I Speak Japanese

This past October, I had the opportunity to take 3 weeks off from work and travel with my wife and baby over to Japan to see her side of the family. After working for about a year without any vacation (other than for holidays), It was a welcome and much needed break.

During my 3 weeks there, I had a lot of time to myself to think and to go on long walks in the inaka (country side). Maybe it was just something in the air, or perhaps it was all of the time to myself, but I began to experience a truly liberating feeling after about the first week.

Somehow I came to the realization that even though I was feeling so derailed about my job and life back in the states, nothing was holding me back from doing what I want to do in life. I could have placed an international call into work, quit my job, and life probably wouldn’t get any worse… in fact, I could see it getting better.

We could move to Japan, I could get into web analytics consulting, start an English school, or do a number of other things. I am the only thing holding myself back.

Three weeks felt like a lifetime, but also felt like it was nothing at all. It was better than great. I guess that’s what happens when you spend so much time in a part of the world so different from your own.

When we returned from Japan, I was equipped with the new attitude that I am indeed my own master. I had a new found power to be able to see new opportunities for myself, and realize that my job is a merely hold me over until I decide that I’m not “holding over” any more.

This is how I experienced freedom in Japan.