established as a designer working in tokyo, coupland suffered a skin condition brought on by tokyo's summer climate, and returned to vancouver. before leaving japan, coupland had sent a postcard ahead to a friend in vancouver. the friend's husband, a magazine editor, read the postcard and offered coupland a job writing for the magazine. coupland began writing for magazines as a means of paying his studio bills. reflecting on his becoming a writer, coupland has admitted that he became one "by accident. i never wanted to be a writer. now that i do it, there's nothing else i'd rather do." he has stated that he has not been employed since 1988.