We Moved to Japan

Well, this post is long overdue. I’m not sure why it has taken me so long to write it. Over the last few months, I’ve sat down so many times and started it. “We moved to Japan…” “I love Japan because…” “Our first few months in Japan have been…” “Japan is so hard…”

But honestly, none of it felt ready to share or authentic because I haven’t known how I felt about Japan or this move for months. This is our first move (and if you’ve been here for a while you know we move a lot) that has felt like an absolute crash landing. Like always, I did everything “right” ahead of the move. I did what I could to prep in terms of paperwork, packing, research, crowd sourcing from friends who live here, etc. But so much went wrong with this move, which seems to be the theme for most of our friends who moved this year. A lot was out of our control (more so than normal) and a lot went sideways.

We got here at the end of June and we had been warned about the heat and humidity in the summer (especially July and August). People told us they barely leave their house because it’s so miserable. Pre-Japan me thought that must be an exaggeration and I would absolutely still hit the ground running and get out exploring and start truly experiencing Japan. I was humbled. Immediately. And I’ve been told this summer was mild.

I am also humbled daily by the language barrier. Obviously I knew when I moved here that I neither speak nor read Japanese. However, coming off of three years of living in Italy where I very confidently speak and read the language, I think I had high expectations of myself to pick things up quickly. I didn’t expect that it would take me two times longer to run into a grocery store because I would be stopping to translate every little thing. I am incredibly grateful that we don’t have any allergies that I am having to check for, but my son may throw a popsicle back in my face if I accidentally buy him red bean thinking it’s strawberry one more time.

As silly as it sounds, I have felt myself settling in so much more over the last month or so as it has cooled down. The rainy season is passing, the humidity is lifting, and the sun is shining more and more. I can confidently drive on the left hand side of the road (even if I still occasionally hit my windshield wipers instead of my turn signal), I have accepted (even if I haven’t fully embraced) living on base for the first time ever and find the small wins every day in that, and I have genuinely found a great community for our family.

My measure of living a good life is that I have seen and done new things and new places that have made me a better version of myself. I have shown my son the world and filled his life with new experiences a sense of curiosity about the world around him.

Here’s the next few years in Japan and hopefully only making one to five translations errors a day.

xx,

Kirstin