First post.

Hello world. My name is Benjamin Belcher, but you can call me Ben. There are those of you that know me, and those that don't. However, I invite anyone and everyone to check out this blog if they so desire to. I'm only giving a heavily truncated version of my life thus far in this post, merely a few important things you need to know about me and the purpose of this blog.

Still with me? Cool.

I am 23, a recent English major graduate from SUNY Albany, and I leave in 43 days for Tokyo (prefecture to be announced) to become an English teacher. I'm going to keep this blog as far away from my job as possible. The focus here is to record my adventures in a foreign land roughly 6700 miles from home. I've lived in Upstate New York all my life, and as much as I love the places and the people, it's time for a change. For better or for worse, this blog will record my ups and downs, trials and tribulations, mishaps and culture gaps, with fun pictures of my travels and a personal record of how I felt along the way. Primarily this blog is for me, but as it is 100% public it's also for the enjoyment of friends and strangers alike, so that you might get a glimpse into my life, and understand what it is like for a 6'1" white caucasian male to move to Japan. It's all been said or done before, but not my way.

What this blog is not:

This blog isn't a place for me to cry for attention. It's not a list of whiny complaints (at least not most of the time, I promise you) about how much I miss home or can't stand crowded trains or miss Snyder's Pretzels™. It's not a place for me to complain about my job, because quite frankly, you don't shit where you eat. A reputable company has chosen to employ me, and the least I can do is separate business and recreation. This blog is admittedly amateur, but I will do my best as an anally retentive English obsessee to keep it grammatically correct, well-written and quite simply enjoyable to read. I've been reading and writing a long time, so I promise you all my best on this.

Now that we have long-winded introductions done with, welcome. Enjoy your stay in my slice of cyberspace. Updates may be sparse at first as I am preparing for my move (more details on this and all its crazy facets later), and also when I first move as setting up internet can be a timely process, from what I understand of other peoples' accounts.

Countdown to D-Day: 43 days.