Every time I meet someone new, I wait for this question. I've never had an answer, I still don't. It's at the point now where I usually answer "I hit a bar on a Saturday night, and half a bottle of Jack Daniels later I woke-up in Narita airport. Figured I'd make the best of the situation." Sometimes I throw in some BS about the tight business relationship between Japan and America. I try to mix things up.

I studied Japanese for one year in the states, so that helped -- less than you'd think. I don't want to work in Japan. I don't see my future in Japan. I had a drive to experience life in another country. But why Japan as opposed to, say China? No idea. I've tried to convince myself that having no motivation is the best approach, and having no reason is positive. Emptieness is true-sight, buddah and all that crap. No expectations means a more objective experience, right? My only motivation is curiosity.

Past this, I've decided the only reason I came to Japan, is to stare blankly at people when they ask me this question. Which is at least three times a day.
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We had the Tokyo Bloggers Meetup Wednesday night. First rule of meetups, make sure the place you're going to meet DAMN WELL EXSISTS. Seriously. I walked by the-venue-formerly-known-as-Cafe-de-Rope-and-now-under-construction ten times before I saw the sign that said 'Meetup will be held at Zest' with a hand-scrawled map. Maybe if Stuart had written 'HEY RETARD' on the sign I would have noticed one of the first nine times.

Enough sour grapes. I had a really good time, despite the non-turnout. Stuart of StuartWoodward.com, Derek of Something From Japan, Sajjad of SajjadaZaidi.com (later in evening), and Dan of 'long-winded evangelistic rants on JSP technology INC.' showed up at the meet.

The night's conversation in five lines:
Stuart: Blog. Lotus notes. Washer/dryer combo. Art. RSS. Blog.
Derek: Blog. Washer/dryer combo. RSS. Blog
Ian: Blog. Warblog. RSS. Monetary guilt. Blog.
Dan: Blog? J2E. JSP. PHP Sux0r! RSS
Sajjad: Blog. I have an iPAQ. RSS. I am George Michael (thank you Stuart, for that)

I had never talked to bloggers (real life). It felt good to talk to people who 'get it'. I look forward to the next meeting, a shame it's a month away. The meetup got me excited about blogging all over again, and kicked me into an evangelistic state of mind. The wheels are turning, who can I introduce to blogging? I've realized the social impacts of blogging are more interesting then the technology of blogging. Tech is a tool, and while interesting to talk about, changing social dynamics are a lot cooler to me. Technology enables community, isn't that the whole promise of the internet? I'm excited to see if blogging can enable that evolution. We'll see.

I'd like to thank Derek, Stuart, Dan, and Sajjad for showing up. It was a lively time, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Even though a small first turnout, you have to start somewhere. Here's to next time, cheers.

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Blogger stopped being a ho, images have been posted.