My BA is in East Asian Studies (Japan, specifically) and my grad degrees are in Footwear design, technology, manufacturing. I'm a footwear designer/graphic designer by trade.

Japan is my biggest love in life. I lived/schooled there and honestly loved everything about the country, both the good and bad. I'm huge in the J-music scene and I still love studying the culture and history, especially feudal-era Japan and Japanese mythology.

Art is one of my favorite hobbies...drawing comes first, followed by painting (normally with acrylics). I love watercolor and pen/ink, but couldn't do them to save my life. They require too much precision and no room for mistakes. I like my eraser and easy to cover paints, heh.

I'm also a huge book nerd. I have a veritable library...in fact, I have so many books that half of them (ones already read, of course), had to be packed up and stored in the attic because there was no more room.

Let's see, what else...

I've lived overseas twice. The first time I lived in Japan for about 6 months, in Nagoya. I also spent a year living in England for grad school.

Oh, and my former job was as a PC-base computer technician for my college...I was their head tech my senior year and served as part of their elite tech staff for 3 years.

I'm also a big Flyers fan, having been pseudo-raised in Philly. And, in the tradition of all good Philly fans, I am willing to boo my own team off the ice.

I'm designing unique, Japanese-based sneakers and doing graphic design work and I LOVE it. I get to travel all over the country, and world for that matter, and while I despise the travel itself, it's always fun to go new places and meet new people. I also get to attend a ton of anime conventions all over the country (as a dealer), which, for the most part, is a blast...I have way more fun as a dealer than I ever did as an attendee (and I used to love going to cons).

Listening, drawing, over-analyzing (for better or worse), keeping my word, supporting my friends/family/loved ones with everything I've got, finding ways to keep myself entertained, designing

My hat...as stupid as that sounds, it seems to be the first thing everyone asks me about. I wear a hat (it's practically a part of my head at this point): it's from Japan, it's a flat-cap, a fashion brand called Aya Ori, and it's done in silver and black brocade. It's just part of my normal wear, but everyone I meet immediately wants to know where they can buy one, and always seem so highly disappointed when I tell them Japan.

Music: J-rock is where I'm generally found...Gackt is my all time love (I'll be honest, I practically worship the man). Other favorites include: Girugamesh, Spitz, Keane, Vienna Teng, Röyksopp, Rhapsody, S.E.N.S., Schwarz Stein, Coldplay, Billy Joel, Boston, Ally Kerr, Akeboshi. I also *love* Broadway.

Books: I love fantasy. Tad Williams and Terry Pratchett are my favorite authors. I recently got into Robert Jordan and I'm loving his stuff. I'm also a huge fan of Tolkien, Douglas Adams and Haruki Murakami...one of my all-time favorite books is Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. I also loved the entire Harry Potter series. Oh, and in the graphic novel line, Watchmen is pretty damn amazing (both looking forward to and worried about the upcoming movie).

Movies: Equilibrium, Indiana Jones movies, The Fountain, Stargate, Pan's Labyrinth, Donnie Darko, Braveheart, Gladiator, LOTR Trilogy (extended edition), Ghostbusters, The 'Burbs, The Prestige, The Piano, Kinky Boots, Napoleon Dynamite, Fight Club...those are just a few of my favorites. And I'll admit that one of my all time favorite movies is The Last Unicorn.

TV Shows: Some favorites are South Park (pre-season 10), Seinfeld, Metalocalpyse, Frisky Dingo, Some Mother's Do 'Ave 'Em, Little Britain, MP's Flying Circus, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Boondocks, Venture Brothers, Good Eats, Iron Chef, Green Wing, The IT Crowd, Family Guy, old-school X-Files, Stargate SG-1 (pre-season 9), Futurama, Invader Zim...etc, etc.

Anime: Two of my all-time favorite series are Kino no Tabi and Mushishi and some movies include Mononoke Hime, Nausicaa, and Interstella 5555. Other favorites are Evangelion, Scrapped Princess, Berserk, Kyou Kara Maou, FMA, Romeo X Juliet...This list could go on and on and on.

Food: Japanese and Korean are two of my favorites, though I'm pretty easy when it comes to food....except for fast food (McDonald's, Burger King, etc). I can't do fast food places.

My art supplies, my music, probably my laptop (I tend to get twitchy when I go without it for too long), my family/friends/dog, my books

Friday night? I'm boring. I've just worked a long day and I'm tired. I might go out to eat with family or friends and then I generally hole up and play games (console or board) with friends or read.

This isn't really so much a private thing...

I'm really shy when it comes to meeting new people. It's generally better for someone to contact me first because I usually can't bring myself to send the first email.

You're interested in Japan (culture, history, religions, etc), you love art and music, want a new friend or want to make me laugh. Or, forgetting that, because I suck at writing these kinds of things, if you just want to message me because you think you'd like to talk to me for some other reason, feel free! (but seriously, don't email me with something totally psycho or something I have no means of responding to, like a marriage proposal, I actually got one of those once...actually talk to me)

Also, if you are not open minded about religion or can't handle discussion about it, please don't bother. I got stuck in a bad circumstance with someone on here who totally flew off the handle because I respected religions other than just his and felt that it was no one's right to push their religion on anyone else. So yeah...

Also, I would love to have someone to practice Japanese with. I've forgotten a lot of what I used to know because I've had no one to speak it with for several years now. I would *love* to get back into it.