In August 2018 Dan and I moved to Tokyo. We’ve both been privilidged to celebrate our 32nd birthdays here and and enjoy all of the city living a mega metropolis like Tokyo offers.

Enabling this move has been my job; teaching English at a university in central Tokyo. My contract runs from term to term, so it is perfect for the undecided ‘where do we go next’ types, like us.

This term I worked at a women’s university. It was a brilliant experience as I felt able to empower my students to think about the world and their role in it, as women. I also got to make an obscene amount of references to Harry Potter and how much Hermoine is my hero…and they not only got it, but we’re fully on board with me!

However, with contracts running each term, it also meant that in no time at all I had to say goodbye to my lovely new students and great co-workers: Douglas from Scotland, Dorothy from Canada, Elisabeth from all over, Amy from England, and Mike from America. We were a motley crew who came together for three short months and generally kicked butt.

We held a very informal but fun Christmas party for the students on the last day of work to say farewell and then celebrated together in style with a meal and, of course, karaoke. A lot of laughs were had as we sang songs that crossed both cultural barriers and generational ones!

It is never easy to say goodbye, especially after such a short time, but I’m certain we will keep in touch as we settle down in Tokyo or move on to other wild and wonderful places.

Merry Christmas 2018 and happy new year! Here is to just as much fun and the creation of many memories in 2019.