About this website

My name is Bennett McElwee. I first visited Japan back in 1992, when I stayed for a couple of weeks with a friend in Tokyo. He had moved there from Australia to work. I loved Tokyo, partly because it was largely incomprehensible — and not just because of the language. After that, I always wanted to spend more time in this endlessly fascinating place.

Nine years later, I decided to move back to Tokyo to live and work. At that time I started learning Jpaanese. It’s such an intereesting language — I plan to keep up my studies whether I’m living in Japan or not. The next year, I moved to Tokyo. So now I have learned a lot about the language and culture, and about living and working in Japan. I also travelled a little bit around Japan.

Since my time in Japan, I have gained a broader perspective on Asia by living in Hong Kong and travelling around other Asian countries too. I have kept in touch with friends in Japan, and have also kept up-to-date with the issues facing foreigners living in Japan. I needed a website like this one when I first got to Tokyo; I hope you find the information here useful.