Hello! How are you all doing?
In the first place, when I started this blog, I started writing about "Why did you move?"
Like Japanese politicians, I put off the troublesome things for later, and when my friends asked me, "Aren't you going to write a sequel yet?"
However, today I would like to write about why I emigrated in order to fulfill that promise.
However, when I read it again, I found that the previous part 2 was basically complete, and I don't have much else to write! I feel like Sweat
On the other hand, I just wrote what happened in chronological order, and it may not be possible to convey " why I moved to Spain" , so at the end, I will focus on that once again as the final version . I would like.
Thank you very much!
Actually, in my case, rather than whether to live in Spain or not, I have a strong desire to live abroad. There was only one option.
So, in order to continue living in New York, to maintain my equal H1 visa, I had to stay at the company that was sponsoring me at the time (the company I was working for), but in order to do so, I had to sacrifice everything. I had no choice but to work there like a workhorse, but the truth is that I couldn't stand it anymore.
It's not impossible to find another company, but in New York, where prices are ridiculously high, you can't make a living unless you work for a decent company, so it's not that easy to change jobs.
My role in the company at that time wasn't very interesting, and I didn't get along with my Indian boss at all.
If I met him now, I would want to kick him. At the very least, there is no doubt that it will eat the grip.
And I think I didn't like the city of New York so much that I wanted to endure the job I didn't like just to continue living there.
Instead, I began to be very attracted to Spain, which I had always dreamed of.
I was also in my late 30s at the time, an age when failure was acceptable, and my child was 4 years old, which was not an age that was sensitive to change.
There are two reasons why I want to live abroad.
one for myself.
Someday in the future, I will definitely return to Japan, so until then I will simply have various experiences and enjoy traveling abroad every day, which is a stupid reason.
And the second is for children.
Of course, this is more important, and I have a very strong desire to raise my children abroad. Of course, no one knows at this point whether it is really good for children, because it is an afterthought.
Actually, I am also a returnee who spent my junior high and high school days in Germany, but I still have a strong feeling that I am glad that I was able to spend time abroad.
Thanks to that, I was able to get into a relatively good university in the back-door admission category for returnees. Thanks to that, I got into a good company.
On the other hand, I was only there for four and a half years, so when I was in New York, if I was asked to do the same thing as Americans, it would be unreasonable to compete overseas with strong local rivals in terms of language and mentality. It was possible. Of course it depends on the type of work.
In my case, I was working as a relationship manager for a Japanese financial institution in New York, so being a Japanese person who can speak English was very useful. However, as mentioned above, it was impossible to do the same work as Americans. For example, if I was asked to do business by an American institutional investor and competed with an American who graduated from Harvard, there was no way I could win. So I wanted my children to study abroad as soon as possible.
I wanted them to be perfect in their language, and I wanted them to learn without preconceptions how to think about things, how to approach things, and that there are many different people and ways of thinking in the world.
In that case, why don't you let me go to a Japanese interchange? There may be some people who say that, but by living abroad as a minority, I want them to acquire a hungry spirit and a greedy way of thinking, such as how they can be recognized even by Japanese people. In addition to school, I thought I could have a wider range of experiences in extracurricular activities and life, which is unique to overseas.
But again, I don't know if it's really good for children.
As a result, there may be cases where it would have been better if they stayed in Japan forever, and I think it depends on the individuality of each child.
Moreover, not being in Japan may come at the cost of not being able to acquire the necessary elements to work in Japan in the future. However, even so, I think that in the end, I will be able to give my children more options, including working abroad in the future.
And after that, as I wrote before. As I was thinking about these things, my dream of moving to Barcelona began to grow.
I love FC Barcelona and dreamed of going to Camp Nou (football stadium) every week someday.
In addition to prosciutto, fresh seafood and vegetables seemed to suit his diet.
I thought that people seemed to be kind, and that human relations seemed to be okay.
The social infrastructure is in place, the level of medical care, which I was very concerned about, is high, and the insurance premiums are much cheaper than in the United States.
I'm an anxious person, so from a young age I liked to find out about illness. When I was a child, my favorite book was "Family Medicine", my favorite manga was "Doctor K", and my hairstyle, no, my hair color was "Black Jack".
For an amateur, I think he has a lot of medical knowledge. When I go to the doctor, I'm so worried that I'm not sick like this. In front of the doctor, I put out the name of a disease that ordinary people have never heard of, and I was laughed at and quite annoyed.
I also like testing, and many years ago I had a microarray test that no one knew about at the time. It was expensive and not covered by insurance, so I put up with drinking parties several times. Medical care is cheap in Japan, so if something happened, I went to the hospital immediately. On the contrary, my wife was always angry that she was getting a cold there.
After coming to Spain, going to the hospital became troublesome, so I haven't been there much. . .
If I could start my life over again, I would even like to become a doctor, but I'm very clumsy when it comes to love, so it may not be possible. It would be better to just keep the hairstyle.
Digressing from the topic, above all, I was able to live here thanks to the new visa system. There are many countries with similar visa systems, but Spain, Portugal, and Greece have the lowest hurdles in the world.
Also, the prices are not that high, so I felt a little relief from the stress of working like a workhorse just to make ends meet.
The level of education is not very high on average, but there are good schools, and above all, I think it is quite significant that you can learn Spanish, which is the second most spoken language in the world after Chinese and Hindi. rice field.
Not only my children, but I also learned Spanish properly, so I could use it in my future business, and I felt that the world would expand.
To be honest, there is also a part that it is glue after that. I didn't think too much about it. He has a positive thinking that if only his body was healthy, he would be able to do something about it.
Also, as I wrote before, my boss who I respected suddenly passed away, and it made me feel like I had to do what I wanted to do in life as soon as possible.
At that time, the euro was weak, and there was also the aspect that the initial investment would be relatively cheap.
All of the above combined, and I decided to emigrate with a lot of momentum. Especially from my wife, eh? why? Are you going to give up your stable life? There is no doubt that I felt like that, but my wife was also a curious and enthusiastic type, so I was saved. smile
And now, almost five years later, was this decision the right one? If you ask me, I honestly don't know. It is possible that it would have been better to have stayed in America or returned to Japan.
But do you regret it? If you ask me, I can answer with confidence that I am not 100%. At least it's because I enjoy my life in Spain right now.
I might regret it in the future. smile
All of my colleagues at the time were very active in their respective fields with the X100, and I respect them all. In terms of my career, I was outclassed, but I don't have that kind of talent in the first place, so I think it was a good choice.
If anyone is interested in such migration, please contact us. The only thing I can give back to the world is this experience, so I'm happy to talk about it.
So, this time, I wrote it seriously without the annoying (?) father joke. From the next time, I would like to lift the ban again and write!
Thank you for reading!
husband