We are Leaving Japan!
It has been a few months since I have written about my progress of achieving my one year goal of leaving Japan. I didn’t have much to report so I spared you the boring details, however, now my goal is much, much closer.
Step One – Mission Accomplished!
The biggest challenge my wife and I had in order to begin our new nomadic lives was to sell our business in Japan. We just received the money for the sale of our English school so now the hard work is finished. That was the only major obstacle holding us back and now that it is complete there are only small details and preparation left ahead of us.
We have to stick around and train the new owners and teacher, but we will be free from all obligations a couple of months ahead of schedule. We are leaving!
Japan is a fantastic country, so don’t get me wrong. We definitely plan to return regularly. However, running the same business for a decade was growing tiresome and we are definitely ready for a change.
Step Two – Rent Out Our House
The next step is to decide whether or not to rent out our house or to keep it as a home base. This is still uncertain although we are about 90% leaning towards renting it out. It would be great to have a place to keep our things and have somewhere that is completely ours. At the same time, it is a little foolish paying for a house when we are not going to be here for most of the year.
Also, keeping the house would definitely encourage us to spend more time at home which defeats the purpose of getting rid of our business in the first place. This is definitely not our dream house so we don’t have any special attachments. It makes much more sense to rent it out and earn a little income from it, rather than keeping an expense. Okay, I am 95% certain now that we are going to rent it out.
Step Three – Get Rid of the Car
The next project is selling our car. We have a great vehicle with very low miles but owning a car has made us lazy. It is too easy to drive rather than cycle or walk. I love the convenience of a car, but I really miss cycling everywhere like I used to in my university days. Hopefully, we won’t have a need for a car for a long, long time. I haven’t started to sell it yet, so I am not sure how long it will take.
Step Four – No More Stuff
After that, there are only minor details to take care of. We will have to store, sell or give away all of our stuff. Some things like my guitars and bicycle, I will never part with so they will have to be kept somewhere. The rest are just possessions that can be disposed of. My wife and I have a fairly minimal existence but buying a house has led to a lot of lifestyle inflation. The more space you have the more you try to fill it. I am not looking forward to cleaning out our house.
Step Five – Decide Where to Go
We still haven’t decided about where we are going to go first. Maybe Thailand, that seems to be the headquarters of many of my blogging colleagues. Thailand is a good stop over on the way to Australia, however I am not a big fan of Bangkok; It is just too crowded and polluted. We also plan to visit Canada soon because of a sick relative and to spend some time with my 90 year old grandmother. We will wait until early January to decide.
The Future
We have managed to save up a decent amount of money from running our own business. We are not rich enough to retire but we can survive for many years without an income. That means my wife and I can focus on the projects and businesses that we want to work on.
I am really excited to be able to have the time and money to invest in several projects that were neglected over the last few years. The future looks great! Hopefully, I will get a chance in the near future to meet up with many of you.
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Atsushi Mihara 
Well done! If you were able to set up a bricks and morter business then it should be easy to set up online businesses. Make sure you take a holiday first though!
.-= NomadicNeil´s last blog ..Why I bring my guitar everywhere I go =-.