My interest in Japan began way back when, farther back into my childhood than I can even point a finger at with any degree of certainty nowadays. All I know is that by the age of ten I was studying Japanese on my own to some degree in my spare time, and I've spent the second half of the intervening time undergoing formal education in the language, both in high school and college.

I've been a language nut for a long time, and linguistics (and, indeed, the concept of communication as a whole) has always been an interest of mine. Japanese fascinated me from early on for two reasons:

1. It has the world's most complex writing system, with five different scripts used, sometimes all in the same sentence (Hiragana, katakana, kanji, Arabic numerals, and Roman letters).
2. It's deceptively easy when you start, like Reversi, but then it gets rather exceedingly difficult, like, well, Reversi.

Indeed, after my recovery from Japanoholism (see my introduction post for details), my interest in Japanese culture has almost been secondary to my interest in the language itself. Of course, that really doesn't work in the real world, and so, much like how one has to buy one in order to get the free one, I've renewed my interest and study of the culture.

Because I have no useful skills, I'm majoring in both English and Japanese at Penn State, and one of the requirements for the Japanese major is time spent abroad. Yes, it's a very valuable educational resource, not to be squandered, and I realize that, but on the other hand...

You can't spend all your time studying, and, besides, the arcades are way better in Japan than in America.