Thank you Sarah for the lovely message. You’re so right. It can often feel selfish but we have to choose that path sometimes for a happy life. And thank you for following along! I’ll send you some gorgeous photos and I look forward to following along with your garden dispatches 🌻
Thank you for reading! Japan definitely isn't for everyone and your question doesn't surprise me at all because many foreigners have a very tough time in the country (and so did I to some extent before I left). I couldn't go back and work for a Japanese company, or work as an English teacher for example as I'm not going to last long in either role.
But this time away has made me reflect a lot on my time there and has allowed me to shift my mindset a lot to the so called 'troubles' I had in Japan.
Also, my wife and I had so many more opportunities open to us in Japan than we do in the UK. Possibly we were just fortunate or had lady luck on our side when we ran our coffee shop, but we found that Japan really is the land of thriving micro-businesses. i.e. tiny businesses that make enough money to support a happy life. There's the shop that makes delicious focaccia and not a lot else. The record store that solely focuses on ambient music and music from India. The tiny shop that only sells glass beakers from laboratories. It's a mixture of low cost of living with relatively simple rules when it comes to opening and running a small business that makes these possible. I'm really drawn to this. When we moved back to the UK we were excited to get started on our own little business here but the costly price of just about everything just about prices everyone out. Forget paying back a business loan, and paying rent and saving for Chie's visa. It's not going to happen.
There's a lot of freedom that people in the UK enjoy that Japan doesn't have and because I lived in both places I can see that and definitely not ignoring that, but that freedom comes with a cost. In the UK somebody might steal your phone out of your hand with an e-bike as you walk down the street looking at Google Maps, bikes get stolen all the time in broad daylight (including mine), people empty supermarket shelves whilst the security guard literally watches and can't do anything, shops on beautiful independent shopping streets get their windows smashed in regularly and every time my wife comes home alone late at night I'm nervously checking in on her all the way home... but now I'm getting into the messy parts that I didn't want to write about 😂 so I'll stop there. But I will say that many people honestly say "Well yeah, that's city life for you." and my response is "Okay that's great, I don't want to be part of that thank you very much."
Sorry for my rambling! Do you have any experience with either Japan or the UK?
Actually I'm really thinking about moving to UK because I honestly think that unfortunately France and French people are becoming a neofascist people, and political previsions in France for the next elections are going in that way... Trump in USA already convince me to not moving to US for the next years... And Europe in general is maybe also going worst. But I forgot that a Londonian wife living at La Côte d'Azur where I'm living, in the south of France, already told me that London is becoming a more and more violent city. I really don't know where the West is going in our nowadays world, Simon. Nevertheless, thanks for your message, it makes me dreaming about Japan: just a special ambient recordshop, that's the dream! Best regards, Tarik
Hi Tarik, thank you for sharing this! I'm sorry to hear what France is becoming.. I can't say that the UK is far behind though and I'm fairly confident that the National Reform Party (our right-wing party) will be next to be voted in after the terrible state of our government at the moment. For the same reason that Trump got voted in. People wrongly assume they'll be able to 'fix' the country.
There are some wonderful other parts of the UK for you to explore if you wanted to live elsewhere in the country though! Bristol, Norwich, Manchester are all options to check out and I've heard many wonderful things about all of these places, but for us they just weren't options unfortunately. We didn't want to start over again with no community around us just for the sake of living outside of London.
If you get a chance to come and visit Japan please do get in touch! I'll take you to that record store 🙏
Hi Simon. Happy Easter! Thank you for your answer. I'm thinking about your advices. I really appreciate your kindness. I hope everything will be fine for Chie and you during your comeback in Japan. Take care! Tarik
So beautifully written and very thoughtful! I’m soo soooo happy for you and Chie’s new adventure!
Why must you live your life for others? We only have one life, after all!
I can’t wait to hear about your new exciting life plans and will follow your newsletters loyally.
I hope they’ll be some good garden content and I’ll be very envious of the delicious soft serve available to you…
Lots of love dear Simon, it’s been a real pleasure getting to know you and hopefully we can reunite in the UK or Japan soon <3
Thank you Sarah for the lovely message. You’re so right. It can often feel selfish but we have to choose that path sometimes for a happy life. And thank you for following along! I’ll send you some gorgeous photos and I look forward to following along with your garden dispatches 🌻
A very touching confession. But I still asking myself what makes the quality of life better in Japan than in UK for you?
Thank you for reading! Japan definitely isn't for everyone and your question doesn't surprise me at all because many foreigners have a very tough time in the country (and so did I to some extent before I left). I couldn't go back and work for a Japanese company, or work as an English teacher for example as I'm not going to last long in either role.
But this time away has made me reflect a lot on my time there and has allowed me to shift my mindset a lot to the so called 'troubles' I had in Japan.
Also, my wife and I had so many more opportunities open to us in Japan than we do in the UK. Possibly we were just fortunate or had lady luck on our side when we ran our coffee shop, but we found that Japan really is the land of thriving micro-businesses. i.e. tiny businesses that make enough money to support a happy life. There's the shop that makes delicious focaccia and not a lot else. The record store that solely focuses on ambient music and music from India. The tiny shop that only sells glass beakers from laboratories. It's a mixture of low cost of living with relatively simple rules when it comes to opening and running a small business that makes these possible. I'm really drawn to this. When we moved back to the UK we were excited to get started on our own little business here but the costly price of just about everything just about prices everyone out. Forget paying back a business loan, and paying rent and saving for Chie's visa. It's not going to happen.
There's a lot of freedom that people in the UK enjoy that Japan doesn't have and because I lived in both places I can see that and definitely not ignoring that, but that freedom comes with a cost. In the UK somebody might steal your phone out of your hand with an e-bike as you walk down the street looking at Google Maps, bikes get stolen all the time in broad daylight (including mine), people empty supermarket shelves whilst the security guard literally watches and can't do anything, shops on beautiful independent shopping streets get their windows smashed in regularly and every time my wife comes home alone late at night I'm nervously checking in on her all the way home... but now I'm getting into the messy parts that I didn't want to write about 😂 so I'll stop there. But I will say that many people honestly say "Well yeah, that's city life for you." and my response is "Okay that's great, I don't want to be part of that thank you very much."
Sorry for my rambling! Do you have any experience with either Japan or the UK?
Actually I'm really thinking about moving to UK because I honestly think that unfortunately France and French people are becoming a neofascist people, and political previsions in France for the next elections are going in that way... Trump in USA already convince me to not moving to US for the next years... And Europe in general is maybe also going worst. But I forgot that a Londonian wife living at La Côte d'Azur where I'm living, in the south of France, already told me that London is becoming a more and more violent city. I really don't know where the West is going in our nowadays world, Simon. Nevertheless, thanks for your message, it makes me dreaming about Japan: just a special ambient recordshop, that's the dream! Best regards, Tarik
Hi Tarik, thank you for sharing this! I'm sorry to hear what France is becoming.. I can't say that the UK is far behind though and I'm fairly confident that the National Reform Party (our right-wing party) will be next to be voted in after the terrible state of our government at the moment. For the same reason that Trump got voted in. People wrongly assume they'll be able to 'fix' the country.
There are some wonderful other parts of the UK for you to explore if you wanted to live elsewhere in the country though! Bristol, Norwich, Manchester are all options to check out and I've heard many wonderful things about all of these places, but for us they just weren't options unfortunately. We didn't want to start over again with no community around us just for the sake of living outside of London.
If you get a chance to come and visit Japan please do get in touch! I'll take you to that record store 🙏
Take care! Simon
Hi Simon. Happy Easter! Thank you for your answer. I'm thinking about your advices. I really appreciate your kindness. I hope everything will be fine for Chie and you during your comeback in Japan. Take care! Tarik