Third Time's the Charm

In a couple of weeks, I will be moving to Japan for the third time. The JET Program brought me to Japan in 2005, when I taught English there for two years. I returned to the States for a year before taking a job doing international business development for a Japanese company in 2008. Upon taking that job, I had planned to live in Japan for around five years. Part of that didn't happen because the world's economy tanked, and my boss's plans to expand into the USA kind of fizzled. So I ended up doing that job for only one year.

It was during that year, that I met my wife, Becky, over the Internet. My plans to try to stay in Japan long term quickly changed as I pinned after a girl in Oklahoma. Becky had been to Japan for a short trip as a child, and from the very beginning there was talk of living in Japan together. Becky had also always been interested in ESL and teaching English. I don't really remember at what point she decided she wanted to apply for the JET Program, but here we are a year or so later and ready to make the move.

This move will be very different from the last two as I am not alone, I will not arrive with a work visa, and we have a whole house full of stuff we are dealing with. The biggest issue will be that work visa. I will receive a dependent visa, meaning I am dependent on someone (Becky) who has received a work visa. I will be a house-husband in the eyes of the Japanese government, and therefore should be supported by my spouse. But because house-husbands get bored, the Japanese government will let me work for 28 hours per week if I can secure a work permit. If I find a full-time job, I can also go through the process of changing my visa to a work visa.

Until then, I will look for anything to do immediately, including possibly doing some work for my old boss from the Japanese company. I'm going to take advantage of my free time first by working to make our new home as comfortable as possible. Then I will begin aggressively improving my Japanese ability, especially my reading and writing. Being able to speak Japanese fairly well impresses many Japanese people, but being able to call myself "bilingual" is what will get me good jobs in the future.

Lastly, I am going to aggressively pursue my long-time desire to become a professional screenwriter. In the past year, I finished the first major revision of my first screenplay. It was an emotional, challenging, messy process! The end result was not something that I will sell for six figures next week, but it is something I want to come back to in the future. More importantly, I learned a ton from the process, and I feel more confident than ever that the next screenplay will be easier to write and a better finished product. I also picked up another screenwriting mentor in the process, so I'm hopping he can help me achieve success in the future. For many years, it has been the desire of my heart to live in Japan as a professional Hollywood screenwriter while at the same time being able to do Christian ministry. Perhaps the third time's the charm.