Welcome to my blog, I am going to share my Japanese experiences and practice my language here.

My name's Rob, and I'm a Shogakusha!

It was back in October 2006 when I first saw Spirited Away with my lovely fiancee, Louise. Little did I know this would be the first step down a one-way street of obsession with all things Japanese...

The rest of Studio Ghibli's films soon followed, and when Louise jokingly suggested we visit the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Japan, I may have taken her a little too seriously...

One year later we were lucky enough to get the chance to actually go to Tokyo for 10 days. It really was the holiday of our dreams, and one of the many things I really enjoyed on our trip was using the language. We'd learned a few phrases before setting off, and I decided it would be fun to keep up my progress after we got back.

I'm primarily using the Nintendo DS programme My Japanese Coach, and supplementing this with websites, phrasebooks and the Nihongo Quick Lesson programmes on the fantastic NHK (Sky 516).

We resolved to go back for our honeymoon (we're marrying in September 2010), this time for 16 days. By then I aim to have at least a conversational grasp of the language. Ultimately I'd love to get a job there, and ship myself, Louise and our menagerie of animals (more on them later) over there for good!

Shogakusa: n. Beginner, beginning student

I'm relatively new to my hobby of learning Japanese, and even newer to my hobby of blogging. Why don't you follow my progress and tell me about yours?