In 2016, I worked remotely from Prague for a few months. When my girlfriend came out to visit, we took 3 weeks to travel around Czech Republic, adding Vienna and Budapest, hitting up museums, charming dinner cruises, trendy cocktail bars, you name it.
I kept track of every koruna, euro, and forint along the way and the total bill for this extravagant trip was around $2,000. Back in San Jose, that wouldn't even pay rent for my 1BR. It felt like I was missing out on a huge opportunity.
The next year I left my job and moved to a town in the Japanese countryside to decompress. Luckily, there were a number of locals with English proficiency who looked out for me, and I ended up doing things I never imagined -- hosting a cookout, participating in a crazy fire festival, teaching kids about finite state machines (via translator), learning how to make gyoza from old ladies, presenting to entrepreneurs about makerspaces, helping a craftsman export his product, meditating with Buddhist monks. I also learned to ride a bike, better late than never.
I still think of these experiences as highlights of my life -- being carefree, the thrill of traveling, and most of all becoming an illiterate and mute witness, being led around by generous people who want to share their culture.
This sounds exactly like what I want to do! Would you mind answering a few questions? How did you find the town in Japan to move to? Also, did you buy/rent an apartment, or was it an Airbnb or something similar? How did you pay for it - savings, or the odd jobs that you talked about?
The opportunity that arose assigned the city (Shingū) to me—it was the sister city of where I was living in the US. My partner taught English and she was given an apartment by the city. Airbnbs are available everywhere though. I used my savings; I don’t know the total cost but it wasn’t too expensive being in a remote area—as long as I resisted buying a pile of snacks from FamilyMart each day.
I kept track of every koruna, euro, and forint along the way and the total bill for this extravagant trip was around $2,000. Back in San Jose, that wouldn't even pay rent for my 1BR. It felt like I was missing out on a huge opportunity.
The next year I left my job and moved to a town in the Japanese countryside to decompress. Luckily, there were a number of locals with English proficiency who looked out for me, and I ended up doing things I never imagined -- hosting a cookout, participating in a crazy fire festival, teaching kids about finite state machines (via translator), learning how to make gyoza from old ladies, presenting to entrepreneurs about makerspaces, helping a craftsman export his product, meditating with Buddhist monks. I also learned to ride a bike, better late than never.
I still think of these experiences as highlights of my life -- being carefree, the thrill of traveling, and most of all becoming an illiterate and mute witness, being led around by generous people who want to share their culture.