In the autumn of 2003 I had moved to Hakodate to begin a new teaching assignment. Ordinarily I would return home from work and wind down by playing the guitar or reading literature. If I had any energy left, I would try and cram more Japanese study. The woman I was seeing could not decide which habit of mine was stranger, that I did not own a cell phone, or that I had never watched television to help me wind down at the end of the day. I thought she might have been right about the second. So one night I decided to plug in the television and see what was on it.
I discovered a television drama and was intrigued. The amateurishness of the television production charmed me, for it made the story look real and authentic. Though the characters of the drama were mostly college-aged students, I felt they sounded exactly like the friends and students I had been communicating with. I liked that the story was fixed to a set locale, and that its story featured people at all levels of society, from the professional and successful to the struggling and overlooked. Most of all I was intrigued by the enigmatic female lead played by Hasegawa Kyoko. I could not entirely understand what she was saying, but I felt that her sensibility was familiar to me. I recorded the episodes on videotape, I watched them repeatedly to study the language, especially Hasegawa Kyoko's, so that I might better understand the people around me. The drama was called BOKU DAKE NO MADONNA. It was the first Japanese television drama I had ever watched, and though it has been more than twenty years since I was first introduced to it, my enthusiasm for the art form hasn't changed.
To introduce myself, my name is Stephen Cahaly. I was born in Boston and earned a Masters of Education degree from Boston College. I first arrived in Japan in the summer of 2000, and have been studying the language, literature, and culture since. I do not claim to be a teacher of Japanese, nor do I have a method to promote for how to study the language most effectively. Whatever I have accomplished in understanding the language has been entirely through trial and error, so I wouldn't recommend that anyone follow my lead. But what I can offer you is support, guidance, encouragement, and knowledge based on my experience with the culture. If I cannot answer any of your questions directly, I will do my best to try and point you in the right direction.
Some of you will arrive here with a desire to discuss and appreciate drama. Others with a desire to supplement your language study with examples of Japanese as it is used in practice. Others will arrive just to learn more about the culture, for the focus here will not be limited to drama and language. Whatever interests you, I welcome you all.