We use the the Past Perfect only when talking about an event in the past that occurred before another event in the past. We don't use it to talk about one event in the past.
- I had lived in Korea before I moved to Japan. (2 Past Tense Events Expressed)
2. Actually, I went home to America, first. (1 Past Tense Event Expressed)
3. So, I had lived in New York for five years before coming to Japan. (2 Past Tense Events Expressed)
NOTE to Number 3: In the second part of the sentence we use a gerund of come--which is the noun form of that verb; you can see it has ing the end, with before providing the context of a simple past event.
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日本語訳
過去完了形は、過去の出来事よりさらに前に起こった出来事を述べるときに使います。過去の出来事が一つだけなら通常は使いません。例文では、韓国に住んでいたことが、日本に移ったことより前に当たります。「実は先にアメリカへ帰った」という文は過去の出来事が一つです。「日本へ来る前にニューヨークに五年間住んでいた」は二つの時点の関係を表します。最後の before coming to Japan では、come の動名詞 coming を before の後で使っています。本文末の教室案内は原文のまま残します。