The Rant

While I'm here, in case anyone I know is still around, I posted on here 7 years ago or so, that I got married and would be heading back to the US.

Well, we didn't head back lol. Not worth getting into anymore but things changed. Started my IT career in Japan instead and have been here (with my wife) ever since.

So yeah. How about that?

This will probably be my last update for real this time...

Having someone from your family dig up your personal blog from nearly 10 years ago and send you an embarrassing private entry from even further back feels like them finding your diary/journal, looking through it, then sending you a picture of one of your more vulnerable enteries.

I feel like anyone with common sense wouldn't do that.

I've made this blog private, in that it can only be accessed by someone with an account. (Tumblr not having a full on private mode that can be toggled on is insane)

But if I find that that wasn't enough I guess I'll have to delete this blog.

I don't use it anymore and probably everyone I know from here has moved on, but it's a part of me and my past - most of it embarrassing as hell, but still part of my past. So I'd rather not delete it.

But I am frankly creeped out that you would send me a blog post from 10+ years ago where I was being vulnerable about my insecurities and fears at the time and send it to me like that out of the blue.....like seriously that's no bueno.

Hello everyone who’s still around,

For those of you who don’t know, and a reminder for those who do, I’ve been in Japan for almost 2 years now. I came here for Language School and with the hopes of finding work here and staying permanently.

The short version of events is, I came here, had a blast, learned a lot of Japanese, and fell in love. That last part is most relevant, because I actually got married to a Japanese girl I was dating here. We got married in February of this year, actually.

Right now I’m happily enjoying our life together and just haven’t had any desire to return to Tumblr. I won’t go as far as to say I’m done with Tumblr, but I’ve obviously been on an extended hiatus and will probably remain so. Too busy, not enough interest in returning right now. Not that that likely bothers anyone but, hey.

I will likely return to the states with the Wife in 6-8 months. For lots of reasons I won’t go into right now, we decided maybe staying here wasn’t the best idea long term, as much as we both like this country. How you see things in Japan changes somewhat when you go from being single to married.

This is a wonderful country overall, but there’s a lot of “life stuff” here that isn’t so amazing. For the educated, you probably know a lot of this already, but consider the job culture here, work environment, etc. Also, the aging population, the fact that there’s real concerns about Fuji-san blowing a gasket in the near future, and of course the ever looming sense that a war will *eventually* occur in the region. Doesn’t matter if it’s Russia, China, or North Korea.

That last bit may not happen, but it wouldn’t be unusual at all of it did. (To be clear, it doesn’t take a declaration of war against JAPAN for Japan to be in danger. Simply put, if Russia and the U.S. fight, or Russia/EU, or China/Taiwan, etc, suffice it to say Japan, physically, is in the way/area, and in some of those cases has duties as Allies to other nations, so it puts it at risk)

Of course, all of this shit exists an any country, it’s just a matter of picking and choosing which crap you want to deal with. Personally, I don’t want to potentially end up in a company that forces me to work 12-18 hours a day and possibly not pay me overtime because it’s “expected” of me to put in said overtime for the company, and especially because I’m new in said company. Nor am I looking forward to being bossed around by the guy who was the new guy before me, and so on, so on. Not to mention a lot of companies frown on you actually using your government mandated 10 days of vacation time. The work culture here is improving but it’s still pretty shit. I was willing to consider putting up with that when I was single, but if I actually want to have a life with my Wife and future kids.....well to put it bluntly, fuck that. 

But, I digress. 

Neither of us really want to go back to the U.S. if I’m honest. It’s just the easiest place to start since I have family there, and being married makes the visa process.....well, not easier, because the U.S. Greencard system is complicated and awful. In Japan I filled out some paperwork, provided proof, and was good to go in less than 2 months. The U.S. requires 10 times as much paperwork, and it takes 6 months to 2 years to get approved, officially. 

Anyway, point is, we’ll go there, I’ll try and get an IT job rolling, and we’ll go from there. We’ve talked about going to Canada instead, but at any rate we’ll have to start in the U.S.

But anyway, this has turned into a longer post than I planned. But then again, this is The Rant, lol.

So, that’s it for this update.

See you when I see you!