A New Home

It’s spring, the sakura have bloomed once more, and I’m comfortably at home again in Japan. The Arizona winter, balmy as it was, feels like a blur now, at least I’ve belatedly cataloged my photographs from months ago. So much time elapsed without an essay here, I apologize, dear reader. I’ll talk a bit about what I got up to this winter and how I coped with it, but this blog post comes with some exciting news and life updates on Japan that will be taking center stage.

Why “A New Home”? I’ve moved to Tokyo! No, I don’t have a job yet. Instead, I’m getting married and joining forces with Claire for good, which will allow me to remain in Japan while I look for real work here (or JET, which is still pending as of this writing). She’s been an awesome partner in this life these past few years and I feel really confident and excited going forward with her. As adventurers together, I think we are going to get up to some very exciting things as we build a life. The opportunity to move countries for love is one that very few are offered.

Before returning here last month, I saw Claire again for her winter holiday in December, when she visited me in the USA for a stay between Los Angeles, San Diego, and a camping road trip back to Tucson. It was a balance of city hangouts and desert sights in mild weather. Our plans went a bit awry with a joint illness and some unseasonably persistent winter rains, so it was a bit more of a laid back experience with lots of movies and time together over any big daring treks into nature like what defined our Sierras road trip in summer 2024.

In late January, after a month apart, I decided that this proposal was just going to be my way forward. Having that assurance between us really makes it feel like doing this massive jump into a new world is going to be worth the accompanying risks. After that was settled, I spent most of February and March winding down my American life. It’s a lot to do: emptying out an apartment of all the accoutrements that made it my humble home, having meaningful hangouts with my pals I’d soon be saying goodbye to, and selling my car. All the while I was earning a modest income through some informal day labor (“digging holes”) for my landlord, Joe. With all that, I closed the Tucson chapter, where I’ve nominally lived for 5 years. I’m grateful for my time in Arizona and I might still write an ode or two about the Sonoran Desert, its peoples and what it all meant to me as I bid it goodbye.

All the while, things in America continue to look more grim. I’m pretty stoked to count myself out of life there, hopefully forever. The things I care about are never going to be fixed, and in general, it’s just looking worse across the board. There’s no booming economy accompanying Trump and his antics this time to soften the blows. The endless mendaciousness of Trump and his cronies is a daily exhaustion, but I think something really shook me back in January when federal agents killed Minnesotan protestors Renee Good and Alex Pretti without need nor consequence. Both were 37, the same age as me. Were Tucson as harassed as Minneapolis was, perhaps it could’ve been me. We also have the chaos of a new war of choice set off a month ago, seemingly at the behest of Israel. It’s all just gross, but I don’t want to center this article my despondency about my home country’s politics. I’d be remiss though if I didn’t at least mention it in short as a significant factor towards why I’ve left.

As I sit here in a hip Shimokitazawa cafe writing this and planning out the next steps, I feel a lot of gratitude for this life I’ve been given. I’m really lucky again to have this shot at reorganizing my life to one abroad and I’m really optimistic about teaming up with Claire. I do realize it is going to come with a bundle of new challenges. I have an enormous language and cultural gap that I have to address, the need to make some new friends in my interests so that I’m not entirely dependent on her for my social life, and of course, I must actually find meaningful work to support myself. Plus, I am daily discovering the complexity of living with a partner, when to compromise, and how to make a harmonious home together. It’s good we have quite a few months of practice from my previous stays in Japan. Next up, we’ll celebrate with a little wedding in a month’s time! With just a little more planning left to do there…