Bangkok – October 2007

Being an expat in Japan means many things.  You get to marvel at the efficiency of it all. You get to marvel at the inefficiency  of it all.  The eel is plentiful and so are the working hours. Most of all though, it means you need to have some sort of patented answer to the most popular question of them all:

“How did you end up in JAPAN?”

Really people, it’s not like we moved to Siberia. That said, I am asked at least once a week how I found myself here and have grown used to the confused tonality in which the question is normally delivered.

Granted, it wasn’t the most romantic of decisions.  Growing up I’d long dreamed of the cobblestone pathways of Italy, the sidewalk cafe’s of Paris and the double deckers of London…certainly that would be the glamorous fairytale I’d grow up to live, no?

Well, no.  (Not yet at least)

That fairytale all turned into a more Alice in Wonderland type tale the minute my boss responded to my inquiry about working abroad with, “I think it would be a great experience for you but I won’t transfer you to Europe, that’s where everyone goes.”

Not really the response I wanted and as “but, um, I want to move to London” would have only sounded like a whine at that moment, I bit my tongue.  I followed up with the obligatory questions about the next steps and we began to plot my future.

At first I thought I would just wait a day or two to go back in and announce that actually, “Who needs to think independently, London would be just fine thanks!”

That day never came.

In the end, the option I’d never considered became the option that seemed like the best path forward.   Having never considered even travelling in Asia, the idea of moving there seemed strangely natural.  Sure, the hours would be long but the career track would certainly accelerate.  There would be new adventures, new experiences that wouldn’t be available any where else and it quickly shaped up to be the chance of a lifetime.

Yes, there have been ups and downs but we’ve been places we never thought we’d see. We’ve done things we’d never considered before (hitchhiking in Thailand, climbing mountains, scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef) and have had so many adventures that couldn’t happen anywhere else.

Has it been easy? No, not at all really. It’s actually probably one of the most challenging things we’ve been through.

Has it been worth it? Absolutely.

What’s next? Who knows. If the economy would do something productive for a change, I might have a better answer.

For now, I just plan our next adventure, another we never thought we’d get to do in another place we never thought we’d see: Nepal.  After hours spent casing my usual haunts (orbitz, expedia, tripadvisor) I’ve got plane tickets in my grubby little hands and can’t wait!

Sometimes life takes unexpected twists and turns. My only advice that when this twists and turns come up: Go with it. You never know, it might just turn out to be the adventure of a lifetime.