Greetings from Tokyo, Japan!

My name is Al and I’ve been lurking around commenting but putting off this first post for awhile. So it’s great to be here and meet all of you!

What’s my Story?

I am originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota in the U.S. and have been living in Yokohama, Japan for the last 18 years. Yokohama is the second largest city in Japan and is located about a 30-minute train ride from Tokyo.

My username as many of you know I’m sure is my name (Al) plus the Japanese word for teacher (先生 “sensei”) which reflects what I’ve been doing here for the past several years.

I started teaching English at a conversation school here called “Aeon.” After 5 years I decided to move into the corporate training world and have been doing that for the last 13 years, mostly in the Tokyo area.

View of Tokyo from the SkyTree communications tower--the 2nd highest man-made structure in the world

It has been a total thrill to live in such an exciting place (well, much more exciting than Minnesota, haha) and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a change in their lifestyle or just needing to experience something different than the norm.

Please feel free to contact me if you’ve ever considered moving to Japan or the idea sounds interesting to you and I’d love to help you out in any way I can.

The iconic Japanese cherry blossoms along the Meguro River in Tokyo last year--this year's blossoms should peak next week!

Why am I on Steemit?

I discovered Steemit while listening to Jeff Berwick’s show "Anarchast" and wanting to know more about it. I’ve also been a fan of Adam Kokesh and his work for awhile now too.

As many of you here, I am a huge supporter of voluntary interactions and I try to spread the message of freedom whenever I can. It’s great to see so many libertarians and voluntaryists here.

After learning that Steemit was a “social network” which runs on a blockchain, it immediately sparked an interest. If I’m posting content on other social media platforms anyway, why not share my insights and passions with people more like-minded?

To be honest, half of my so-called “Facebook Friends” are people I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about. Over the last two years or so, I’ve discovered a great community on Periscope and have built a pretty large following there. I look forward to doing that here on Steemit as well!

Majestic Mount Fuji from Inamuragasaki Park in Kamakura City--one of many places I've Periscoped in Japan

What do I hope to Contribute here on Steemit?

First and foremost, I always want to be sure that I’m adding value and not just posting to spam your feeds. I want to post about things I’m genuinely enthusiastic about and topics that I believe can enrich your experience here as well!

As I’m living in Japan at the moment, I’ll be posting about topics and experiences related to Japan and Tokyo in particular.

These might include topics about lifestyle, Japanese culture, tours of local areas, restaurant reviews, and tips on learning Japanese.

Can't have a post about Japan without sharing some sushi!

Since I also am passionate about travel, I hope to post about general travel tips as well as tips on travel hacking. My favorite travel blogger is Brian Kelly aka "The Points Guy" as he and his team share awesome advice on how to travel big without shelling out a fortune.

The Points Guy, Brian Kelly with me and a few friends at the Beatles Bar in Roppongi, Tokyo

The third major area I’d like to post about is entrepreneurship. I’ve gotten a late start in my entrepreneurial journey and I don’t want others to experience the same setbacks. I hope to share my successes as well as failures as I aim to become completely location independent and eventually financially free.

I was very fortunate to get to meet the CEO and Founder of Periscope, Kayvon Beykpour at Twitter HQ in Tokyo