Strolling

As we quickly approach our one year anniversary here in Nippon, I can’t help but take a stroll down memory lane to the months leading up to this adventure that we are on. Mike and I were in San Diego. We loved it there. After all, who wouldn’t? There was a small snag in our joy though. I was a full-fledged stay at home mom and money was tight. Housing in San Diego was/is some of the most expensive in the nation. The median home price had jumped to 600K. We were pretty desperate to get the “heck out of dodge” or, in non-slang terms: migrate somewhere less expensive. It’s always been important to us to have a parent at home for Josh. Mike just happens to have the college degree and has more opportunities to hold a more secure and higher paying job than I do. Logic led us to fill the more traditional rolls: Me, taking care of the baby and Mike going to work to, “bring home the bacon”. It was becoming more and more obvious that we wouldn’t be able to do this and reach our lifelong goals (of home ownership and retirement savings amongst other wants) in San Diego. Our despair would sometimes turn to resentment as we watched some of our friends buy homes and us still living in our little apartment barely scraping by and unable to claw out of the last little bit of credit card debt. We were living in what some people might refer to as “paradise” but we didn’t have the money to really go out and enjoy it. Granted we had made the decision to live on one income but to us, that was something that we would only give up if we really weren’t able to put food on the table. It was then we decided that it was time to move.

After Mike finished his MBA program, he started to search for other government job opportunities throughout the US. After the months went by and nothing really sprouted up, he decided to broaden his search to opportunities in the government worldwide and the private sector. His resume was out all over the place. One day, he called me up and asked, “What do you think of Japan?”.

“Japan?!”, I said. “That’s random.” Mike had gone to a meeting where they talked about overseas jobs in Italy, so when we were talking about something overseas, I was thinking Europe. When I heard Japan, the thought had never really crossed my mind before that moment. That day I said, “Well, send your resume their way and see if they are interested. Then, if they are interested in you, we’ll talk about the possibility.”

Several weeks went by and Mike had received another Job offer in the private sector for Raleigh, NC. The company flew him out and he had an opportunity to see some of his best friends from college while he was there, though he flew in and out again in less than 24 total hours. We were really thinking about moving to the east coast so that we could be closer to all of his friends who we love and miss so much. Unfortunately, the company low-balled him and the money and benefits just weren’t enough to give up the security that he had with a government position. He was pretty disappointed over that interview but only until he received a call from Yokosuka the very next week at work. After the initial conversation with his soon to be (brief) boss, things started moving very quickly. Mike called me up that day and asked me again, “So, what do you think about Japan?” My heart kinda stopped for a moment. I hadn’t really thought about it. Now, that moment that I thought would never come was upon us. ‘ Could I really hack it in Japan?’

We literally just had days to decide. His co-workers, some of whom had served in the military, were really excited about Mike’s prospect. Even a gentleman in Mike’s Alumni Club, who was retired military, suggested doing an overseas stint at this time in our lives. Josh wasn’t in school yet and we weren’t really established. Our family as a unit didn’t really have roots yet. I was still very nervous. Well, we were still very nervous, but after having some deep talks, we were for it.

My mother had always told me that as long as I knew that there was a home to come back to, I was an adventurer. But this was different. Instead of me coming back “home”, this unknown place would become “home”.

So, here we are a year later and I can say that so far this has been the experience of a lifetime. There have been so many things that we’ve encountered and learned here that we would have never learned had we stayed at “home”. There’s been a mix of good and bad, but more importantly there are the things that I never would have expected. When we first arrived and I took my first step off base in real Japan, I literally had a panic attack. Thinking to myself, ‘What did we get ourselves into?’

I’ve (We’ve) come a long way… I think. We are still babies-well, toddlers now, toddling our way through the unknown but above all we are happy. In addition to all of the new experiences, we’ve also been able to pay down some debt and save up some spare change for some of our ultimate dreams of home ownership and settling down… well, some day.