I receive from time to time e-mails from readers who want to know how I happened to live in Japan etc...
So here are answers to the most common questions.


[Comrade trecker during Daisen climbing. Tottori 07/2005]

I first visited Japan in 2005, during 6 weeks in July and August. I landed at Osaka Airport.This trip took place after my first year of Japanese studies at the University of Le Havre (Normandy, France). I was at that time employed by a Junior High School so I had time for some study. Having an interest in Japanese culture for a while, I thought it would be fun to learn the language.
Of course after about 9 months of study my level was rather low but I decided to take a plane and confront the country for a six weeks trip.


[my bedroom closet in Osaka : 2.5m2...]





[Rehearsal for the Gion Matsuri in Kyoto]

To make it short, I spent one week in Osaka (with a jump in Nara and Kyoto), then about 5 weeks in Tottori Ken and Okayama as a WWOOFer and then few days again in Osaka.



[Nakayama, Tottori Ken 07/2005]


[In the rice field(田んぼ＝tanbo) wearing long to protect from the sun and sweating a lot... at 6:30AM]

It was a great experience and was confident I'd go back, especially as I met a cute girl (I know it's a total cliché :).

As a matter of a fact, the second trip was to meet again this cute girl and I spent 2 weeks in March 2006 with her family.


[Chizu, Tottori Ken 03/2006 old traditional house, now museum]


[Kurayoshi, Tottori Ken 03/2006]

Then she came for 2 weeks in France during summer 2006.

A big decision had to be taken : third trip to Japan! :D

This time I arrived in Tokyo in September with the goal to find a job. Being older than 30 y.o I couldn't have a working holiday visa, so I just came with a tourist visa which meant I had only 3 months to find a job (plus I did not renewed my contract with the Junior High School in France, meaning that if I'd had failed to find a job I'd be back unemployed in France...).

Even with a low level of Japanese I found a job quite quickly! Actually two companies agreed to support me for the working visa! I won't go into details now but I started to work at Samurai Factory on December, the 18th of 2006. And I am still working with them! Oh, and by the way, the cute girl I met in 2006 became my wife in February 2009 :)

If you have more questions you can first try a search in the blue top bar and if you don't find any answer with this search, you can still drop me a mail at : jeromesadou (AT) gmail (DOT) com or ask in the comments.

And by the way this is the first anniversary of this blog today! I would like to thank you as you are more and more to stop by here everyday.