After 20 years of traveling in Japan, I have found myself living here for the last 8 years. This is a simple web page chronicling my experiences as an international family living in the Kansai area of Japan with my wife and daughter.
As for the title, in such moments where I struggle to think of a name, I often go with the inane. In this case, the pronunciation of my name in Japanese contains two words: "buran" and "to". The Japanese language is unique, for it is saturated with a variety of onomatopoeia, yet many don't truly mimic sounds but rather psychological states, non-auditory senses, or actions, such as "koron koron" for something that is rolling, or "jiro jiro" for the action of doing something intently. "Buran" is an onomatopoeia, of sorts, for the action of "dangling" in Japanese, while "to" is a true word for "the way". Given that the word "dangling" describes the action of keeping someone in an uncertain position, the title also aptly describes my experience living in Japan.
As for the title, in such moments where I struggle to think of a name, I often go with the inane. In this case, the pronunciation of my name in Japanese contains two words: "buran" and "to". The Japanese language is unique, for it is saturated with a variety of onomatopoeia, yet many don't truly mimic sounds but rather psychological states, non-auditory senses, or actions, such as "koron koron" for something that is rolling, or "jiro jiro" for the action of doing something intently. "Buran" is an onomatopoeia, of sorts, for the action of "dangling" in Japanese, while "to" is a true word for "the way". Given that the word "dangling" describes the action of keeping someone in an uncertain position, the title also aptly describes my experience living in Japan.