Year-Review

I have now been in Japan for 11 years. I still sometimes laugh at how I thought it was a good idea to move between Christmas and New Years, but it ultimately worked out in the end. Partially due to this, my 来日 (arrival in Japan) anniversary is also a good year-review time. Though I have not accomplished nearly as much as I had naively hoped for, I still think overall it was a good year. Hopefully I will be able to show more progress in 2026.

It has been 10 years since I moved to Japan. While I still mostly enjoy a lot about living in Japan, this year was more challenging than previous years. There is still uncertainty about what 2025 will hold but I remain optimistic.

I have now been in Japan for 9 years. Japan is far from a perfect country and there are plenty of bits that cause irritation at times, but overall I feel like my normal day to day is pretty good. This past year definitely had some ups and downs and I have quite a lot to consider moving into 2024.

As of the end of last month, I’ve been in Japan for 8 years. Depending on my mood at the time, that sometimes seems like a short time and sometimes seems like a long time. I was only in San Francisco for a bit over 7 years so Japan is now where I’ve lived the longest outside of my family home.

The biggest changes from last year involve moving into a new place and adopting two cats. As a child, I always grew up with cats and especially with a lot of alone time I’ve been really happy to have two cats of my own. I may have been a bit naive on the difficulty of being a single (cat) father, but overall I think it has been a positive addition.