Relocating to Japan【日本への移住】

It’s Zoe here again! As promised, I’m gonna share my relocating experience to Japan!

Before Japan, I had only done a four month internship in Los Angeles. That gave me a taste of having a life outside of Singapore, and the freedom of not living with my parents. I do love my parents a lot though!

I had a month-long vacation in Japan with my best friend a year prior to moving here, and that trip helped my best friend and I decide that we wanted to move. After returning to Singapore, we started working really hard to save up money for the move. I told my parents about my decision and they were very supportive of it. We started doing research and planned what we needed to do. We looked for jobs and had online interviews with companies in Japan. My best friend secured a job while I was still looking. With the moving date getting closer, I decided I would move with her and come to Japan first and continue looking for a job. Being physically here would give me a higher chance of getting a job. This is the first photo I took on the NEX train after landing!

Self-Introduction【自己紹介】

What’s up guys! It’s Zoe. I’m from Singapore and I’ve been in Japan since December 2016.

Back in Singapore, I had multiple jobs. I worked as a dancer in an internationally famous amusement park! Can you guess where? I was also a vocalist in a band that performed for weddings and events, produced dance videos for my dance friends, and also worked part-time in a menswear apparel shop a friend of mine owns. I couldn’t find one thing to stick to!

Life in Japan【日本での生活】

Good day, dear readers! Jamieson here, and this time I would like to share how my life is going in Japan so far.

Upon arriving at Haneda airport back in 2020, I was instantly faced with my first challenge. I was staring at the bus timetable trying to figure out what bus was going in my direction. Thankfully for me, a very helpful member of staff noticed my confused expression and came over to offer their assistance. It quickly dawned on me that Japan was not a country I could get by with English alone. For once I would actually have to make an effort to learn the language!

Language barrier aside, I was able to get set up with the essentials for living in Japan. Now it was time to start my career with Gaba and explore the many wonders of Japan on my days off. Sounds great, yeah? Well, that’s what I thought, but a global pandemic was about to change everything!

Relocating to Japan【日本への移住】

Hello dear readers, Jamieson again, and this time I would like to tell you about why I decided to move to Japan. Like a lot of people from overseas, my first exposure to anything Japanese was when I was young with the introduction of Japanese anime into Western media. By that age, I was already into anything that depicted martial arts, war, conflict, or stories of a fantastical nature. Naturally this led me down the path of consuming many anime series or films involving samurai, ninja, robots or anything set in feudal Japan. Accurate or not, I fell in love with the Japan these shows were portraying. The culture and atmosphere was vastly different to the Western world.

Fast forward many years, and my intrigue with Japan remained. The BBC seemed to be constantly sending over celebrities to make documentaries about Japan. Many TV shows focused on the things to see and do in Japan, like eating delicious food from one specific area, bullet trains, cultural ceremonies, the amazingly busy Shibuya pedestrian crossing, or even observing monkeys chilling out in a natural hot spring. I was fascinated with how Japan looked at the future with its technological advancements, but also kept one eye on the past. Many people cherished the history of Japan and even still practiced traditional customs. I liked this idea, as it seemed like we were quickly forgetting traditional elements of the UK to fit in with the ever-changing modern world.

Self-Introduction【自己紹介】

Hello there dear readers, my name is Jamieson and I am from England. I grew up bouncing around the UK from place to place due to my parents serving in the Royal Air Force (RAF), but I spent the majority of my time between two areas, the well-known bustling capital of London, to the not-so-well-known slower-paced countryside of Norfolk.

As for my professional life, that has also been rather varied. I have worked in customer and IT support, sales roles, as well as having my own drone business, but the standouts were probably my time at the BBC and British Army. It was a great experience to be part of a production crew and see some of my hard work appear on TV. As for the British Army, that has shaped the person I am today. I have some amazing memories of traveling the world and experiencing different cultures, but also some good old character building moments such as training until near mental and physical exhaustion. I can assure you I look back on these moments fondly, but at the time, under duress, of course I questioned my life choices!

Life in Japan【日本での生活】

Hey there, readers! Mook here again with another story time. Today, I wanted to share a bit about my thoughts on living in Japan.

The best part about living here is definitely the trains! Listen, I know we all complain about JR being late all the time, but even then, the trains in Japan are so efficient, clean, and for the most part, pretty on time. When I lived in Bangkok, my apartment was four kilometers from my campus. Do you want to guess how long it took for me to get to class? On a good day, it took 30 minutes by bus. On a horrible day, it took an hour. So, trust me when I say that Japanese transportation is a dream come true!