User:Obishawnkenobi

My name is Shawn Gray.

I'm a professional Japanese-to-English translator, currently residing in Japan.

Originally from New Brunswick, Canada, I developed an early interest in Japan through the Karate training (Chito-ryu) that I began in 1984.

In 1988 I entered studies at what was then known as Atlantic Baptist University (now Crandall University). In 1990 I took a year break from studies to teach English in Hiroshima, returning to Canada in 1991. I moved to Vancouver in January, 1992 and transferred to Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, in June, 1992, where I attended the Canada Institute of Linguistics. I graduated from TWU in Spring 1993 with a BA in Intercultural Religious Studies (Linguistics Concentration). After graduation I held a variety of seasonal jobs, most notably working for Japan Travel Bureau before moving back to Japan in January, 1997.

In February, 1992, I had found a school of Bujinkan martial arts in the Vancouver area after much searching, and quit my Karate studies to pursue training in the Bujinkan. This was to be the main driving force behind my move back to Japan and the reason why I spent the next 12 years living there. I received my Bujinkan instructor's license from Grandmaster Masaaki Hatsumi in January 1999 and opened a dojo with his encouragement in 2000. In 2002 I was invited to give seminars in Europe, and have continued to give seminars each year since in Europe and North America.

Noting the esoteric content of some of Hatsumi Sensei's teachings, I decided that it would be easier for me to access this knowledge from a Western perspective and eventually enrolled in the MA in Western Esotericism programme at the University of Exeter. I completed this degree in November, 2010.

I continue Bujinkan training with Hatsumi Sensei in Japan on a weekly basis, and am currently working with a publisher toward publishing my MA thesis in book form, hopefully sometime in late 2011.