Back in '94 I was hired by Sony to be a developer for the first PlayStation, during it's OS development. I was in Toyko for a few weeks with another role at Son

Back in '94 I was hired by Sony to be a developer for the first PlayStation, during it's OS development. I was in Toyko for a few weeks with another role at Sony, which I quit due to personality conflicts with my American boss, but was rehired by Tokyo of Japan to join their OS team, and I spent 6 months doing crunch time with their OS development team - I was the only Gaijin. That was the experience of a lifetime: total immersion in a foreign culture while having a serious duty to accomplish, plus a complete lack of Japanese language or culture. Luckily, in my previous Tokyo stint the PSX OS team met a series of game developers from various game companies around the world - a PSX preview series of meetings, where the Sony team saw first hand some of the odd personalities (goth / 90's super geek) the game industry had. So I, being a fairly normal dude, was given a lot of latitude with my lack of Japanese manners. Overall, the perspective I gained was a great foundation for confidence to pursue my dreams. There is so much human activity, practically anything one wants to do can be found if one is willing to leave your culture for one pursuing that dream without the American infrastructure we take for granted.