My Life Update. Living in Japan as a Full Time Housewife.
Hello,
It's been almost a month since my last post here (it seems I didn't write my life update & winter trip as soon as I mean to).
Well, that's me, a professional procrastinator.
A lot of things happened since last time I talked in this blog.
But for today I'm going to tell you the major change that happened in my life.
Resigned & Got Married
For a starter I might have to tell you that I'm married.
It's quite a long story actually, but long story short, my boyfriend at that time, whose name I never mentioned before in this blog, Bagus, said that he might be assigned to work overseas for a year.
First time we heard the news was on late 2016 but we still uncertain about that. So we were not really thinking about that.
Later on mid Jan 2017, we got news that Bagus was going to be assigned to work in Japan for a year (for real) starting from late 2017.
Then all of sudden we had to make a very hard decision. I was faced with some options:
- Resign, get married, and move to Japan
- We engage, I stay in Jakarta, & Bagus goes to Japan for a year
- LDR. That's it
It was a really really hard decision to make. The hardest one in my entire life. We both haven't talked about marriage seriously, we really were enjoying our relationship as it was at that time. So yeah, it was very hard.
But then not long after my 24th birthday, and after many hours of talking, thinking, and contemplating, we decided to get married (and I had to quit my job).
So on August 26th, 2017, we got married.
Transition
Seventy three days later, Bagus, my husband, went to Japan.
Me? I went back to my hometown. Jogja.
Why?
Because the rule is that Bagus has to settle first before I come and live there with him, so I went back to my hometown in the meantime before my departure to Japan a month later.
So for a month Bagus tried to adapt with Japanese life and working environment, meanwhile me, tried to learn Japanese for the sake of surviving in Japan.
And btw, let me tell you, LDR with time differences, even though it's only 2 hours, is sucks. Moreover when your husband is working late almost everyday.
I really cannot imagine other couples who have to experience longer time difference LDR.
Move & Adapt
As I already mentioned in my previous post, I arrived at Haneda Airport on Dec 16th.
And to be completely honest, the first month is the hardest (so far).
Here is the major things that I had to deal with in the first month:
Extreme weather change
It's winter in Japan from Dec to Feb. Having lived in a tropical country my whole life made me accustomed to hot weather & my body is going through a hard time adjusting.
Food
Not only food but also ingredients for cooking. I, basically, can't cook. And found out that the ingredients that I need to make simple cook in Indonesia are not available here is not helping at all. Because Japanese food usually only have 3 basic ingredients: Soyu/ Soy Sauce, Mirin, and Sake.
And since I don't live in Tokyo (or any other big city), I couldn't find any Indonesian store here in Utsunomiya.
Language & writing
Basically everything here is an alien for me. Even though I (tried to) learned Japanese before, it's different. And to make it even more harder, everything here written in Hiragana, Katakana (which I could read), and mostly Kanji (which I know nothing about).
I even spend hours to grocery shopping because it's hard to find to find things when they're all written in Kanji.
I feel lost
Being a stay at home wife after working for 2.5years is weird. The feeling is strange.
I didn't really feel it when I was in Jogja because I was surrounded by my family, I had company most of the time. But here, I really experience woke up to an empty apartment and had no regular schedule whatsoever (closest meaning to had nothing to do).
I had no friends
This actually didn't bother me that much because I am not good around people. I tend to get awkward & distance when I make friends with people with different 'frequency' as me. And I really enjoy being on my own.
But once in a while I feel like I need to talk to someone who could relate to my current situation, who going through hardship like me.
But now things started to change (that I'm going to share in another post).
I do a bit accustomed to the weather.
I could cook decent meals for me and my husband.
I started to learn Japanese (again) in two different places.
I do have a quite regular schedule and activities to keep me busy. And,
I made some friends.
I feel like I'm starting to get myself together and I hope my life will get better and better after this.
And I actually have more story to tell but that's for another post when I'm bored (or when inspiration hits me in the face).
Ajus.
It's been almost a month since my last post here (it seems I didn't write my life update & winter trip as soon as I mean to).
Well, that's me, a professional procrastinator.
A lot of things happened since last time I talked in this blog.
But for today I'm going to tell you the major change that happened in my life.
So, what happened in my life so far?
Resigned & Got Married
For a starter I might have to tell you that I'm married.
It's quite a long story actually, but long story short, my boyfriend at that time, whose name I never mentioned before in this blog, Bagus, said that he might be assigned to work overseas for a year.
First time we heard the news was on late 2016 but we still uncertain about that. So we were not really thinking about that.
Later on mid Jan 2017, we got news that Bagus was going to be assigned to work in Japan for a year (for real) starting from late 2017.
Then all of sudden we had to make a very hard decision. I was faced with some options:
- Resign, get married, and move to Japan
- We engage, I stay in Jakarta, & Bagus goes to Japan for a year
- LDR. That's it
It was a really really hard decision to make. The hardest one in my entire life. We both haven't talked about marriage seriously, we really were enjoying our relationship as it was at that time. So yeah, it was very hard.
But then not long after my 24th birthday, and after many hours of talking, thinking, and contemplating, we decided to get married (and I had to quit my job).
So on August 26th, 2017, we got married.
Transition
Seventy three days later, Bagus, my husband, went to Japan.
Me? I went back to my hometown. Jogja.
Why?
Because the rule is that Bagus has to settle first before I come and live there with him, so I went back to my hometown in the meantime before my departure to Japan a month later.
So for a month Bagus tried to adapt with Japanese life and working environment, meanwhile me, tried to learn Japanese for the sake of surviving in Japan.
And btw, let me tell you, LDR with time differences, even though it's only 2 hours, is sucks. Moreover when your husband is working late almost everyday.
I really cannot imagine other couples who have to experience longer time difference LDR.
Move & Adapt
As I already mentioned in my previous post, I arrived at Haneda Airport on Dec 16th.
And to be completely honest, the first month is the hardest (so far).
Here is the major things that I had to deal with in the first month:
Extreme weather change
It's winter in Japan from Dec to Feb. Having lived in a tropical country my whole life made me accustomed to hot weather & my body is going through a hard time adjusting.
Food
Not only food but also ingredients for cooking. I, basically, can't cook. And found out that the ingredients that I need to make simple cook in Indonesia are not available here is not helping at all. Because Japanese food usually only have 3 basic ingredients: Soyu/ Soy Sauce, Mirin, and Sake.
And since I don't live in Tokyo (or any other big city), I couldn't find any Indonesian store here in Utsunomiya.
Language & writing
Basically everything here is an alien for me. Even though I (tried to) learned Japanese before, it's different. And to make it even more harder, everything here written in Hiragana, Katakana (which I could read), and mostly Kanji (which I know nothing about).
I even spend hours to grocery shopping because it's hard to find to find things when they're all written in Kanji.
I feel lost
Being a stay at home wife after working for 2.5years is weird. The feeling is strange.
I didn't really feel it when I was in Jogja because I was surrounded by my family, I had company most of the time. But here, I really experience woke up to an empty apartment and had no regular schedule whatsoever (closest meaning to had nothing to do).
I had no friends
This actually didn't bother me that much because I am not good around people. I tend to get awkward & distance when I make friends with people with different 'frequency' as me. And I really enjoy being on my own.
But once in a while I feel like I need to talk to someone who could relate to my current situation, who going through hardship like me.
But now things started to change (that I'm going to share in another post).
I do a bit accustomed to the weather.
I could cook decent meals for me and my husband.
I started to learn Japanese (again) in two different places.
I do have a quite regular schedule and activities to keep me busy. And,
I made some friends.
I feel like I'm starting to get myself together and I hope my life will get better and better after this.
___
And I actually have more story to tell but that's for another post when I'm bored (or when inspiration hits me in the face).
Ajus.
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