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The Wait

Moving to Japan

Aaannd the wait begins. Well to be honest, the wait began the second I received the job offer that meant I would be living in Japan. I still don’t have my placement yet, I don’t know where exactly in Japan I’ll be living or when I’ll be leaving, but still this thing happening…I’m really going! In fact I just sent off the paperwork to get my work visa started. My aim is to be placed in or around Tokyo, but wherever I am, I plan to make the most of it. Que sera, sera right?

I feel this conflicting brew of impatience, spiked with dread, laced with fear, mixed with excitement. This all still seems very unreal. I hear myself saying the words “I’m moving to Japan”, but they don’t have any weight yet, they don’t have any meaning. I might as well be speaking another language to my own ears like, well, Japanese, which I have been making some effort to learn by the way. I’m hoping to have Hiragana and Katakana (two of the three Japanese alphabets) down as well as the ability to make simple sentences before I go.

What a humbling experience it will be to live in a country where my ability to communicate will be drastically reduced, to the level of a toddler even. I’m sure that will lead to some fantastic stories. Which will show up in this blog, of course ;)

So make sure to keep reading!

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2 Comments  comments 

2 Responses

  1. Have you put in a request to be sent to any parts of Japan? If so where would you like to live and work?

    • Amanda

      Hey! Congrats on being my first comment on my new site!

      I’ve asked to be placed in the Kanto region, and I’m told that’s where I’m going. More specifically I’m looking for greater Tokyo or even central Tokyo, simply because I feel it will be the most foreigner-friendly, in terms of English signage and access to international goods and services. See, I don’t want to go into complete culture shock when I first get there. I’m planning to make my way all over the country though :) .

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