The temporary experience of living in Tokyo that Dan and I signed up to in August 2018 just got moderatly more than temporary.

By December 2018 we knew we wanted to spend a little more time living in this epic city as we had barely scratched the surface of our local area, let alone the rest of this crazy metropolis. However, that is not a straightforward decision to make; what about visas? Jobs? The neighbour next door who watches adult movies on a regular basis?! All of these things needed to be tackled but we were at something of a loss as to how.

Firstly came visas. Ok, so I have a valid visa providing I continue teaching in universities. The catch is that I don’t particularly want to continue that and in between terms I have a one to three month break of income. So, this led onto point two. I have the experience in teaching and project management to get a decent job in places other than Japan. However, I don’t have the Japanese skills nor the vision of the type of career I’m actually looking for to get a job in horribly competitive Tokyo. Dan has great skills, a lot of experience, and a clear focus on where his career will take him. Thus, it seemed pretty crazy that I was the one holding down the visa without focus or direction.

And so we tackled number two. After some soul searching, six interviews at the same company, significant heartache over life choices, Dan finally left his UK job and took up with a global audio visual company in Tokyo. I am beyond proud of him and his incredible skills and work ethic. So that takes care of visas and a job for him. Just me next…and so I finally decided to commit to the thing I have been threatening to do over the past five years and start an M.Ed (Master of Education) course. As of 16th July, I will be a part-time post-graduate student and I am beyond excited to finally do this! I will keep up some university teaching (the M.Ed is a professional qualification after all) and become a student once more. Oh how the roles have reversed! As Dan now gets up early and heads off to work, I’ll be sat at home in my PJs working from home. BAM, life plans.

The final thing on the list was the crazy inappropriate neighbour. Well, turns out in Japan you will always hear your neighbours…however, a swift move across town to new digs has removed us of that particular neighbour burden. Wins! So although the past few months have been crazy with some significant ups and downs, Dan came to the end of his first week at his new job and is loving it, and I have just beeen accepted onto my M.Ed and awarded a scholarship to do so. Yay! Proud.

So, looks like we’ll be in Tokyo a bit longer then…