I'm new to this forum, but not new to Japan or Japanese.
I'm a German who lives in Japan.
I started studying Japanese in 2002 and visited Japan for the first time in 2007.
Ever since early 2008 I've been living in Japan.
In the past few years I learned a lot about Japanese culture and everyday life.
I visited all 47 Japanese prefectures, but still can't get enough! It never gets boring.
I consider myself more or less fluent in German (my mother tongue) and English.
My Japanese is on a good level as I can manage my everyday life all by myself and on the phone people always thing I'm Japanese (a good sign?), but I wouldn't say I'm fluent. I doubt I ever will be.
That's a photo of me doing a maiko dress-up in Kyoto.
You can read about my life and travel adventures in my blog: http://zoomingjapan.com