This article was translated from Japanese by Claude Code.
Long time no see. I just realized it’s been over a year and a half since my last post. As the title suggests, this is a life update blog. I’m doing well.
Quitting My Job#
At the end of March 2024, I left the company where I had worked for about 10 years since joining as a new graduate in 2014. (Sorry to those I couldn’t tell in person!)
The reason I quit was to fulfill my wish of “someday living and working in a country other than Japan.” Every time I saw news about Japan’s GDP and labor productivity, my curiosity about “what’s so different between other countries and Japan?” kept growing. I thought the only way to know how engineers in other countries work and live, and to compare it with my experience living and working in Japan, was to actually go there and live and work. (Of course, work styles and cultures vary greatly depending on the company and industry, so despite everything I’ve written, it’s really just curiosity and a feeling of “I want to live and work there.”)
Also, the milestone of 10 years at the company and daily conversations with my wife gave me the push I needed. (My wife had also been thinking “I want to live abroad someday” and would occasionally tell me “Let’s go someday!”)
At my previous job, I was surrounded by highly capable, kind, and respectable seniors, colleagues, and juniors (including those who have already left), and was given many opportunities for experience. I made countless mistakes and errors, but was guided through each one. The Android engineer I am today is thanks to the people at the company and community who helped me. And I also met my wife at my previous job. I’m truly grateful.
I haven’t been able to give back yet, but I vaguely hope that someday I can give back somewhere with my experience outside of Japan.
Moving and Immigration and Job Change#
Moving#
After my last day at the office, my wife and I temporarily returned to Kumamoto where my family home is. Thank you so much to everyone who came to visit Fukuoka or came to the shop my wife and I ran on weekends!
After returning to Kumamoto, since I had about 2 months of paid leave remaining, we first traveled to Australia, held koalas, and met high school friends. After that, I helped a tiny bit with the family business and prepared for immigration.
Moving to the Netherlands and Job Change#
I considered several countries for immigration, but ultimately chose the Netherlands mainly for the following reasons:
- English is widely understood
- Easy to get a self-employed visa (freelancing is an option)
- Geographically easy to travel to other European countries
My wife did most of the research, but finding housing in the Netherlands was really the biggest hurdle. So I started job hunting and house hunting in parallel. And faster than expected, we found a house first.
Originally, I had planned to immigrate after securing a job and settling down, but after talking to some acquaintances once the house was decided, they suggested “if you have a house, you should go as soon as possible.” After thinking about it, since my paid leave was also ending around that time, I decided it would be better to go sooner, booked flights, and decided to leave Japan earlier than planned.
Then, just as I was about to seriously start job hunting after arriving, during the job hunt I was doing in parallel with house hunting, I secured a job right before leaving Japan. (I submitted resumes to about 30-40 companies.)
Now and Going Forward#
I came here in early July, but due to move-in timing, I was living in hotels until August 1st. I finally moved into our Dutch home and joined eBay, an e-commerce company, on August 7th. I’m currently in the onboarding phase and will be working as an Android app development engineer. It’s only been a few days since I joined, but it’s a multinational team and everyone is kind.
Finally#
I don’t know what will happen from here, but I intend to do my best to focus on one thing at a time in front of me. I’ll write another blog when I feel like it!
That’s all!