Nine days from now, I will be on a
plane heading to Japan, where I will be living and working for the
next twelve months (at least). Writing that statement down does not
make it seem any less ridiculous to me.
2013 was a challenging year for a
number of reasons, but trumping all others was my resolution,
following a visit to Japan in the Spring, to find a way of returning
there on a long-term basis. Nine months later and I have acquired a
teaching qualification, have won a position teaching English
conversation at a private language school in central Japan and I
start working there next month. It all seems to have happened very
fast.
But has it? My first visit to Japan,
many, many years ago, was at the invitation of a friend of mine, who
was, at the time, teaching English out there herself. And at some
point the idea lodged in my mind that perhaps I could do something
similar. Maybe. One day. But it was a daydream and I was content to
let it remain just that. Until now. And if I can take anything away
from the events of 2013 it's that if you want something badly enough
then anything is possible.
This blog will be a way of keeping
connected to those I'm leaving behind in the UK, a means of
chronicling my adventures over the next year and somewhere I can
record my observations of daily life in the country I'm soon to be
calling home. I hope you'll like what I have to say.
