What are you doing in Japan?

Like many people who come to work here, I'm teaching conversational English to Japanese students. In my case, I'm an employee at the Narimasu branch of Nova Corporation, the largest private employer of English teachers in Japan. This type of position is, in the grand scheme of things, a more exotic version of what Douglas Coupland termed a "McJob"—I may wear a suit and tie instead of a paper hat, but I still make minimum wage in a city where a cup of coffee costs five dollars. That's okay, though. If living through the dot-com boom taught me anything, it's that money can't solve your problems. Anyway, I don't drink coffee.

Why are you doing this?

Lots of reasons, some too rambling and vague to get into here. Suffice it to say, I'm 30 years old, and I've never taken a vacation.

What part of Japan are you in?

I live in Ikebukuro, the site of the second-largest train station in Japan, and, for that matter, the world. Despite being a nine-minute walk away from this impossibly crowded transportation nexus, not to mention one of the shopping capitals of Tokyo, my neighborhood is actually quite quiet and old-fashioned. Once you enter its warren of narrow, crooked streets and tiny two-person stores, you'd swear you were in 1959. Well, except for all the vending machines.

Here's my mailing address, for good measure:

Mike Stamm
Tokyo 171-0014
Toshima-Ku
Ikebukuro 3-24-6
Asahidou Dai 3 House #101

How long will you be over there?

At least a year. I'll have the option to renew my contract in May 2004; by then I should have a good sense of what I feel like doing and where I feel like going.

Isn't this FAQ kind of short?

People need to start asking me more questions.