We have now been in Japan a total of 7 weeks, it seems like so much longer. Only several weeks after our arrival, we knew something wasn’t right. The weather was bad, our attitudes were pretty negative and we couldn’t seem to find things positive about being here.
One day when we left the grocery store Adam said to me that he wasn’t happy, that he just didn’t feel like this was the right place for us. Since he opened the can of worms, I decided to let my opinions flow too. From that moment, we couldn’t stop comparing Japan and Korea…

The food,
The people
The housing
The hiking
The saving
The fruit
The food
The language
The smiles
The public transportation
The traveling
The food!
Basically when we began comparing the countries and where we wanted to be for a few years, Korea was always on top. (I won’t go into detail about our list because they are our opinions but if you have questions you can always write us.)
So, a few days later we were still talking about it and realized that we aren’t the type of people to just settle, to just commit to something even if we aren’t happy. We definitely go after what we want and what will make us happy.
After more debate, we decided to give our two weeks notice at work. We read through the Japanese labor laws and found out that you have to be paid within 7 days of your last date of work if you resign, which put us near the end of March. Our main goal was not to have to pay another months rent here at the guest house. So, we worked through all of the numbers and dates and gave our notice on February 19th.
We heard a lot of, but you just got here etc, but in our hearts we know this isn’t the place for us. We knew we wanted to try Japan, if we didn’t we would always wonder “what if.”
We began looking for work in Korea and after one job fell through (even though we compromised the heck out of what we wanted in the deal), we worked with some very frustrating recruiters, and then a company contacted me whom I contacted weeks before saying they had an opening. I had an interview on Friday and a job offer on Monday.
The offer is a really great deal where they help with our moving expenses and also allow us to pick out our own apartment. The company is a global company which I believe opens up so many opportunities for the future.
So, we have been out of work for 6 days now, we have a bit of cabin fever in our small apartment, but there is really nowhere to hike or walk to in Fujigaoka where we live. The weather hasn’t been too pleasant so we don’t want to spend money on the train and then not be able to walk around. But, we have a list of a few things we want to do before we leave…so as soon as the sun comes out, we will venture out to those parts of the city.
We are going to do some spring cleaning and hopefully bring a bag or two less to Korea than we did to Japan.
We are estimating our date of arrival in Busan to be April 3rd or 4th. We are so excited and can’t wait. We actually have a list of the first 20 things we will eat and do in Busan when we arrive 🙂
Thats all for now, we will add more details as we know them. Right now, we are in limbo…