First Post Ever

Alright, this is it.

My debut as a blogger.

My first post ever.

I'm not sure where this is going, or how far it will go, but I've decided to start a personal blog to talk about my interests and life in Japan.

My name is Joe Cortez, and I was born and raised in Salinas, California.

I've been living in Osaka, Japan, for about ten years already.

My interests include Asian culture, retro-gaming, music and language acquisition.

I'm a self-proclaimed ethnomusicologist, and I love to listen to music from all over the world.

I love to listen to music from older videogames.

I'm fascinated by Chinese characters and the languages in which they are used.

I'm also just fascinated by language in general.

Currently, I can speak English, Spanish and a little bit of Japanese.

In the future, I'd like to study Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Portuguese, Italian, French and German.

My favorite food is noodles.

Anything from spaghetti, to udon, to chow mein, to ramen, to macaroni and cheese, to Mexican soup.

One of my quests in life is to try all the different noodles of the world.

My comfort food is Kraft Macaroni and Cheese; there's nothing quite like a classic blue box.

Of course there are other foods I like; I enjoy Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Italian, Indian and Mexican.

There's a special place in my heart for an all-American breakfast; eggs scrambled or over medium, breakfast sausages, bacon, hash browns, toast, pancakes and orange juice.

Anyway, I think I'll end this post here for now.

I'll tell readers more about myself as the blog progresses.

宜しく。