2025 Year in Review

2025 has come and gone, and what a year it was. Writing my 2025 Year in Review is a bit difficult (and late) this time around, but I am determined to get it done. My plan for 2025, according to my 2024 review, was: “I just want to shine my brightest and do my best in all my endeavors.” I do believe I managed to do just that, so I am happy.

Highlights

Completing Grad School
Launching the Bon Bon Show Podcast
Collecting Temple/Shrine Stamps
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Good food and good friends

Lowlights

Transitioning from Grad School back to work
Job hunting (it sucks!)
Financial instability

Most Valuable Lessons

Show up for friends who show up for you.
Try out new hobbies and interests.
Play those games languishing in your Steam library

State of the Blog

In 2025, I wrote 31 blog posts—almost twice as many as in 2024. There were quite a few technical issues on the blog that, at one point, made me feel like I should just archive it and call it a day. In the end, however, Jamaipanese.com has been a part of me for 20 years. I couldn’t kill it off, so it lives! I will officially mark 20 years of blogging here in February 2026.

Grad School at Hiroshima University

I completed my Master’s degree at Hiroshima University. That achievement stretched me mentally in ways I cannot properly describe and was the biggest highlight of 2025 for me. Between writing a thesis, conducting research about Japan, attending academic conferences, and giving so many presentations—it was a lot. Cheers to the friends I met along the way and the growth I experienced throughout the journey.

Gaming Highlights

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 blasted its way into my top five video games of all time, sitting somewhere right below Super Metroid and Sekiro. What a wonderful game—a breath of fresh air filled with great characters, an interesting story, and don’t even get me started on the music. I am replaying it on my Twitch channel and have been uploading the videos to my YouTube gaming channel.

Quickfire 2025 Recap

From Rural Islands to the Tokyo Metropolis I moved to Tokyo from Hiroshima; I have now lived in three different prefectures in Japan, ranging from rural island life all the way to the metropolis of Tokyo.

The Goshuin Collection Grows My Goshuin (Temple/Shrine stamp) collection is growing! I got a new book (Goshuincho) from Hokkaido Shrine and I’m already filling it quite well. I spent a lot of time making a video about the collection in my first book; it ended up getting only a handful of views on YouTube, ROFL.

Kyoto was the place I visited the most this year. Once for a trip with grad school colleagues, again for a summer internship, and once more when my best friend’s wife came to Japan and I was able to be her chaperone. It was such a wonderful time, but the most recent visit with Sue was the most memorable because she took me to places I would have never visited on my own. It opened me up to new experiences. Thank you, Sue-chan!

Life in the Big City I did a three-month internship at an international NGO in Tokyo. It gave me a taste of what it could be like working in the big city: commuting, office culture, and more. I didn’t have a full-time job at the end of 2025 or here in early 2026, but I have high hopes for landing a gig soon!