Durf.org

About me

I’m Peter Durfee, and this is my website. I’m a translator and editor at a company called Japan Echo, a little publisher in Tokyo that puts out a magazine of the same name. (If you’ve ever seen the magazine, you may think we’re part of the Japanese government, but we’re not; we sell a chunk of our print run to the Foreign Ministry, which distributes the mags to libraries and schools and embassies and who knows where else.)

I came to Japan with my family in 1985. Dad, a teacher, landed a job at the American School in Japan. I graduated from high school there, learning a bit of the language in the process. Then I went to the University of California at Berkeley, where I ended up majoring in the same language, since I already had so many of the prerequisites out of the way. Graduation, and I was back in Japan again. From 1993 to 1996 I worked in the town of Nasu in Tochigi Prefecture. The JET Program didn’t want me since I fell afoul of some “you lived too long in this country” sort of rule, but the Nasu government wanted an English teacher who could also talk his way out of classroom trouble. That was me. I did a bit of translation for the town, too, including a small collection of local folktales. I’ve been meaning to get them online for years; one of these months, no doubt.

In 1996 I jumped ship and came to Tokyo, and I’ve been with Japan Echo ever since. In addition to the day job I do the odd freelance translation. I also teach some classes at the Science Museum and at Simul Academy, where I coordinate the J-E translation program and teach a course in government-related translation. Fun stuff. In 2005 I did a book-length translation that got published as Dr. Noguchi’s Journey. A very interesting man; a lot of sleepless nights that year.

The sleepless nights are continuing right now, thanks to the addition of Sakura to the family. I met my wife at Japan Echo and we got married in 2001, and since March 2007 we’ve been in charge of a cute little bundle of hungry baby. She feeds. All. The. Time. We love her.

That’s about it for me. If you want to chat with me or send me a note, you can do so by clicking the appropriate thingy below: