Memories attached to emotion are easy to remember as the brain releases a chemical which helps the m

For some reason, been getting a lot of mails of late regarding this post which I wrote over a year ago so thought I would bump it for those who have not seen it yet. I wrote it mainly for non-Japanese to read but the Japanese london to paris travel version of this post got a lot of attention in Japan and became the top ranking post in the life category at Hatena .
Today I'm going to talk about how I discovered Japan, london to paris travel how I learned london to paris travel Japanese and how I ended up in the land of the rising sun after finally starting to live a passion that I only discovered in my twenties.
I will share my experiences of learning Japanese and many of the things I did to build my career london to paris travel before and after I arrived in Japan. Wasn't too sure where to begin but thought that day one would be a good start.
The post is a bit long so you may want to read while you having a poo or something. When I get a wee bit of time, I'll pull out all the bits about how I learned Japanese and stick that in a separate post.
Later on in life during my early years, times were tough for my parents who both worked hard day n night. As they were both busy trying to make ends meet, they decided to put me in various foster homes which I lived in for most of my childhood. In some of the homes, I wasn't treated incredibly london to paris travel well but didn't london to paris travel say anything to my parents as I knew they were having their own financial and other problems. I ended up living with a white, black and then with an Indian family for what seemed like an eternity.
As luck would have it, one of the foster homes had guardians who would take my clothes and consider it theirs while their kids would constantly bully me - was easy to pick on the boy who had no parents. I was made to feel as unwelcome as possible in their house.
I remember a particular evening where we came back to the house to discover the front door open. We walked in to discover that the place was a mess - burglars had got in. I was scared and started to cry. The eldest child of my foster family shouted at me:-
Other memorable moments in one of the homes was when I was strangled until I had red patches around my eyes. When asked the next day at school, all I could think of was saying that I put cups on my eyes ^^;
Another unforgettable time was when I was beaten with car racing tracks - a bit like these ones but were made of rubber with an orange strip down the middle. Was left with lovely bright red marks all over. Remember looking in the mirror after the beating session and still remember exactly what I looked like back then down to the green jumper that I was wearing.
The only thing I had in life back then were the occasional weekends with my parents. Dad would come to pick me up for the weekend and I would either stay with him or he would drop me off at mums. But at times he was just swamped with work and couldn't make it. The phone would ring and my foster parents would pick up and hand me the phone.
After hanging up I would sit crying on the stairs looking out at the small window above the door. I couldn't even go out to cry because I wasn't allowed out on my own apart from going to school. All I could do was go back to my room which was a small stock room with a bed. I would have dreams of my only friend Buck Rogers coming to visit me with his trusty robot Twiggy.
Mum and dad were paying my foster parents to house and feed me and not to particularly london to paris travel care about how well or bad I done at school. My childhood was school go home eat occasionally watch TV go to room repeat.
The TV was my first encounter london to paris travel with Japanese anime where I watched Gatchaman (called london to paris travel G-Force in the UK). I didn't particularly know it was Japanese - not that it was important at the time anyway. london to paris travel Mouseover photo to load notes or add comment london to paris travel Img ID#122040 Title:
This photo was taken during london to paris travel the time I was staying at one of the foster homes. Didn't have much fun in school either. Was constantly bullied and most of my memories were of being dragged through gravel, gang beaten up, having my possessions burned, football constantly aimed at my face, and having the big guy in the school playground say to me If I smash your head with this bat and kill you then I would go to jail. But it would be worth it. I remember having to ask the same person to punch me so that I could be part of his posse.
Memories attached to emotion are easy to remember as the brain releases a chemical which helps the memory to be stored for longer. This is why we easily remember moments of joy, sadness or embarrassment.
If you think back to your childhood, many of your memories with either be a mix of these emotions. I have no memories of happiness during my childhood london to paris travel apart from one of when my parents still lived together. It was Christmas and we were sitting in front of the Christmas tree in the living room back in Blurton Road Hackney.
Used to be quite depressed when I thought about my childhood until I started to think about what some other kids go through as a child - I had it easy compared to them. Mouseover photo to load notes or add comment Img ID#122042 Title:
Completely london to paris travel unmotivated throughout london to paris travel my school term, I ended up taking subjects london to paris travel because of what others in class took - I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do in life. With no destination in life or passion for the subjects that I studied, london to paris travel I didn't do well in school at all with average london to paris travel grades of D or E. Now you know why my English grammar is terrible ^^; Mouseover photo to load notes or add comment Img ID#122043 Title:
Cant remember at which point in life but I started to live with my parents again - with dad for a couple of years and then with mum until I moved out. This photo taken with mum last year. I want to be able to buy her a house somewhere so that she doesn't have to live in that council flat anymore. Love her to bits but she's as stubborn is as stubborn does and wants her own place and not one where I pay the rent for her ^^;
Don't have the cash quite yet after I nearly went bankrupt in 2009 but have been able to recover a wee bit of late. Getting a place for mum now would pretty much use up all of our savings and also mean that I would not have enough cash flow to continue to run the company which is not a good thing. Mouseover london to paris travel photo to load notes or add comment Img ID#122044 Title:
london to paris travel This is mums place in Hackney. Lived here until I moved out to live with wifey. Was veeeeeeeeery depressing living here. The neighbors would play thumping reggae music all day and night. The floor boards literally shook.
Mum got mugged in Hackney 3 times - once she was left unconscious after somebody london to paris travel hit her head. After getting a call, I ran to the hospital to find her with dried blood down her face and bruises on her arm where she tried to hold onto her handbag. Mouseover photo to load notes or add comment Img ID#122046 Title:
I started to make real friends outside of school by meeting other folks who also loved Kylie Minogue! london to paris travel I made friends by waiting outside the BBC or Kylie's recording studios Stock Aitken and Waterman. More photos of my groupie shenanigans in the Kylie Minogue post. Mouseover photo to load notes or add comment Img ID#122047 Title:
And this is what my room looked like back at the time ^^; I bought nearly every magazine or newspaper that Kylie was in and plastered her all over the walls - and yes there are some Jason Donovan london to paris travel ones up there too ^^; Mouseover photo to load notes or add comment Img ID#122048 Title:
Somewhere in between, I discovered the Sega Megadrive - a Japanese 16 bit games machine on import. I wanted to know more about the up n coming games for the machine and sought info through magazines at Japanese bookshops in London.
Without london to paris travel the Internets back then, these shops were my only gateway to getting hold of Japanese material. The Japan Center was one of the book shops that I went to where I would discover more Japanese culture on each visit - culture like manga, anime and idols. Mouseover photo to load notes or add comment Img ID#122049 Title:
You can just about make out Macross on the TV screen here - t'was the Cantonese version that I picked up from China Town in London. Was the first time I saw anime with the awareness that it was Japanese. The animation quality, story, music, mecha and cute girls overwhelmed london to paris travel me - I needed to watch more of this.
The discovery of Japanese culture captivated me and I started to feel a passion and desire that I've never felt in my life. I wanted to deepen london to paris travel my knowledge of Japanese london to paris travel culture london to paris travel and in order to do so I knew that I needed to be able to understand Japanese and so decided to start learning london to paris travel on my own.
I didn't have an opportunity to attend Chinese school when I was younger so had to learn the Japanese language from scratch. I got myself dictionaries and text books like Japanese For Everybody where I picked up much of my basic grammar.
Started to pick up a lot of Japanese from manga like Ranma 1/2 and Crayon Shin-chan. What I would do is read them on the train and when I came across some word I didn't understand, I would fold a dog ear in the corner of the page.
After getting back home, I would look up the word but keep the dog ear folded. When I read the manga second time around, if I remembered what the word was then I could unfold the dog ear - if not then I would have to keep it folded and repeat the process until I understood the whole manga. Mouseover photo to load notes or add comment Img ID#122052 london to paris travel Title:
No Internets at the time = no YouTube either. I discovered a Japanese bookshop at St Pauls renting out video recordings from Japanese TV. I couldn't afford to be a member but the lady who ran the store knew how much I loved Japanese culture. She decided to sell me the old recordings that the local Japanese folks weren't watching anymore. It didn't matter at all that I was watching recordings a few months old - I just needed to hear and see Japan.
The TV shows included commercials too and whenever I was at home, I would just let the video play in the background - it was as if I was in Ja