About The True Japan
Our mission is to provide our readers with the most informative, useful, and insightful resources about Japan. We strive to make our articles easy and fun to read while providing you with insights from our experiences.
We want to be your go-to resource for information about learning Japanese, living in Japan, entertainment, and traveling in Japan.
Our writers are passionate about Japan and are currently living there, or have lived and traveled there in the past. Our experiences with Japan allows us to give you a first-hand look into the Land of the Rising Sun.
How it All Started
Hi! Konnichiwa! My name is Dallen, and I want to welcome you to The True Japan! I’ve always had a curiosity about Japan, even though I couldn’t speak the language and didn’t know anything about the culture. I just knew that I wanted to visit there one day.
Well, as we all know, life has a way of creeping up on us. Before I knew it, I graduated from university and started working my life away. I still haven’t been to Japan at this point, and I knew I wasn’t getting any younger.
So I just went for it. I booked a last minute trip to Japan and went there with no plans whatsoever. I absolutely loved it! Seeing all of the crazy buildings, meeting nice people, and most of all, eating some of the best food I’ve ever had made me never want to leave. In fact, I never really did.
Long story short, I went back home, quit my job, and moved to Japan to live with a friend who was teaching English here. We were in a very rural area, where the most excitement we had on a Friday night was the local 7-11 convenience store.
I soon realized that not being able to speak Japanese really sucked. I couldn’t communicate with anyone and had trouble doing normal, everyday activities like buying groceries or mailing letters. It was then that I decided to learn Japanese.
My friend had a kanji book called “Remembering the Kanji” by James Heisig. Since I had a lot of time on my hands, I studied and learned 1,000 kanji from this book in 10 days. I also started to listen to audio programs and learn vocabulary from the dictionary (one of the only other books my friend had).
Even with my minimal knowledge of Japanese, I started to be able to ask people questions and became comfortable using Japanese in my daily life. I began to travel all over Japan and had quite a few adventures.
I’m not a natural when it comes to learning languages, so I’m always on the lookout for the best ways to teach and learn Japanese. You’ll find a lot of articles on how to learn Japanese on this site.
I eventually made my way back home to Hawaii but missed Japan so much that I knew I had to go back. I took Japanese classes at a community college which led me to study abroad in Japan for a year.
I then landed a job with the JET, which is a program for teaching English at schools around Japan. I intended to stay in Japan only for a maximum of five years, but I guess Japan wasn’t done with me yet. I’ve already been in Japan for close to a decade and will continue to live here for the foreseeable future.
Why Did I Create This Website?
At first, I created this website to write about my experiences working and living in Japan. However, as I was writing posts for my site, I kept getting questions and requests for things to write about. I realized that there were a ton of questions my friends and I had about Japan, but no good answers to be found.
The resources I found online were either outdated, inaccurate, or were difficult to read (in Japanese or English). I wished there was a site that had all the information I needed in one place. I also wanted information written by people who have experience relating to Japan. Most importantly, I wanted to create articles that provide highly useful information that other websites don’t cover.
I decided to dream big and make The True Japan the go-to resource for people who want to explore Japan or even learn the Japanese language. Whether you live in Japan or are just visiting, I want to be the resource you can always come back to when you need to find the answers you need.
We feature a lot of different topics on the site, but our specialties are writing articles about learning Japanese, traveling in Japan, how-to guides, and Japanese culture & entertainment.
I absolutely love food, so I hope to create more articles and videos about the amazing food you can find in Japan. Eating is one of my hobbies 🙂
If you have any questions, comments, or just want to talk about good food, please feel free to drop me a line using our contact page.
Thank you for checking out my site. I hope you enjoy your stay!
All the best,
Dallen