Obligatory First Post

Alright, well this is going to get a bit gooey. I hadn't really considered keeping a blog to document my days here in Japan, but I soon realized that it's a great tool for communicating with many people at once, which is particularly useful when I am lucky enough to have people that I care about who live all over the globe. A few sentences, a few pictures, and suddenly I can keep everybody updated on my journey. It's the magic of the internet! I'm no Rudy Maxa (kudos to those of you who watched enough PBS to get that reference) but I will try to mix in a little bit of knowledge and little bit of wit and I'll be sure include lots of pictures for you visual learners and the ones with shorter attention spans.

A short introduction is in order, I suppose. I (Brown Bear, for those of you who aren't privy to nickname I picked up in college) will be living in Japan for approximately the next year working for Toyota Industries Corporation in Takahama, Aichi Prefecture. The biggest city in Aichi Prefecture is called Nagoya (see map below for visual reference). Besides learning all I can about battery powered forklifts, I hope to learn more about the language and culture of Japan, make some good friends, and eat some pretty good food, picking up a few LIFE tiles in the process.

So here goes. The more exciting bits and pieces of my life made public to all of you for some entertainment I hope -- the adventures of a brown bear in Japan. Please feel free to comment, voice concern, or ask questions; I promise I'll get back to you. :)

Happy Reading!