Update as of August 16, 2023: It’s been literally 10 years since I wrote this post, and I have now sold my own collection of personal essays, haiku, and drawings from my time in Japan, tentatively titled Geri o Shimasu, to Unsolicited Press for publication in August of 2025. I can’t wait to share it with you all!
I really admire David Sedaris, because he can actually making a living publishing personal essays. I particularly enjoyed When You Are Engulfed in Flames, as I spent five months living in Japan studying law there during a semester of law school, and I have an entire gallery of bizarre images appropriately titled "Weird Japan." His essays resonated with me a lot, and I think any foreigner spending significant time in Japan will come to understand the isolation that you eventually feel living in a place where you can never fit in no matter how long you are there.
As an aside, the featured image for this post was an actual shirt that I photographed while shopping in Ueno. The sto…
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