What was it that sparked that interest?

[SoulPlay]

Today I was talking to my friend about random things, and one of the things we discussed was our interests and stuff. Obviously that led into me talking a bit about Japan and all that. Eventually, that led to me talking about what had sparked my interest in Japan. That led to the creation of this thread.

What was it that sparked that interested in Japan and perhaps that desire to learn that language and one day visit the country?

For me, it was getting frustrated with French. As a kid growing up latin america I had been exposed to anime from an early age because it was cheaper for mexico to buy the licesing for anime and dub it. I had always had that small interestest in the land of nintendo, cool cars and fascinating history.

One day, however, as I was watching the rurouni kenshin (samurai X) ova part 1 with english subs (while doing french hw), I saw this dialogue in a scene and just the way it sounded captivated so much I was like "fuck french! I'm learning japanese!"

From that day on, I quit french and never looked back.

How about you?

[Kyletherealninja]

I was exposed to anime and the like in middle school but it never roused any sort of interest in Japan and I was never too obsessed with it to begin with.

My real interest in Japan started with Japanese, which I decided to learn because I like lots of Japanese indie rock artists, and I had to take a year of foreign language at my university. So I thought, "Hmm, maybe I'll try learning some Japanese." It wasn't until after I began my language studies that I became interested in the culture, food, history, etc.

[daidokoro]

I saw Kill Bill in 2004, when I was graduating from high school. How lame is that really. But hey it made me want to visit Tokyo and thus learn Japanese. Before college I couldn't name any Japanese food besides sushi (which I had never tried), knew nothing about Japanese history and had no clue what kana even was.

I have no regrets but I sometimes hesitate when telling people it started with Kill Bill.

[stsparky]

The food, anime was always there though. My first serious gf and I would watch Princess Knight (dubbed in Spanish) and that led me to running one of the c/fo groups in Los Angeles.

[mawande]

My interest in moving to Japan started with not being able to get a decent job and use my training. Once I heard that really all you need is a B.A. and I've always been interested in Japan in general... I just worked to get my degree.

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

when I was in grade 12 my high school concert band went on a trip to japan for 10 days. I was excited to go on the trip but didn't really have any specific interest in Japan before then. in fact, I even skipped these lunch time basic japanese lessons that they gave out my school to us prior to the trip cause I was an idiot. when we got to japan, I was just blown away.

I started university a couple months later and enrolled in japanese which I took for a year and half (second trip to japan happened after the first year). I never loved the language though (liked it more than french however) and I eventually had to stop taking the courses cause I couldn't handle the workload and needed to focus on my math major.

[Gymnoge]

It all started with a roar that had the tones of a deranged car horn. Godzilla began my interest, All Monsters Attack to be exact. I saw things, other than the monsters, that were different from everything I saw around myself. I became intrigued; I wanted to explore this place and learn about these people, their culture and history. I wanted to learn about everything I could, it wasn’t till high school that I became interested in the language. Unfortunately, Japanese is not a language that the local school board or colleges support. I’m trying to teach myself with little luck. I did get to take a trip to Okinawa, not exactly Japan, but it was closer than I could have been in Central Louisiana. Once I got away from the military bases, it was really great. A lot of people said that I would shrug my shoulders and just say “eh…” Luckily (maybe), it just made me want to learn more.

[Swede]

I started studying initially just because I had to take a foreign language in high school and didn't want to continue with Spanish, which I had taken in middle school. I didn't know too much about Japan other than pop culture stuff at the time, but rather gradually I began to become more and more interested in it.

I was probably a junior when my interest really took off and I started reading lots and lots of books on Japanese culture. If there had to be a single element of why I found Japan interesting, it would probably be the cycles its gone through during its history of taking on foreign influences for a period and then going through another period in which that influence sort of amalgamates with what might be seen as more traditional Japanese sensibilities, and it ends up being something new that lies somewhere in the middle. The juxtaposition of the ideas people have about Japan- ultra-modern cities like Tokyo alongside the more traditional ideas people associate with the culture- has always been fascinating to me.

[Jetsetlemming]

When my brother came back from his army stay in South Korea he gave me some bootleg anime. My "interest" has never gone beyond "I'd like to visit one day and buy a bunch of tech souvenirs", though.

[TommyA]

Hawaiian friend got me into anime back in the 80s. We used to spend a lot of money on Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z figures. Got a lot of friends into it, before most people in America even knew Japan made animation. Stopped watching around the time Dragon Ball GT started in Japan.

Ex-girlfriend's friend/coworker wanted to study Japanese and told me about a class to take with her. She ended up dropping out first day. I continued for two semesters. Post break up from the 5.5 year relationship, my Japanese teachers suggested I go to Japan, since I had a knack for learning and speaking it compared to other students. I did, and I moved here.

The quick version!

[Plekto]

I honestly don't know. I want to some day live and work for at least a few years outside of the U.S., and Europe... well every time that I've gone over to Europe, it's been nice but not the place I'd want to live for an extended period(though London was cool, I have to admit)

That really leaves Asia. China, though, just doesn't do anything for me. Perhaps it's the government, or maybe it's just the insane amount of people. Again, a great place to visit, make no mistake about it, but living and working there for years is just not quite in the cards I think.

Japan seems to "fit" most of my criteria. And the culture isn't saturated with neo-cons or religious overtones like most of the world is lately. (side note - every time I'm in the Midwest visiting relatives, I swear it feels like I stepped back in time a hundred years - just feel immensely out of place, though the relatives are great of course :) )

[SlickWilly440]

What was it that sparked that interested in Japan and perhaps that desire to learn that language and one day visit the country?

Well I was born their...but that didn't spark my interest. Japanese was the first language that I spoke., but that didn't spark my interest either. Parent didn't really care if I kept up with my Japanese, so I pretty much forgot most of it by Middle School.

Start watching Dubbed Anime (Case Clased AKA Meitantei Conan & Inuyasha). Then a friends neighbor lent me a subtitled copy of Rahxephon and I was like "subtitles"..."I have to read :(". But the more I watched/listened/read the more I started to recall what I learned when I was little. Ended up spending the entire summer watching nothing but subbed anime (FMA, Naruto, and Bleach) and training my ear while figuring out what spoken words corresponded with the subtitle words. Then was able to have a so-so conversations with parent in Japanese.

In short, Subtitled Anime is what sparked my interest to pick back up a language that I spoke when I was little.