Pre Departure – Who, why and where!

Hi, and welcome to my blog. 

My name is Jason and I am just about to start on an adventure. 

I am in my last couple of weeks in Australia before I head overseas to live and work as an English teacher in Japan. While this is not an entirely new adventure for me (I lived in Japan from 2000 – 2004), it is an exciting time for me nonetheless as it feels as though I am returning home. You see, I developed a real connection with Japan during my first trip there and if the truth be told, it was probably only a matter of time before I returned. The stars and planets all aligned for me recently and I was successful in applying for work and so the move began. 

This blog exists for a few reasons. I remember clearly, as a school student, being told by my mother, whenever we went on a trip somewhere during school holidays that I should write a journal so I could remember what we had done. So this blog serves that purpose. It is also a way for family and friends to keep in touch with what I am doing in Japan. Finally, if someone who is thinking of travelling to live or holiday in Japan can gain something in preparation for their trip from my blog, then that is great. 

The blog will look at events happening in my daily life, places that I visit, new things I try, the odd restaurant that I stumble across that tickles my taste buds and the things and events that happen in Japan that I find especially interesting. 

Why “A Life Less Normal”? 15 years ago, I thought I had my life planned out. I had just finished studying a degree in Sports and Recreation Management at university. My plan was to get a good job in sports administration, marry, have kids and live in a nice house with all of the works (except the white picket fence). Pretty soon I found myself working in a factory printing sports uniforms, hardly the first step in my master plan. After about 18 months of this and no sign of the dream job, I thought surely I could do better than this. I saw a job advertising English teaching jobs in Japan and applied for one. That was the first step in a totally different direction to the one I had so carefully planned, my life was about to become a whole lot less normal than I imagined it would be! Four years in Japan followed by a return to Australia due to an illness in the family where I eventually became a commercial insurance underwriter. After a redundancy, I moved back to my hometown of Port Lincoln to work as an orderly in the local hospital which is where I am now. 

I know it is going to be hard to say goodbye to my life here, my family and all of my good friends, but this is an adventure that I think I have to have (kind of like Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit!) 

If you have any comments or questions about any of my entries, feel free to leave a message. 

Finally, I hope you enjoy following the journey on which I am about to travel. I was always interested in writing a blog, but I always thought it would be a blog about sports (yet another departure from the master plan!). 

Speak to you soon!