My name is Benny Ichibanya (well, for this blog it is) and I am a male in my late twenties, living somewhere in Western Europe with my Japanese wife. As the title of this blog suggests, I am working towards moving to Japan. This is actually a bigger goal for me than it is for my wife. My goal is to move to Japan somewhere in the middle of 2016. I thought this blog could help me in several ways:
- It serves as a place to sort out my thoughts
- I can keep track of my progress towards my goal
- It might come in handy to those with similar goals
Before talking about my plans for the future, I'd like to start with a short version of the past. I've always had a thing for Japan. It all started when my dad let me watch martial arts movies when I was about 8 or 9 years old. There was something about that discipline and hard training in the midst of bamboo trees and temples that really attracted me. At that age there was no difference to me in China, Hong Kong and Japan, it all looked amazing. I was also got very interested in videogames around that time, which market Japan dominated at the end of the nineties and early 00's. From there I got interested in Japanese cinema, I watched all possible Japan related travel documentaries, and started browing the internet for interesting websites about Japan. This was early 00's and way before youtube was available. Most websites did not have movies. Google Maps/Earth wasn't available either. Around my 15th or 16th birthday I decided to study something Japan related, so that I could spend some time in Japan as an exchange student. It was the best year in my life. After that I have visited Japan at least once or twice a year. During one of those visits I met my current wife. Before we married, we decided that for now it was best to live in my home country. It would be easier to get a job, and my wife always wanted to experience living abroad. We have been living together for about two years now, and have come to the conclusion that life here is too boring to settle for good.
That brings me to the future plan of moving to Japan. Mid 2016 seems the most apropriate moving date for us, since there are a few things we want to do first. First of all, my wife wants to get some overseas work experience, as this could really help her in her career later in Japan. Personally, I want to educate myself a little bit more in various aspects, so that I have more employment options or ways to earn money. I will talk more about that in my next post.
This is in short my explanation for creating this blog. I hope to continue this blog long after we have moved, and it would be nice to meet people here with the same goal.
I might sound vague about where I live and what I do at the moment, but that is because everyone and their brother have access to the internet nowadays. I live in a country where very few men are married to a Japanese wife, and I would feel less comfortable writing openly if I feel my friends and employer can find out easily who is behind this blog. After all, not everyone knows already about my plans. My vagueness might disappear when time passes!
