I’ve lived in Japan for the last three and a half years. And now it’s time to go home.
In a way it feels like I’ve already uprooted since I left Toyama back in August, along with the apartment, Day Job, and social circles I’d been cultivating for the previous three years. My current stopover in Yokohama has felt like just that—a stopover to get some work experience, live in a big city, and enjoy Japan a little longer.
Don’t get me wrong—Yokohama life is great. I have a decent apartment in a cool neighborhood, and I enjoy my job teaching English at Kanagawa University a lot, even if it can get pretty busy. Being down in a more populated part of Japan has also helped me reconnect with people, as well as opened a few doors—last week I recorded a broadcast for a Japanese radio show (!), an opportunity I wouldn’t have gotten if I hadn’t been close to Tokyo.
Images of my classroom on the 8th floor of Kanagawa University, Minato-Mirai Campus. Classes for English majors were capped at twenty students, and involved a lot of conversation. The view was pretty nice too (not shown: Mt. Fuji!).
Last Day at the University
Friday was my last day of classes at the university—not a strenuous day, but just a wrapup day where students reflected and we played some games. I also said a lot of goodbyes, took a lot of pictures with students (which I won’t post here for privacy reasons), and accepted a few gifts. Students told me how much they enjoyed my class and how much they were going to miss it, and a few others stayed late after class to chat.
It was one of those days that made me realize how much I like being a teacher, especially here in Japan, where students tend to really appreciate that relationship. And that brings a lot of value to my life.
It also made me think harder about finding ways I could still teach without it overwhelming my life and interfering with my writing and all the other things I want to do. But that’s a topic for another day…
For now, though, I still have a lot of grading and paperwork to finish, which I’ll be working on for the next day or so. Then I’ve got a bunch of packing to do, a few boxes to send home via super-cheap Japanese ocean mail, a few final goodbyes, and then it’s time to fly home (a direct flight that’s paid for by my employer ;-)
Also, if you’d like to see a sample of my elementary school teaching, here’s a video I made with some coworkers for students to watch at home during the early days of the pandemic. It was really fun to work on, and the kids got a kick out of it for sure. Many thanks to Jake Spangler for the awesome editing, and to Masako Oshida for the translation!
Reflections on Living in Japan
When people ask me why I chose to live in Japan, a big part of it is because Japan was where I could find work that I actually wanted to do and that paid a decent wage with health insurance. My job on the JET Program was pretty lucrative financially because of my subsidized rent, low transportation cost, and international tax breaks, and it also allowed me a lot of time for creative work, even while on the clock.
Apart from that, though, is that I enjoyed the way Japanese society is structured. I liked living in a neighborhood where I could ride my bike instead of warming up a cold car in the morning and dealing with filling up gas and paying for car repairs. I also liked walking, especially for small errands like going to the post office or buying milk. My current apartment is right across from a convenience store, so if I want a snack or forget to buy bread, I can dash out and buy some in a way that feels easy and natural, without a car.
I also love that I can live this way for cheap (¥11,000 JPY or $100 to live in Toyama, and ¥81,000 or $750 to live in Yokohama, utilities included), with health insurance, where I don’t have to shell out money for car registration.
If I want to go somewhere in Japan, I can check a train schedule on my phone, jump on a local train near where I live, and travel anywhere in the country without a reservation. On the train I can read a book, listen to podcasts, or just people watch. It’s more relaxing than driving everywhere, or trying to navigate America’s more convoluted transportation system (where, by the way, I have to go online and reserve a ticket if I want to take a bus from Boston to New Hampshire).
Japan’s also safe: in Japan I walk down the darkest of streets without fear, and I know that if I lose my wallet, someone’s likely to return it to the local police box with the cash and everything else inside still intact.
Finally, I like that in Japan I can live alone, go places alone, and have time and space to work without anyone thinking it’s strange or weird. Japan has a lot of single, one-room apartments, a lot of coffee shops and public workspaces, and meetups tend to be carefully planned and less spontaneous than back in the States.
My friend and fellow expat Krissy Diggs put it best when she explained how in Japan, all foreigners are outsiders anyway, so there’s not a lot of pressure here for us to conform to societal values the way there is back home, where people expect that we’ll fit into what society wants us to do. (Blunt Version: Work a “real job,” get married, move to the suburbs, and raise two-and-a-half kids.) In Japan, I feel removed from all that, and I like that freedom a lot.
A thank-you message from my last day.
Final Thoughts
Those things are all really important to me, of course, but the truth is that it really is time for me to go back to the States: I’ve got a novel to promote in the spring, I’ve saved up enough money to get me through this next step, and I’ve got a second novel in progress that I really want to focus on. There are also a lot of things about the States I miss, especially the people.
Going back really makes the most sense, but I’ll miss my life in Japan a lot. One thing that makes it easier, though, is knowing that in one way or another, I’ll definitely be back someday.