More than a decade after becoming the first Westerner to pass the highest level of Japan's notoriously difficult Kanji Aptitude Test, Bret Mayer has little interest in being known simply as "the kanji guy."Instead, the 44-year-old American has spent the years since immersing himself in pursuits ranging from traditional tea making and Japanese speech contests to legal studies, driven less by a desire to collect achievements than by an enduring curiosity and a belief that the greatest satisfaction comes from continuing to learn.At the tea-rolling dojo in Shizuoka Prefecture where he is learni…READ FULL ARTICLE
