One month on.

Hello from Wanaka, New Zealand this time! Long time, no blog. 

I thought I’d write a bit of a life update on what I've been up to since I left Japan, what I miss about Japan and what my next move is going to be.

So, I arrived back in Auckland on January 18^th, and instantly I noticed a huge amount of diversity in ethnicities and sizes of people. Japan is such a homogenous culture, and there’s also the pressure for people (especially women) to stay thin, so a lot of people have similar builds, and the majority are of Japanese descent (including half Japanese). New Zealand is a multicultural society with people of all nationalities, religions and backgrounds calling our shores home, so it was definitely a bit eye-opening to be hit with that straight off the plane.

After clearing customs and immigration, I inserted my New Zealand sim card back into my phone, expecting it to work straight away. However, my screen displayed the words No Service, so I was reliant on airport wifi to contact family and let them know I’d made it to Auckland. Turns out sim cards can be deactivated if you don’t top them up and use them for a long time… This meant I ended up having to get a new phone number, which was kind of inconvenient, but lesson learned.

After making it back home to the South Island and catching up on much needed sleep, I decided I wanted to try out F45, a fitness craze that has swept over the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand and a few other countries I've left out I'm sure. I’d seen a bit about F45 on social media, and booked into a class at my local F45 gym. F45 offers high intensity interval training style classes, with Monday, Wednesday and Friday being cardio based, and Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday being strength based. The Saturday class is a mix of the two. Every F45 studio does a week free trial, so I signed up, and really enjoyed it! It had been a while since I’d done any strength based training, and my muscles screamed at me for a few days after the first class. I’ve decided not to commit to a membership just yet as I’m not sure exactly where I’ll be based, but the gym is definitely something I missed when I was in Japan. 

This leads me to the next thing I’ve been doing, and that’s looking for work! I’ve been applying for a variety of different jobs largely in the tourism/travel industry, and mostly customer service/administration based. So far I’ve had three interviews, and I have another one on Tuesday, so I’m really hoping that something comes up within the next week or two. The process is long and drawn out, with some places requiring two rounds of interviews before you finally know if you got the job or not. I did apply for a few jobs outside of the Queenstown/Wanaka area, but didn’t get interviews for any of those, as a lot of potential employers find it hard to trust that people from out of town will be able to find somewhere to live in cities like Wellington or Auckland when the rental market is as crazy as it is currently in those cities. So it’s looking quite likely that I’ll stay in the Southern Lakes region at this stage. I’ll definitely try and get up to the North Island at some point later this year though, as there are so many of my friends living in both Wellington and Auckland.

The other thing I’ve been doing is spending a lot more time outdoors! With it being summer, the lake is the place to be, and it’s been so nice to swim and enjoy the long evenings. I’ve been out walking and cycling a lot of the local tracks, and feeling grateful that I call this part of the world home.

I’ve also reconnected with my old St John Youth division and Zumba group, which has been really nice!

That’s about everything that I’ve been up to, but I wanted to also touch on a few of the reverse culture shocks I’ve had.

Probably the most frustrating thing is having no public transport and having to drive almost everywhere, especially at the moment when there is so much construction and so many roadworks happening in Wanaka right now. I miss just being able to hop on a train and go wherever I please and not have to concentrate on traffic, roadworks and finding somewhere to park. However, I don’t miss being pushed and shoved at rush hour, and I don't miss crowded stations such as Shibuya and Shinjuku. 

Another thing that’s been really strange and a little difficult to adjust to is just randomly seeing people I know all the time, everywhere I go. I’m talking my parents friends, parents of people I went to school with, old teachers, the whole shebang. Whether it's in the supermarket, in a cafe, on a walking track, I can’t go anywhere without seeing in passing or stopping and talking to someone I know, which is a bit bizarre coming from Tokyo when I would never randomly see people I knew in the supermarket.

This isn’t necessarily a Japan to New Zealand shock, but more a big city to small town shock, and it's kind of nice, but can make the town feel a bit claustrophobic at times. 

The next thing that was a pleasant surprise was how friendly New Zealanders are. Making small talk with café and supermarket staff or other people walking the same track as you is not a done thing in Japan, but here it’s engrained in us from when we’re young, and sometimes these conversations really brighten your day.

There are a few things I miss about Japan and Tokyo specifically including public transport (as implied in my earlier point about driving everywhere), some of the food, particularly seafood and sushi, and of course my friends, co-workers and former students. I also miss the buzz of the city and discovering new and exciting things wherever you go. Just not knowing every part of town like the back of your hand made Tokyo an exhilarating place to be.

Wanaka has also grown and changed a lot since I was last here. There are two supermarkets now, a new primary school just opened this year, and new subdivisions are being developed constantly. Having been here for the past 15 years on and off, it's crazy to compare what it was like when we first moved here to now!

Overall, I’m happy to be back in New Zealand and think I’ve made the right move. I was beginning to feel stuck in a rut, but now I can focus on whatever new and exciting opportunities present themselves here.

Thanks as always for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this wee update just as much as my Japan updates!

Hannah.