Blast-off!

After several requests for a blog to document my move to Japan, I've decided to reactivate my old blogger blog. It was funny to read what I wrote around 5 or 6 years ago. There was some embarrassing poetry...an awkward attempt at sports writing...and finally, a horrifying story about earwigs that happened right after Itsumi and I got married. I kept that one. This blog used to be called "A Spoilt Victorian Child," which is a reference to an old song by The Fall.

Now it's called "Volatile Perfume," a reference to a line by Lafcadio Hearn, who was one of the first Westerners to really try to figure out Japan. Hearn was half Irish, half Greek, and eventually became Japanese after moving to Japan in 1890 as a journalist and teacher. In one of his books, "Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan," he wrote, "The first charm of Japan is intangible and volatile as a perfume." That line always stuck with me because it's so true: my interest in Japan is "intangible" because it's very difficult to describe, and it's "volatile" because it's so strong that I'm moving there.

I hope to use this blog as a way to keep everyone updated on what I'm seeing and experiencing, but occasionally, if I'm inspired and high on coffee, I want to explore through writing what brought me to Japan in the first place. The easy answer is that my wife is Japanese, but my feelings go a lot deeper than that. Hopefully, as Hearn did, I can find a way to make this perfume into something tangible.

In the meantime, there probably won't be much to read until several days after I arrive in Japan. Who knows when I'll have internet access... But, as soon as I do, you'll hear about what happened.