Travis Seifman

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Hometown:

Long Island, NY , United States

Biographical Info:

Travis is a graduate student in Japanese Studies (history/art history), with particular interests in Edo period arts and culture, especially kabuki, and in the history and culture of Okinawa. He hopes to make a career of exploring these passions and sharing them with others, either as a university professor, museum professional, or otherwise, working for some other sort of cultural institution.

He has had the pleasure of living in Japan for two brief stints - four months in Tokyo in 2003, and ten months in Yokohama in 2007-08 - and dreams of going back, and making a life for himself there more permanently. Japan is not only a place with beautiful, fascinating arts and culture - from kabuki to J-pop to paintings, architecture, and calligraphy - it is also a place where everything's clean, everyone's polite, the trains always run on time, the local mom & pop fruit (or veges, or meat, or fish, or noodles) stand is alive and well, crime is minimal, biking is popular and safe, and you can get just about anywhere by public transportation (in the less rural parts of the country, you can, anyway).

 Tokyo and Yokohama have proven an excellent base of operations from which to visit other parts of Japan; Travis has spent time in Kanazawa, Matsue, Hiroshima, Kyoto, Nara, Fukuoka, Naha, and Kamakura. Living in Japan would also serve an excellent base from which to explore further afield - Travis has yet to visit Korea, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia, or any other part of East or Southeast Asia, but would very much like to.

He is tempted by the more exotic, more traditional, more cultural, and more adventurous life of the countryside, but believes he may truly be a city boy at heart. Traveling the more remote areas, exploring, journeying, is a wonderful and exciting thing, but for more permanent residence, he much prefers the diversity and energy of New York, Tokyo, London or the like.

He fears he has precious little to share, but is enjoying very much reading others generous contributions.

Travis is also currently looking for jobs so as to return to and stay in Japan. If you have any connections, or any advice towards jobs outside the eikaiwa, business, finance, or IT sectors, most ideally those related to history, art, or culture, it would be most appreciated.

Links of interest:

???? ~ The Arts of Japan and beyond