Hello everyone! I’m ALi and welcome to my site. I hope you’re enjoying it.
I worked as a 3D animator in Houston for five years before deciding to move to Japan to teach English. An odd choice, yes, but I thought I’d regret it forever if I didn’t give Japan a shot. I’ve now lived in Japan since March, 2016.
My interest in Japan started with a very common gateway drug: anime. Or at least that’s what I want to say. I got into anime when I was in middle school, however when I found my old reports on foreign countries I wrote for Social Studies in elementary school, all but one of them were about Japan. Creepy.
I later started learning Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu Iaido in Houston in 2003. My love for iaido was probably the thing that really pushed me into hopping over to Japan.
I started collecting goshuin in April, 2017 after a friend of mine showed me her goshuincho. As an artist, I’m very interested in the beautiful calligraphy and images carved on the stamps. It’s a lovely way for me to keep track of my travels.
On this blog, my goal is to catalog the goshuin I’ve received at various shrines and temples around Japan and share my memories from my visits. I’ll be very happy if more people around the world decide to take up this hobby when they visit Japan.
