Brad In Japan: Feeling Home

Hey Everyone!

And welcome to this week's newsletter!! Odd times call for, well, odd times. So here is a different newsletter day but for a good and sad reason.

Happy Birthday Julia!

Today's my sister's birthday and as a celebration, I made a YouTube video celebrating our Ultimate Sibling Roadtrip that we took before I came to Japan.

I hope you all enjoy the recap of the wild ride as much as we did!

Prayers for Grandma

On a somber note, I just received some very sad news: my Grandma passed away this morning. She's been a proud supporter of me and my sister through our adventures and shenanigans. We all got a chance to see her recently as I did a roadtrip and got to eat pizza with her. While Mom and Julia took a flight and stayed a few days.

We're fortunate to have had the chance to see her before her passing, but it's never easy. I know the last few months have been a battle, but that prayer made us all stronger. It's a lot to process, but I typed the below beforehand, so hopefully it cheers you up!

Prayers are appreciated as I and the family go through this.

Putting a pause for a quick second.

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Looking Back

With the high and lows going very high and low, it's been good to reflect on these last few weeks. With school in full swing, company meetings, and a new found desire to be fluent, I've realized I finally feel at home here.

When I got here, I thought about the excitment of going out everyone weekend and only having the one year here. And while I have been able to live up the dream and visit some awesome places, I've also come to find a rhythm of life that I don't want to leave. And much like many of you don't go explore your own cities, I am now finding it difficult to do that here as well.

I share that because I still want to create, but I think I will start tying my fluency goals with these creative pieces. What do I mean? I mean conversation videos with me speaking to Japanese people or walking through some fun Japanese words that I find. More to come, but...

Fluency First

I'll be realistic in saying my goal is a bit big, but I am putting all my effort into learning Japanese right now with 6-8 hours a day being the average this last week. If that sounds like a lot, the government assumes it takes 2300+ hours so 288 - 383 days to fluency. Oof.

Thankfully I have a big headstart with many hours and years before so I think it is doable (90 days or less), but I need to full commit otherwise I'll never reach it :D So here's to trying!

Church Also First!

I got to join the Young Adult group at the English speaking church this past weekend and will definetly be going back! It was really cool hearing all the stories that brought us to Japan. Many people already knew Japanese (and I was further motivated haha) while some were only here for a month and stopped by.

It was awesome to see and I'm glad there are global Catholics :)

Wrap Up

I desire to make these newsletters informative and fun. I want you to leave happier, more informed, or even with a new perspetive. I don't want to put them out if I feel they are "slop" thrown together. However, I know many of you look forward to these, so I am honning my diligence to continue them (even as my brain melts in Japanese).

Hopefully soon I send them in Japanese and get to translate them for you 😄 Until then though, as always,

Thanks for Reading!

Bradley Wargo