I just registered today! insert fanfare You can call me Sarah. I'm from Texas and currently residing in Japan. I'm busy teaching English here most days so I'm not sure how much I'll be online but nice to meet everyone! My hobbies include singing almost 24/7, learning languages (I speak English and Spanish fluently, know intermediate Japanese, and a tiny bit of Chinese and Korean), gaming, being an otaku, writing, and art. So that's me in a nutshell! Feel free to ask me anything!

Hi there ! Welcome to Subeta! I am from Texas as well. Are you getting a ton of rain as well? I'm in the Austin area. I currently am learning Mandarin Chinese. I'm mostly learning it on my own as my mother is from Taiwan and can critique my tones. I hope you have fun here!

Thank you Nice to meet a fellow Austinite (I'm from Kyle, actually). But now I'm living in Japan so no rain here, but I heard about the flooding... Thankfully my house is okay! That's so cool! I learned Mandarin for a year at St. Ed's. It was so difficult but really fun. Having your mom there is really nice! Have you been to Taiwan? I've only been to the airport, but I'm actually planning to go there in October!! Super excited!! I went to HK as well, and it was sooooo nice, but I couldn't speak any Cantonese, haha. Thankfully mostly everyone speaks some English though. Also, does your username happen to be an Elder Scrolls reference?^^

Looking forward to your reply!

Sarah

Hello! Welcome to subeta Sarah! Wow Japan?? What's it like? Do you miss home? I have tentative plans to live in Japan for a year or so, any tips? I can't speak one word of Japanese though. I need to take a class or something. XD lol

Thank you It's a wonderful place! I live in a pretty rural area, so my experience is vastly different than those who live in larger cities. But in general, Japan is a super convenient place. There's tons of different methods of transportation (if you live in a big city like Tokyo or Osaka, the trains run every few minutes! Here it can take from 30 mins-2 hours for the next train xP) I do miss home sometimes, for breakfast tacos and friends, but I am very happy here. The food here is delicious and the people are so kind. I have made many friends in just 10 months. Your experience here will likely depend on whether you are studying here or working here. They are totally different experiences, as you can probably imagine. One thing to beware of is throwing away trash! Depending on where you are - even in the same city! - there are different types of categories for throwing away trash. The most basic are burnable and non-burnable. I have never had to think about what my trash was made of until coming here. The good thing, however, is that almost anything made in Japan will tell you which category it belongs in on the back of the label. And some things are more complicated than others; for example, PET bottles. These are your average plastic soda/water bottles. The bottle itself is made of PET plastic and the cap and label of regular (?) plastic, so they must be taken off and discarded separately! Also, all food must be washed off of items not going in the combustibles section... It's scary at first, and I still have things I don't know, but when in doubt, ask a Japanese person. Most people here are always willing to help foreigners!! Anyway, that's just an example. If you have any questions at all about Japan or Japanese or anything at all (I'm sure you probably do), please feel free to send me a message anytime! Seriously! Do it! I would be happy to answer all of them! Despite the crazy trash system, I highly recommend and encourage you to try living here! Don't worry too much about not knowing Japanese. I have friends who were the same way, and they are totally fine, with many good friends and living a happy life here :) But yeah, a class wouldn't hurt! Haha.

Hiye and Welcome to Subeta sarahcates12 :)

Thank you ! I'm happy to be here~

Kyle is pretty much around the corner. Cool! Yes been to Taiwan and Japan back when I was a kid. We actually think we may try and head back next October . Living in Japan, how exciting! I hope I get a chance to go back. My user name actually is in reference to the fact that I was born in the year of the dragon ;)

What a cool coincidence!^^ Oh, that's a nice year! Mine is monkey. Not as awesome as a dragon, but still, hehe.

Hi! Welcome to Subeta. 😊 I too am from Texas, El Paso to be exact. My sister is going to be moving to Japan to study there and she is super excited. Japan looks like such a lovely place to be.

Thank you! I'm working as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) on the JET Program :) So more long-term. Thank you for the links!!

Yay, another fellow Texan! It is a lovely place! I hope she enjoys her stay. :)

Thank you so much :) It's always been her dream to go so I'm sure she'll love it.

I hope you enjoy Subeta!

It was mine too and I am still in love with the country so I'm sure she'll be fine as well.

welcome to subeta :) It's a really nice and fun place. Japan sounds amazing! If you need anything, just ask.

Thank you so much :)