After 23 years of living in Zone 4 of North London, I decided to try something new.

To travel to the other side of the globe. After 12 hours in the sky and two weeks in quarantine, I’m now teaching people online, on the other side of the globe.

To say that it wasn’t an easy decision to part ways with the city that I grew up in, would be wrong to a certain extent. I always had aspirations to live in Japan at least once in my life. I would spend every summer holiday at my Grandparent’s home in Saitama. Eating good food at an affordable price. Watching ナルト and 名探偵コナン as it aired live on TV. Playing Pokemon in its native language was always a exciting moment. All are beautiful features of Japan, but I had never truly "experienced" the country in which my heritage originates from.

After a scout email through Wantedly, and a couple of interviews later, the time was right to begin Season 2 of my life.

6 Months In

Things have progressed rapidly since the 1st of September 2021. The majority of my students are for IB Biology. I never took IB, but it feels like I have. I’ve become closer with the people in the company, co-organised the End of Year party, and I’ve recently been given the role of training the new cohorts. I knew that it would be a fast-paced work environment, but things have moved way quicker than I had expected, in a good way of course. I can feel myself developing not only as a tutor, but as a person.

The Japanese lifestyle is still something of a challenge though. The language I struggle with at times, as well as the fact that I’m now “one of them”.

In an interview for a separate company, the interviewer told me:

「真下さんは日本人の顔をしてるから、結局は日本人として生きていかないといけないんです。」

That hit me hard. “Why?” I thought.

Which brings me to why I joined this company.
It accepted me for who I was.
The background I possess and the knowledge that I can bring.
On top of this, it had a mission to support TCK students across the globe.

My place is here I thought, and so here I am today.

Taishi (14th Feb 2022)