps and my mission to become the next dating app expert! Thanks for following. Stay tuned.
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Website:
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