The Reason I Study Japanese

I would like to say that my interest in Japanese started from a very noble reason, but it actually started when one of my Japanese friends introduced me to what he called the "Japanese visual art form" more commonly known as アニメ。 This was in high school and I loved it. In college, I started reading 漫画 (heard of ドラゴンボール?), watching Japanese dramas (花より男子 was my favorite), and listening to jpop (DAN DAN 心魅かれてく by Field of View). Two summers ago, I spent three weeks in Japan visiting the cities of Osaka, Kyoto, Atami, and Tokyo. I just loved the atmosphere, culture, and people. Everyone was so nice, the food was terrific, and everything was so efficient from trains and subways to even automated restaurants. That's when I finally decided that I wanted to learn Japanese no matter what.
My goal is to eventually be fluent in Japanese so I can truly appreciate what Japan has to offer (and not just say すみません all the time like last year in Japan!). This semester I am actually just excited that I can learn more Japanese and be one step closer to achieving my goal. What I find most difficult is being able to use what I learned in class to construct meaningful conversations. This blog hopefully will help me improve in this aspect. To spice things up (and encourage as many readers as possible), I will be providing you a peek into the many random curiosities from my life (and there are quite a few!) in Japanese. How great is that? これから　お世話になります。（I hope for your kind assistance hereafter.)