Monday April 28
14:14
Thoughts On Leaving Japan
I was off work for the last week, guiding my brother round Tokyo and beyond. We visited the volcano at Hakone (but avoided the hot springs), ate sushi, okonomiyaki, and Korean BBQ, danced the night away in Roppongi (a place that I detest, but I wanted to show my brother every side of Tokyo), went to a comedy night and to see a live gig, and ended up meeting the band the next day in the pub.
It was an excellent week.
The downside is that today I’m back at work. Bummer. At least there are two saving graces. Firstly, it’s a holiday in Japan tomorrow - so I’ll just get finished clearing down the unread email for the past week and it’ll be time for another day off. Secondly, right now I can see a new decent coffee machine being installed. If this one makes decent coffee and it’s not just here on trial for a week, I’ll no longer need to entertain thoughts of buying a Nespresso machine for my desk.
After my brother left on Friday, I started to think a lot about whether I’m going to continue living in Japan. I originally came here planning to hook-or-by-crook last it out until March 2008 and then revisit the situation. I figured that 18 months is the minimum I could spend in a job without it looking bad on my CV when I leave.
Suddenly - and this was a shock even to me - the thought of moving to America sprung into my mind, and my mind didn’t reject it. This is the first time I’ve even entertained the possibility of living outside Asia since 2001. I’ve no idea where that thought came from.
I’m in no hurry to rush into a decision at the moment. If possible, I’d like to last here until March 2009, since I’ll have saved more money, have stronger experience behind me, and hopefully be a little closer to speaking Japanese (my Japanese sucks compared to my Korean). I might also grow to like Japan more, and want to stay longer.
But now that I’m past the March 2008 mark and I feel safe to move on without it affecting my career, I’m going to start thinking about the possibilities.