Photography Journey in Japan

Year 2012, 1st month in Japan and just move into my first studio apartment.

38k yen a month located at Kasai.

15mins walk to the nearest station.

I remember clearly am designing a postcard and head to 7-11 after Japanese language lesson.
Print around 50 of them and send to a few Photo Agencies with Daiso’s clear envelope, Went to the Post Office and the total cost is around 3000-ish yen.

Out of all 50 agencies.
Got replied via email, a negative respond of course. Some even send me back the envelope, basically, a polite sign tells me to fcuk off.

I got 4 calls to have a meeting. My Japanese is still terrible that time.

Out of 4, 2 agreed to meet me.
Another 2 change their mind after I cannot respond them back in proper Japanese.

Yes, I cried on 3rd week because I don’t know what to do.
Lost, to be exact. I lost a lot of weight because of the stress and the only way I can think clearly was taking a walk from my apartment Kasai all the way to Nishi-Kasai everyday for the whole 2 months. 10km back and forth.

Then a few Japanese photographers whom I kept in-touch on twitter back in Australia invited me to have a coffee.They helped me a lot, from teaching me how to write my own 履歴書, learning some important 敬語 and photography words in Japanese.

The most important part one is this fella, We lost contact.. I can’t remember his surname. He taught me how to find a part-time photography job on Japanese Portal Site.
We met for a few times at Shibuya’s Segafredo until the last train basically talk about life, photography. That’s where I found my 1st part-time Photography assist job and earn my first yen.

Then finally landed a full-time job a few months later and my Japanese improved a lot on 4th months. I really want to thank the guy. Somehow I can’t find him on Twitter and on Facebook anymore. If we can unite one day, would like to repay my gratitude.

Will I do the same thing again?
Yes, definitely.
For the love of Japanese photography and my passion for Photography.

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