Hello everyone! My name is Ashley Michael Hyatt. I’m an American,
originally from the Los Angeles area, but I’ve spent so much time in various
parts of the U.S. that it’s hard to say where home is. Mostly I grew up in a
small but prosperous suburb of L.A. called Cerritos.
From an early age, I wanted to come to Japan. One day, while rifling through
my father’s books I came across a copy of Akutagawa Ryunosuke’s Rashomon.
It opened the door to the world of Japan. I studied Japanese for about a year
and resolved to one day visit this mysterious land.
I went on to study Language and Education in university. I spent my free
time teaching English to immigrants. I also continued to keep up with
Japanese whenever possible and I read Japanese history avidly.
In early 2003, I finally visited Japan for the first time. I spent a significant
amount of time in the Kanto and Kansai regions of central Honshu. I fell in
love with the place. Later that year I met my wife Kaori, who is from
Kagoshima city in southern Kyushu. We married a year later and we now
have two children, a boy and a girl. Our son Shion David Hyatt (Shion
roughly means “benevolent gentleman”) is just over two years old. Our
daughter Tina Sakura Hyatt (Sakura is cherry blossom) is about 4 months
old. We live together in West Taniyama (a suburb of Kagoshima) in a little
house with a little garden and our four horses, Elizabeth, Suzuran (Lily),
Margaret, and Belle. We also have a small farm further west of our house where
we grow all sorts of vegetables for family and friends and feed for the horses.
As with most foreigners, I am an English teacher. I spent 2 years with the
Board of Education, teaching at elementary schools, and also teaching for a
private school. I now have my own school in Murasaki-baru with about 50
students ranging in ages from three to sixty years old. Twice a month I teach
at the Kagoshima Television Station headquarters.
In my spare time, I enjoy reading, cooking, photography, and playing RPG’s
with a small but tight group of friends from all over the world.
It was an early dream to come here to Japan and I have done that. I now
work for the betterment of the people here through English lessons and
cultural exchange. I now look forward to extending that exchange to people
outside Japan by sharing my impressions of this beautiful, subtle, and
intriguing land.
