My adventure in the Land of the Rising Sun began in 1997, after taking a teaching job in the small town of Awano, Japan. This traditional rural community, which grows the best strawberries in the world, was a perfect complement to my small-family-farm upbringing on the High Plains of North Dakota.
My teaching responsibilities included instructing first through sixth grades. Teaching was a great way to learn about the Japanese culture and education system, and I stopped using U.S. slang, idioms, and challenging vocabulary pretty fast. Such complexities and nuances are a barrier to communication when working in a foreign country.
Moving to Tokyo ...
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