In April 2010, with the beginning of the new school year, I was assigned to work as the Assistant Language Teacher in a new school. With the stories I heard from the previous ALT who worked in that school, I was dreading it. The first day was as I was warned. The main English teacher, an elderly, overbearing woman who barely spoke English, basically "took me under her wing" - seemingly to take care of me, while in reality it was to show face to her bosses and the rest of the faculty. After having to sit through a "let's speak English" lunch, I blurted out to the young teacher sitting next to me in the faculty room, something I would have never done with normal Japanese etiquette, 「麻衣子先生、明日、一緒に食べない？」"Maiko sensei, can we eat together tomorrow?" It may sound like it came from a place of desperation, but it was her energy and almost childlike abandon that drew me to her. It was just very comfortable. There was no wall between us that we had to break down to first interact with each other - in both western and Japanese connotation of the concept. Less than a month later, even though we didn't realize it at the time, we went on our first date. And it will be about ten years later that we walk down the aisle to spend the rest of our lives together.