Welcome

About me
I am a 23 year old British girl living on a remote island in Okinawa Japan. I am currently in a relationship with a 26 year old Japanese guy who lives approx 1,500km away. Oh, and did I mention I speak only basic Japanese and he speaks only basic English? I work as an assistant English teacher in three Japanese high schools and owning up to that fact makes all the potential grammatical and spelling mistakes even more embarrassing. Working in a Japanese high school is challenging, with cultural differences between my method of thinking and that of the students and staff always leaves me open to potential embarrassment. Luckily these are usually things which can be laughed off, or I get a light whack around the head and we move on.


Why cultural collage?
Because that is what I feel like I have become as a person. I was born in Scotland, and during the first six years of my life I moved to Boston, USA; Ontario, Canada and England. By the way, for any non-Brits reading this, Scotland and England are in fact different countries with different education and legal systems. Put all of these countries in a human blender and hit 'start'. Leave to season for 15 years and then add Japan. Result: your very own cultural collage in an easily accessible interactive format.

I hope to use this blog as a place to discuss techniques for international relationship building, both professional and personal and also for job hunting. You see I love Japan, but I have been here for two years and I am ready for a change. So in August I will be heading back to England and joining in the great battle against the recession. So I will record my long distance, Internet based job hunt here and hopefully you will also add your input.

Until next time
K