Can you believe it’s already been a year since I started this blog? Time flies, even when you're in a holding pattern!
For those of you who might have mistaken this for a dedicated camera and photography blog lately, my sincere apologies – especially to my readers who are primarily here for the Japan-related content. More of that is definitely on the horizon, I promise!
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| A Traditional Japanese meal consisting of many small plates |
Moving to Japan but not quite yet
A year ago we collectively made the decision for better or worse, to move to Japan. The spanner in the works was a work commitment that meant we could not leave for 2 years. We are now 1 year down with still 1 year to go, with moving mid 2026 being our target. The 2 year wait was always going to be a long and painful slog mentally and despite a year passing already there has not been a whole lot we could do on the whole 'moving to Japan' front. We can't sell the house, or the car, or most of our belongings. Theres no point sorting my Visa or drivers license yet or even buying property in Japan. There is just no point. All we can do is wait some more.
It is very much at the forefront of our minds though. We have been doing minor things in preparation, but largely just common sense in terms of not spending money for things that would be pointless. For instance we had planned to upgrade our bathroom and kitchen, but with selling the house next year it won't add much value whilst also costing a lot of money (and stress). We sold one of our Cars without plans to replace it - a slight inconvenience sometimes, but one worth putting up with for a year versus spending (and then losing) money on a car as well as the ongoing running costs. These certainly are not things to write home about though. Just about the only notable thing we did was setup an account with a commercial currency broker so we can get amazing exchange rates when it comes time to move money. When I say amazing rates I mean sometimes better than the ones that google will tell you. I wrote about our financial planning for the move last year here.
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| An Apartment block called 'Brain', next door was 'Apricot' |
Realistically the moving planning won't start until maybe the new year. I had been stressing out, profusely doing the mental gymnastics in my head trying to figure out the timeline and logistics of how everything would need to come together. For my own sanity I had no choice but to put that aside and then push it completely down the road and off a cliff. When it is time to start thinking about those things again I'll be putting it in a post not just for your entertainment but to help me make sense of all the moving parts and how everything could work. Simply put, having Jobs, a house to empty and sell, a Baby and a couple of Cats to move and settle all at once is just not possible, but coordinating each aspect to work overall is just about impossible too. I'm stressed just thinking about it again.
On the language front I've been posting updates though there is not really much to say regularly - my pace is slow and steady and I'm just chugging along with it consistently yet I'm barely at the foot of the mountain that is learning Japanese. That being said, I am happy with my progress and using Renshuu, and above all I'm working at a sustainable pace. Just.
Our trip to Japan this year was great if not different to both our usual, and most peoples usual Japan Travel plans, and I do still have a number of posts to finish start about some interesting places from that trip, so keep an eye out for those.
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| So much Sushi! This was a takeaway platter. |
Why all the photography posts?
With the lack of action on the Japan related side of things It is very much apparent that I have been doing a lot of photography related posts. Photography has simply become more of a hobby than I envisaged when I took it up again with the Birth of our daughter and starting this blog. Taking baby photos and taking photos to supplement blog posts was the intention and yet I can not help myself writing about it. I've bought and sold around $50,000 worth of gear in the last year in my search for equipment that I like, and that serves my purposes. I find the equipment side of things fascinating, it's just another facet to what is actually an extremely complex hobby/activity, considering all the different techniques and styles involved. It is also just clearly G.A.S, which I wrote about here.
My photography Journey is well and truly part of my Japanification Journey. Parenthood, Blogging, Learning Japanese, Moving to Japan and Photography are all things happening together and in unison, and make up this journey.
I just hope you don't find the photography stuff too annoying or uninteresting. When we move to Japan at least any photos in my posts will be of Japan!
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| There's a parking Lot. |
The website
Recently my website hit a milestone and that was being AdSense approved. This means Google will now display ads on my site and I will earn income from it. Last month I made $0.27! The irony is that I strongly dislike ads, I really do. I was tweaking the configuration for weeks so that I could get good ad exposure whilst not being any more annoying that most other websites. Afterall, we are so used to ads nowadays we often don't give them a second thought except for the ones that are very annoying. I didn't want that. If you are ever reading this and find an ad type or placement is annoying please send me an email!
I'm happy with the site now since leaving for Squarespace and then coming back to Blogger. There is plenty I would like to change/tweak but given I'm satisfied with it, I really don't want to be meddling with things anymore that I don't fully understand and break it. I would rather focus on writing content, so that is exactly what I am going to do.
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| A Kei truck Campervan! |
Where to from here?
As I said I still have a few more posts to write from places we visited in Japan this year, as well as some more photography gear reviews. Once we are into the New Year the attention will start to turn towards planning for the move and telling you all about that, and then onto Japan itself for a whole new chapter of adapting to life in Japan where no doubt I will have a lot to tell you about!
I am also starting to play around with Video, as seeing as though I've got the capable equipment already I might start doing some YouTube stuff when we are in Japan. If only I can get over myself and find the courage to talk to a camera in public with feeling like an idiot.
Either way, the Journey to Japanification has barely even begun, and I'm looking forward to what comes next.
