Tuesday, April 19, 2011

A Whole Year Already?!

On April 12th, after several months of training, familiarizing myself with my company's systems and inner workings, I boarded a plane bound for Japan. Half a day later, I arrived on the 13th, and practically hit the ground running. Upon calling my coworker to let them know I arrived, I was told we had some issues with our firewall, and they asked if I could come take a look at it. Well I guess there was good reason for me to be here after all.

Now one year later, we've got almost twice as much machinery and computers, I have a new boss, and we have 10 more employees than when I started, making me far from the new guy (although I'm still the youngest). Work is really turning into a lively place.


One of my coworkers also closed the restaurant he was running down the street to work full time for us. Certainly necessary (when was he finding time to sleep???), but it was sad to see that place close. I did grab a few plates and glasses as memoirs though, and I got a cabinet out of the deal too. Still, I'm going to miss Kyu-Style!


Originally when I got here too, my girlfriend lived 3+ hours away in Tochigi, but her department was miraculously moved from out there in the boonies to HQ in Tokyo. Which means she also moved closer, to the same prefecture in fact. Now we're only an hour or so away. Boy does that make a big difference (much cheaper too!). This is also much much much much nicer than the 15 hour time difference. No more conversations limited to only good morning and good night.

I've also moved out from one horror story of an apartment into a much newer, larger and awesome place (which I've still been meaning to take pictures of). I'm closer to work now, within biking distance, and really settled in. I've still got a few more things on my todo list, like get a bed, couch, bike, and finally build a new computer, but I'll get there.

This officially makes it my longest stay in Japan. Previously when I studied abroad I was only here for 11 months, so I've now exceeded that with a full year now. And what happens from here on? I don't know. I don't have any plans to go home any time soon, yet the idea of living here for good feels strange. I'm not against it, but I guess it's still kinda weird to call a foreign country home, as in permanent home. Then again, throughout college I was moving at the pace of about once a year, so I guess the idea of just settling down period is strange. How do you plan that far ahead...?

Well, so far things are going well, and I like it here. It's certainly more exciting, and my existence here as a foreigner is more special than in the US, so that makes the whole experience fun. So for now, until I figure out what to do next, I'm just going to keep going with that.

Sneak peak! On the 10th, the weekend before last, I did some hanami with some friends. I'll post more of it later, but man the sakura (cherry trees) were gorgeous!



Also, this picture of my girlfriend and I is apparently becoming somewhat famous on facebook. :D

4 Comments:

Anonymous Brad said...

Congratulations. Time certainly flies.

4/20/2011 2:42 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Wow! It's hard to believe you've been there a year!
Thanks for all the great updates and links and everything. It really lets me know how you are coping with living in Japan. I have a better understanding of what it's like to live in earthquake zone.
I wonder how big an earthquake the first Easter was. Hmm?

4/25/2011 8:26 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Superb blog post, I have book marked this internet site so ideally I’ll see much more on this subject in the foreseeable future!

4/25/2011 2:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great pictures! Kana is so pretty! Aunt Gianna

5/02/2011 12:18 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home