Month: April 2020

Moving to Japan during a pandemic

We have now spent 1 month in Japan. This post is a bit of a personal update, for friends and family wondering how things are going on the other side of the world, and also to document my experience during the early days of the pandemic in Japan. This is obviously a snapshot, written during the 10th and 11th of April. The situation is constantly changing, so I refrain from adding too many official details.

The first time I moved to Japan, as an exchange student to Ritsumeikan University, it was Y2K. My friend and I had a plan to escape to the small neighnbbourhood grocery store. It was packed full of food, and had a shutter that could be pulled down in a siege. Seemed like a logical place to go…

The second time I moved to Japan was just after 9/11. During the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, I happened to be in Japan for a week visiting my girlfriend (now spouse) before my final semester at university. When all planes were grounded I was stuck here in Kyoto and started looking for a job. I interviewed at my old alma mater, and secured a position in the PR department. The ban on flights lifted, and my new employers let me go back to Canada to finish my degree. I returned on January 2nd, 2002. It was a different world.

The third time I moved to Japan full time was in the aftershock of the financial crisis in 2008. I was just out of grad school, and having a tough time interviewing for jobs in Canada. Luckily, the company I worked for part time in Nagoya (Apple) was willing to give me a full time position.

This is the fourth time I have moved to Japan to stay for an extended period of time. We arrived on March 11th, the 9th anniversary of the Tōhoku Earthquake Triple Disaster. Again, there is a global crisis happening in the background.

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The next chapter

Some personal news:

After more than 3 years at eDynamic Learning, I have chosen to leave to pursue some personal projects. My family and I will be spending a year on a small island off the southern coast of Japan (see previous post) “on exchange” while I research and write a book about Kyushu’s “Asia strategy.” (I will go into more details in future posts, so please sign up for updates via RSS or the Newsletter!)

This decision has been a while in the making. Regrettably I have not been able to be very open about it, so it may come as a shock to some people. Furthermore the timing has not been great what with the pandemic and with my mother-in-law passing away a couple of weeks ago. We were lucky to leave Canada when we did considering all the travel restrictions. Right now I am still in Kyoto, and will be for the next few weeks before making the move to Ikijima (which hopefully doesn’t get further postponed due to the looming lockdown here in Japan).

Despite all the challenges I am so excited to finally pursue my long-held dream of writing a book! I will be recording that journey, as well as our experiences living on the “Lucky Island” in Japan, on this site once things get settled down in the coming weeks. Watch out for it!