Why Japan? ~ Part 1

My favorite color: Blue
My favorite animal: Cat
My favorite state: Japan

These are the words written on the first page of my first diary.

Although I didn’t know the difference between “state” and “country”, I did understand my interest in Japan.

Around the time when I was six, my aunt worked for a government agency and often went on oversea business trips to a lot of different countries.
Without fail, she would always bring back gifts from her most recently visited country and tell me stories about that country’s culture.

One day, after she returned from Japan, I got to hear her experiences and stories about Japan, as usual.

But this time was different...
For some reason I became particularly interested in this mysterious country. After that I was enthusiastic about Japanese culture.

To tell you the truth, from that time until high school I didn’t study Japanese at all.
It’s not that I didn’t want to.  Growing up, my high school was in the countryside and, consequently, didn't have any Japanese classes. Along with this, there was no one who spoke Japanese. 

Now, looking back I suppose I could have studied Japanese on my own. Truthfully I have regrets about this. But in high school, I really didn’t know how to study Japanese by myself.

At that time I didn’t have an opportunity to study Japanese.
That was, until one day..

When I was about four years old. Before I knew about Japan. 😊

Do you study English or another language? If so, what made you want to start studying it? Feel free to share in the comments-- I'd love to read more!

Here is the Japanese version.