Why foreigners leave Japan – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2GtYnQzi2w

Why we are leaving Japan – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ6Ay6EttQs

The post Leaving Japan & Moving To Chiang Mai, Thailand appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

It’s a bit of a long story, and I didn’t want to just do it sitting in my room since it was such a nice day outside, so I went out for a nice ride on the mountain bike to the nearby mountains. Deciding to learn Japanese has possibly been the biggest life changing event in my life so far, and I’m so happy I committed to it despite all of the ups and downs throughout the process.. Join along on today’s ride where I share my story of how I started studying Japanese and how I ended up coming to Japan (now is my 3rd time)

This video is fairly long and is mostly me talking the entire time. I tried to keep it as short as I could, but there’s so much I could talk about with this topic and so much more I want to go into detail about, like strategies and tips I recommend, but I figured I’d save that for another video.

If you want to see more videos about learning Japanese, please let me know in the comments!

The post My Story of How I Learned Japanese & Moved to Japan どうやって日本語を学んだの？ appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

Fortunately, it was moving season in Japan and there were a ton of available options and Thuong (my wife) and I were able to find an apartment nearby our old apartment and complete all of the paperwork to move in within the month! 🙂

Before beginning our search, I was a bit worried because I had heard stories of discrimination against foreigners, but I fortunately did not experience any of that. One annoying thing was having to pay extra money for a “guarantor”, but that was about it. It probably helps that I have a semi-long term visa (5 years), and also was able to speak Japanese to everyone throughout the whole process.

In any case, minus the stress that comes with moving all of your possessions, it felt amazing to move into our giant new apartment (about 55 square meters) after living in a tiny single apartment for the last 3 years.

Here’s a few videos I took documenting the experience.

Saying Goodbye to My Tiny Japanese Apartment of 3 years

Our New Japanese Apartment Tour!

The post We Moved! New Japanese Apartment Tour appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

Part I – Visa

A few weeks ago, I received my certificate of eligibility from Japan, which allowed me to apply for my Japanese Visa. The last time I applied for my Japanese Student Visa, I was living in Detroit, so I was easily able to go the Japanese Consulate there. Now that I am living in St. Louis, the closest Consulate is in Chicago. Rather than making two separate 10 hour round-trip drives, I decided to send in my application via FedEx Air Mail. In total, the roundtrip shipping cost was a bit over $30, which is a little bit pricey, but definitely cheaper than the alternative of driving there myself. Also, I received my completed Visa within a week of submitting my application!

I have steadily been making preparations for my departure, but have been slightly cautions and nervous in case anything did not work out for some reason. Now that I’ve officially gotten my visa it looks like everything is all clear and I can start to relax a bit. Right now, my estimated departure date is set for the end of March and so I am planning on buying my plane ticket very soon.

Part II – New Bike

One of the things I have been most excited about for my move to Japan, is bringing a bicycle with me. Cycling has been a very big part of my life and one of my biggest regrets during my time studying abroad was not being able to experience Japan via bicycle (I am planning on doing another blog post focusing on this in the near future).

Ever since I came back to the US from Japan 3 years ago, I have been primarily riding my Trek Cronus cyclocross bike as both my cyclocross and road bike. Although the bike was built and intended for cyclocross racing, I found it to be an excellent bike all around. When I was racing regularly in the road circuit, I would frequently get many looks from people since my bike obviously stood out. However, with that bike, or with Fang as I like to call her, I never felt like I was at a disadvantage in any road races. The main differences I noticed was that the bike would absorb more shock compared to road bikes and the position was slightly more upright. Both of these actually made the ride more comfortable. Unfortunately, I never did get a road race win with Fang, but I did get numerous podium spots, including a second place in the competitive MWCCC conference championship road race (Maybe I could have won with a road bike?).

Anyway, I decided that it was time for Fang and myself to part and that I wanted to convert and get an actual road bike for when I move to Japan. Despite all of my praise for my Trek Cronus, I have 2 main reasons for wanting the switch. The first reason is Japan is extremely mountainous and I would prefer the safety of road brakes compared to CX brakes. The second reason doesn’t really have to do with CX vs road, but I wanted to switch to a more durable aluminum frame. I stopped racing over a year ago and do not currently have any plans to race in the near future so there really is no need for me to have a carbon frame.

So, without further ado, let me present my new bike, a Specialized Allez! (not yet named)

Specialized Allez Road Bike

This is actually the first road bike I’ve owned since a car crash broke my Felt team bike almost 4 years ago. Hopefully I have better luck with this one. Anyway, I am starting to look into the cycling community around Nagoya, and I can’t wait to experience riding over there. Less than 2 months now!

The post Japanese Visa Approved and a New Road Bike! appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.

Despite all of my intentions of maintaining a regularly updated blog, I didn’t quite succeed with that in 2014. On the bright side, I was able to find some time this past Fall to start updating my blog/website to a better format/design. I also have numerous topics which I want to write about, some of which I have already started as drafts, that I just need to start finalizing. Although I always seem to fail with this goal, hopefully I can do a better job with this in 2015!

First Semester of Teaching Complete

A few weeks ago I wrapped up my first semester of teaching at Lindenwood University. Overall, I was very satisfied with all of my classes, especially with some of the work that was produced by my students for their final projects. I learned a lot during this semester, and luckily was invited back to teach again this upcoming January-term and following Spring semester so I will have opportunities to apply what I have learned and continue to gain new experiences with teaching.

Crazy Holiday Travels

This holiday season I have been all over the place. Went from St. Louis to Cincinnatti, to Washington D.C., to NYC, to Boston, and then back to Detroit to be with family. Felt like I needed to get a classic American road trip out of the way because I will soon be……

Moving to Japan

While I was in Japan this past summer, I interviewed for a job at my alma mater, Nagoya University of Foreign Studies, and this past Fall I was offered a full-time teaching position, which I have accepted. So, in a few short months, I will be moving back to Japan! One of the major changes for me in 2014 was reigniting my passion for studying Japanese. After returning to the US after my study abroad in 2011, I became too busy with work and other responsibilities that I was unable and unmotivated to continue my Japanese studies. Thankfully, during my last semester of grad school, I was able reclaim that passion and motivation.

For the past few months, I have been studying with every available opportunity (which I partially blame for my lack of blogging). One of my main goals for 2015 is to pass the 2nd highest level (out of 5 levels) of the Japanese JLPT Proficiency Test (JLPT N2 / 日本語能力試験二級). Because of this, I have created a strict studying schedule for the next few months until my departure to learn as much kanji/grammar as I possibly can.

Because of this strict studying schedule, I doubt I will be blogging very much over the next few months. However, I am planning on blogging regularly about my experiences once I am back over in Japan and have more interesting things to write about.

Anyway, cheers to a great 2014 and cheers to a new year!

The post Happy 2015! BTW I’m Moving to Japan! appeared first on Two Wheel Cruise.