Should you live in Japan?

The culture series Part 2 — episode 1

I have come to realize not many people have the opportunity to live in different countries. Yet, it is something many people want to experience. So I have started a 4 part series to share my experience living in four different countries, the beauty and the beast.

And I am breaking today’s topic into two episodes because after writing this article, I notice it is a 12-minute long read.

In Episode one, I will focus on working in Japan.

In Episode two, I will focus on people and culture.

As a disclaimer, I am sharing my personal experience, so I will not sugarcoat it, but I am by no means trying to offend anyone or any culture. You are more than welcome to disagree with me.

So let’s get to it.

By the way, my first article in this series was about Hong Kong — my birthplace. You can check out the article here.

Today, I want to bring you to Tokyo, Japan.

I went to Japan on a working holiday visa. I was living in Canada then, and something happened to me personally, and I was desperate for an escape.

I chose Tokyo.

Because I studied Japanese in Uni and I was pretty good at it.

All the Japanese dramas also hooked me — nowadays, people turned to K-dramas, but it was more the Japanese dominating the market then. The Kimu-Taku (Kimura Takuya) days…may be too old for some of you.

I did some research and found that I can go to Japan on a working holiday visa. So I thought, why not? I can go there for 6 months, come back to Canada and find a job.

I ended up staying for 10 years.

I dare say it was the most important 10 years of my life, as I started my ‘adulthood,’ trying to navigate life in a different country, speak a different language and get used to a culture so different from the western world.

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