Scholars of Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher best known for his controversial statement "God is dead," have for years talked about a gaping hole in his works: Where are Nietzsche's writings about teaching English to Japanese high schoolers? What has he got to say about the paranoia of being judged in a supermarket? Eryk Salvaggio is trying to mend that hole with his blog This Japanese Life. The 33-year-old left his job as an online editor for a newspaper in Maine two years ago to teach English on the JET program in Japan. He ended up in a small suburb of Fukuoka, and here he writes about his experiences and development as an expat. The Japan Times spent an hour with him talking about the anxiety that comes from being an outsider, the thoughts of an Norwegian terrorist and, of course, Nietzsche.
Who is your audience?
I've been asking myself that question from day one. I think the blog is a guide for beginners, which I am comfortable with — I have been living here for two years, so I am very aware that I'm a beginner myself. My target is mostly people beginning an expat life or sort of eying Japan from abroad. But honestly, I have no idea who is reading. The things I'm writing are sort of all over the place.