NOTE: I apologize for the unfinished post title. It cut off when i tried to post it as “My greeting and my life in Japan as forigner with sensorary disabiliteis”.
Hello everyone,
I will try to keep my post short, I have been reading the varoius places in reddit, such as /Japan, /Japanlife, etc… I did not have the courage to post here, due to my fears of the nature of online. It is filled with good and bad people. However, I thought, it would be a waste not to introduce myself here and share a bit about myself.
I havce been residence of Japan for around 6 and half years, it have been very challenging and yet rewarding expereicnes. And in case, anyone wonder what about my “sensory disabilitie”, I am deaf with limited vision. I use mobility cane to walk around. I do not have the ability to speak much, instead I rely on the various sign langauges, as well gesturing (body language) for anyone who does are not familiar with sign language.
And please pardon me if my English may sound odd, it can’t be helped.
Anyway, I came to Japan as ASL teacher (American Sign Language) for two years, then after that, I moved on to work for tavern as website designer and interpreter (ASL / JSL). JSL = Japanese Sign Language. And just for your information, each countries around the world have their own sign langauges, just like the spoken languages. They are comnpletely different from each other.
Fast forward to where I am now, when I moved here for the firast time, oh boy, i was in for many cutlural shock as well the happy and sad experiences. From flowing wonderful expereinces to hardships. It wasn’t easy, but does not prevent me from fillfulling my childhood dream of coming to Japan.
WHen I was living in USA, people would tell me not to come to Japan because it woudl be too hard for me, and yet I decided to trust my heart / instinct and just go for it. Oh boy, I am happy I folowed my instinct and went on to chase my dream. It came with great price, and that is being wiling to make it work out, The grass is not always greener on other side.
There are too many experiences I want to share, but it can wait until there is opportunities for it. Anyway, then life have taught me one thing; No matter how much you plan the future, the life is filled with surprises. No matter how hard you try to make plan work out, it will bite you back if you try to force it. Took me years to learn how to just flow with what is and just do my best everyday. That is how the life became much better when I let the life unfold and do what I can do.
I lived in Tokyo for seveal years, then moved to Fukushima city for years, and now is living in Saitama. It is the best place for my wfie and I. What I love about Saitama is the cultures of Saitama, as well delicious foods and very convenience places. At the same time, Saitama is filed with both local and chain cafe and shops.
When I lived in Fukushima city, it is when I was introduced to local cafe where people open their own cafe and make varoius foods there. It was an eye opening.
However, my biggest chalenge is communication. And there is alwayhs the way to make it work. One of most interesting challenge is when I met my wife’s family. And to this day, we communicate by various methods, but one thing for sure: We communicate by foods! We exchanged our cookings, and we let it do the communicting. 🙂
However, right now my next challenge is communicating with other foreigners. It’s ironic because I am a foreigner here, yet when it comes to people who are not from Japan, they usually keep their distance from anyone who is not able to speak. It can’t be helped, so I have not successfully talked to any of them yet. This is why I am using Reddit to break the communication barriers!
Where I am right now, I am contuning to chase my dream, further explore Japan, do my best, and live the life to fullest each day. it is my great pleasure to greet everyone and I wish everyone the best each day.
My motto is to always live the lifes to fullest and enjoy what is right now, instead of ‘living in the future. You creat the futue from present moment.
Cheers!
by Ryu116