Brief background:
I made my first trip to Japan in July 2004 and followed it up with a subsequent trip in August, which was less of a vacation and more to make plans to move to Yokohama in fall 2004. I lived in Yokohama from September 2004 until late in December 2006.
My time spent living and working in Japan was a mixed bag. There were both up and down times, things I enjoyed and things I disliked. My original "plan" as it were was to remain in Japan only 6 months to 1 year. In June 2004, the University research study that I had been working on as a study coordinator ended and although I had a few job offers, nothing quite matched the prestige, office location or salary that I had for the past few years working on that study. And after having an alluring vacation to Japan in July 2004, I began to think more seriously about something I had considered over the past few years - living and teaching English in Asia. I don't really recall whether I chose Japan or it chose me as a matter of circumstances. None the less, there I was in August 2004 making a return vacation to Japan for the purpose of finding work, a visa sponsor and living arrangements. Fortunately, my research job as well as a small internet business I had started over the past couple of years had provided me with ample savings to both take a couple of vacations to Japan and to move there in September 2004. I rented a nice 2-bedroom, 2-story house in Yokohama - a long commute from the ESL school I had found employment at in Tokyo.
But as these things often go, 6 months or 1 year became more than 2 years before I moved back to Phoenix. Though to be fair, by summer of 2006 I knew I was ready to return to Phoenix and it was then simply a matter of saving money and making the arrangements to return, which I did in December 2006.
The Positives:
People often ask me if I enjoyed living in Japan. It sounds like an easy question to answer, "yes" or "no", right? But it really isn't quite that simple. There were both things that I enjoyed and disliked. I did have some interesting experiences while living there - things that would likely never have happened to me living in America. Number one, I was able to do a little acting - a small part in a Japanese feature film. It was basically an extra role with a couple of lines. But it was so fun to do, and this is something that I had always fantasized about, acting in a movie - seeing myself on a movie screen and having a DVD to keep and remember the experience. Okay, I never thought that it would be a Japanese movie (!) and honestly although I thought about it from time to time in America, I never wanted to be one of those desperate wannabe actors, so I never tried out or went to any film auditions in America.
In October & November of 2005, I went on vacation to the beautiful island of Guam. An island I'm quite certain that I would have never visited had I not been living in Japan, given it's much closer proximity to Japan (only about 3 hours by plane) than to America. While on my vacation in Guam, I had the opportunity to visit the Plaza de Espana. This was the historical headquarters of the "Governor" of the island when under Spanish rule, which the island was for more than 300 years!
I had other interesting adventures in 2005 as well - I visited Tokyo Disney Sea and Tokyo Disneyland and I visited Tai Pei, Taiwan on a vacation in January 2005. It seemed that 2005 was full of adventures and new experiences, and after the initial adjustment of living and working in a foreign country, the positives started to outweigh the negatives in 2005.
The Negatives:
But by 2006, the adventures began to wear off. Return trips to Tokyo Disney Sea and Tokyo Disneyland did little to keep my interest in remaining in Japan. I had grown tired of the bad weather, the cloudy/rainy days, the long cold winters, and I had grown tired of teaching ESL. Those were the biggest factors for me to begin thinking about a return to Phoenix in 2006. I missed the warm sunny days of Phoenix, I didn't want to suffer through another 6 month long winter in Japan, and I wanted another career position in research, I had found out that teaching ESL was not nearly as fun as I had envisioned. I think the only high point in 2006 was going to watch the movie I had a small acting part in at the theater, though I was disappointed that there weren't many people in the theater. I was hoping to get noticed! LOL...
The first year, everyday was a new adventure:
One of the reasons that I overstayed my initial plan of 6 months to a year, was that everyday really was a new adventure. Not only the vacations to Taiwan and Guam and the day trips to Disney Sea and Disneyland, but each day there was something new to see and do and learn. Simple things like trips to grocery stores, eating out, walking to the train station, bicycling, visiting local places in Yokohama. All of these held adventures. I remember when I first moved there in 2004, I used to go to this little New Orleans style Benet shop in Honmoku-cho. Unfortunately, it closed in January 2005, so that was short lived. But there were other small things to enjoy as well. I remember how fun it was to experience Christmas in Japan in 2004.
2010 update: Visit my website for more travel adventures & photos. Since returning to Phoenix from living in Yokohama I've travelled to Thailand several times. You can visit my website & my new blog at www.danielalandogarcia.com
or simply click the photo icon of me on this blog - then follow the link to my website.
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