GoKawiilWhen I first arrived in Tokyo in 2024, I held a JLPT N2 certification—a milestone I had worked toward for years, from when I was still employed full-time in my home country, until I graduated from language school in Ehime. That certificate was key to landing my Project Manager job in Tokyo.
Once I started working, though, I realized that passing a test and actually “owning” a language are two different things. I had the technical ability to navigate professional tasks, but I wanted to do more than just survive in Japanese. I wanted to speak it with the same confidence I felt in English.
I found my answer in the one thing I had loved for over a decade—Magic: The Gathering. I decided to make Magic the place where I would stop being a learner, and start being a full participant. What began as a way to enjoy my hobby in a new city ended up having a profound and lasting impact on, not just my work, but my life in Japan as a whole.
Back in Ehime, the hobby scene was virtually non-existent, confining my Japanese practice to textbooks and classrooms. Moving to Tokyo changed everything. With access to a thriving local game community, I realized I had the perfect opportunity to finally “earn” my N2 through real-world application.
Following is a detailed, step-by-step breakdown of how I did just that, including:
Localizing the deck
Once I settled in Tokyo, I set a rule for myself that felt counterintuitive at first: As much as possible, every card I played had to be in Japanese.
For many international residents I know, the instinct is to stick with English cards to avoid confusion. But I realized that if I sat down with an English deck, I was forcing my Japanese opponents to adapt to me. If they didn’t know a card, the game would grind to a halt while we looked up a translation or called a judge. It was a friction point that I wanted to eliminate as much as possible.
By committing to Japanese cards, I shifted the “burden of explanation” entirely onto myself, while making the game more accessible for everyone else at the table.
Designing for clarity
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