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Could I live and work in Japan?

I've been considering the idea for the past 6 years ever since I first started to learn Japanese. Recently I have started looking into the practicalities of whether or not I could actually live and work in Japan. I think I could enjoy it tremendously (although who knows how I would feel after the novelty wore off) but more importantly my wife would benefit from being closer to her friends and family and our son would have an opportunity at an early formative age to be imersed in the Japanese culture and language.

As the spouse of a Japanese national I should be able to reside and work there with a minimum of visa hassle (an assumption based on just a few quick google searches) but there remain several questions including...

What would I do for a living? When should we go? Is my level of Japanese good enough to be anything other than a tourist? does it matter? Where would we live? What would our standard of living be like? What would happen in the future if we decided to return to the UK? How would I feel about being so far away from my own friends and family?

Hmm, lots to think about.

Canada contd.

Just to finish off my list of 'things we did in Canada', we also...

missed the annual 'Ribfest' as we arrived after it closed went to Jeff Heely's blues bar to catch his regular thursday night set saw a really surreal street performance involving several giant red giraffes, a scary looking french clown and a scantily dressed woman in a furcoat got onto the private guest list for 'Fluid Lounge' (nice club but rap and house are not really my scene) took an evening dinner/dance cruise around Lake Ontario

and met even more family as another cousin flew up from Florida for the last few days of our stay.

All in all a great holiday but it's always nice to get home even if the weather is bad, the boiler has broken down, the garden has withered away and I'm faced with another big organisation change at work (will soon have my sixth manager in 3 years).

Canada

As I haven't been blogging day by day I have ended up doing too much to write about in one go. So far we have (amongst other things)...

Taken an elevator to the top of the CN tower
Shopped at the Eaton Centre
Met lots of family
Taken a midnight Soca party boat cruise
Visited some Iroquois indians
Spent a day paintballing
Met lots of family
Wandered around lots of outlet malls
had lunch at a Dim Sum restaurant
Travelled on the Toronto subway
Met lots of family
Been to Niagara falls
Looked around a butterfly conservatory

And we also met lots of family. Just four days left of our trip now so we will have to try and pack in as much as we can. The weather has been hot, the average temperature being in the low 30's but with the humidity being equivalent to well over 35C.

2012 Olympics

We got them!! Hooray....

Now lets just see how much disruption we have to suffer in the South-east of England in the summer of 2012. Who knows, with any luck I may be living far far away by then.

Am I the only person who thinks the games will end up costing the tax payer an absolute fortune (Millenium Dome anyone?) for little real benefit to the country as a whole.

Still, it's always nice to beat our cross channel neighbours at something.

Still here

I really should try and make more use of all of these fabulous web tools that i have set up (and am paying for). World of Warcraft is still my ongoing excuse but it's been pretty busy recently too. Anyway, four more days of work to suffer this week including today and then it's off to Toronto for a few weeks. I can't wait.

It's been about five years since I was last there to visit relatives, something I had hoped to make an annual summer event to coincide quite nicely with the Caribana celebrations and my birthday at the start of August. However, going to Japan every six months soon drained my travel budget and put a stop to any other plans for international travel. Since my last visit to Canada so much has happened, I have a wife and kid to introduce to everyone and there should be enough family gossip to keep us busy for a few days at least. A quick tally of the relatives I'll be meeting at the end of the week include 1 uncle, 2 aunts, 10 cousins and a horde of children of various ages. It's turning into quite a family reunion with one cousin traveling 'home' from France where she now lives, and two or three coming from the US. All of my cousins on my fathers side of the family are older than me, the youngest by about 3 years and the oldest by around 20 years so there will be a real mix of things to do although, as everyone works, weekends and evenings will be very busy.

It's my wife's first trip to Canada so we will be doing all of the usual tourist places like the CN Tower, Niagara Falls etc. but as I have so much family out there she will also get to see a lot more of the 'everyday' Canada the type of vacation that we both prefer. On my personal to-do list are a trip to Licks Burgers, a visit to the West Indian bakery to buy Beef Patties, Several trips to China town (more food) and plenty of clothes shopping. Five years ago my entire wardrobe was more or less replaced with stuff bought from various outlet shops around Toronto. Out went the black Jeans, t-shirts and boots and in came the beige GAP style clothes that I seem to wear most of the time these days. At that time everything seemed so much cheaper in Canada than the UK, I hope that's still the case. I'm not expecting to carry out such a huge image change this time around but I could definitely do with injecting a bit of life into my flagging wardrobe.