How I Moved to Japan at 29: The Decision That Changed My Life
7/6/20265 min read
To tell you how I moved to Japan, I first have to tell you what my life looked like before I made that decision.
From the outside, it looked like I had everything I had ever wanted. I lived in a high-rise apartment overlooking Lake Michigan, had my two cats by my side, and for the first time in my life, I was completely independent.
But no matter how happy I was with the life I had built, I couldn't shake this feeling that there had to be something more to life.
The truth is, I didn't have everything I wanted.
Sure, I'd accomplished my dream of living in a high-rise apartment in Chicago, but there was always a part of me that wanted to see the world.
At that point, I'd only been to two countries: Mexico and England. There was still so much of the world I wanted to see.
Growing up in an immigrant family, traveling wasn't something we did often. Money was tight, and vacations were seen as luxury or time to travel back to see family. One year, my family packed nine of us into our van and drove from Chicago all the way to Mexico because plane tickets weren’t an option. (Imagine having to smell your uncle's feet for three straight days.😂) I didn't even step onto my first airplane until I was 18 years old, when my best friend invited me to San Francisco.
At the time, I was bartending and serving. The money was great, (it was actually how I could afford my apartment) but I knew it wasn't what I wanted to do forever.
The restaurant industry has a way of pulling people in because the money can be so good. But it can also be so exhausting. It was so common for everyone to go out drinking after work, stay out until last call, then head to someone's apartment afterward. I'd get home just before sunrise, sleep most of the day, wake up, go back to work, and do it all over again.
Eventually, that lifestyle caught up with me.
I wasn't happy.
But the hardest part was... I also had no idea what I actually wanted to do.
Looking back, it's funny how one random TikTok completely changed the direction of my life.
One day, while laying on my new couch scrolling through TikTok, I came across a video of someone asking, “Do you want to study Japanese in Japan?” and immediately I was hooked. I clicked on their profile and booked a call with them. The company was called Koko Japan, and they help people with the entire process of moving to Japan on a student visa to study Japanese at a language school. After the call I was excited but also not sure how I would save up enough money to do so. So, I waited…for about 10 months. I put off the decision for almost a year because I didn’t have a plan on how I was going to accomplish this move.
After waiting for months and still feeling lost with my life and still getting TikTok’s about moving to Japan to study Japanese, I finally had enough. I told myself that if I don't do this now, then I’ll never do it. I was almost 30 and not getting any younger and the people around me were busy with their own lives, getting married, starting families, and I was nowhere near doing any of that, nor did I want to any time soon, so I knew I needed to do this for myself. I still didn’t have a plan, but I knew I would figure it out along the way. The only thing I knew was that I had to start saving up money.
Since I was completely new to the process, I decided to work with Koko Japan. I was able to choose a language school from a list of their affiliated schools and in the city that I wanted, I chose Tokyo. Most language schools have four start times in a year: January, April, July, and October. At the time of my decision, it was November 2023 so I chose to start in October 2024. My lease for my high-rise was coming to an end that February so it kind of worked out perfectly. I asked my older brother if I could stay at his house until my move later that year and he said yes!
So, that February, I moved all of my belongings into plastic containers and into my brother's house and brought my two cats with me. I stored my boxes in his basement not knowing when I’ll unpack these boxes again. I started adding my belongings like my brand new couch and my PS5 onto Facebook marketplace, even though I was so sad to part with these things, I knew that I could use that money for my move.
Around March is when I started gathering all of the required documents needed to apply to the language school and Koko Japan was there throughout the whole applying process acting as a middle person between me and the school and guiding me on how to fill out their application. Once I had everything set, I was able to submit my application towards the end of April. The school accepted it and then submitted my documents to the Japanese government to apply for my Certificate of Eligibility (COE) which is required to get your student visa. It takes about three months to receive your COE, so during that time I was just waiting around, working, saving up money, and most importantly spending time with my family.
I finally received my COE in August and that’s when things started to get serious! Now with my COE, I was able to purchase my one-way ticket to Japan, start looking for housing, and apply to get my student visa. And before I knew it, October had arrived.
I hugged my family goodbye, boarded my one-way flight to Tokyo with two suitcases and a dream that had been sitting in the back of my mind for years. I was terrified. I had no idea what my life would look like in a week, let alone in a year, and whether or not I was going to stay in Japan.
But one thing I knew was, if I had stayed in Chicago wondering what if, I would've regretted it for the rest of my life.
Moving to Japan ended up becoming one of the greatest decisions I've ever made. It challenged me, changed me, introduced me to lifelong friends, and completely shifted the way I look at life.
If there's one thing I hope you take away from my story, it's this: you don't have to have everything figured out before taking the first step.
So many of us always say things like, I wish I could do this or that, and end up never doing what we dream about. Or we put off our dreams because we feel overwhelmed on where to even begin or we have fear holding us back or we’re waiting for the “perfect time.”
But if you think about it, you’ve probably already accomplished some things you’ve dreamed about. Maybe it was getting that job you were prepping for or buying your first car. Whatever it is, you’re capable of achieving your dreams already. When you set your mind to a goal and start by taking the first step, no matter how small that step is, you too can move to Japan or buy a new home or get that promotion, whatever your heart desires.
I certainly didn't have everything figured out when I decided to move halfway across the world.