Hello world! We have started this site to keep track of and share our journey through our new life here in Japan. I’m Marita, a music professor from Austin, Texas. My husband is Maurizio (Moe), a very handsome 😉 and talented sound engineer from Venice, Italy. We met while traveling the world and working on cruise ships, we make a point to take epic road trips regularly, and our families are on opposite sides of the globe, so travel has always been a big part of our relationship. And I guess it’s no surprise that we sold most of what we own, rented our house, and took off for a country that neither of us had been to previously (aside from my 48hr job interview trip). This is the introduction, the post where I tell you how this all happened. So here goes…

At the start of 2017, I was perusing full-time professor positions and applying for a few that looked promising. I came across a position in Japan and turned to Moe and jokingly said, “How about Tokyo?” He said “Why not?”….probably also joking…but I went ahead and applied. The job description read like it was written just for me and I’ve always wanted to visit Japan and this area of the world, so really…“Why not?”

Flash-forward to a long day and late night in February: I was just about to go to bed when my phone lit up with an email just as I plugged it in to charge. The message was from the school in Japan, asking me to come teach a workshop and sing a few songs as an interview for the position! What?! Of course I didn’t sleep that night, with my mind trying to wrap around: I get to go to Japan!! What should I teach? What should I sing? What if I get the job? What about the house? the dog? the cars? our daughter? She would be so cute speaking Japanese! Can she learn a third language? Should I wake up Moe? My brain is going to explode! I get to go to Japan!

When I set foot off the plane for my quick interview trip, my heart was leaping. I had traveled all over the place. I don’t know why this felt different, but it did. In the short time that I had, between my interview events, I saw as much as possible. I was up early for the fish market (thank you jet-lag!), I saw a kabuki show (one act, anyway), tried all the weirdest and cutest snacks I could find, tried not to spend all of my money on awesome and beautiful souvenirs, and walked and walked and walked. I was in love.

Upon my return to the states, I didn’t give my husband much choice. We were going to figure out how to move to Japan, if I got the job. The day I got it, was one of the most exciting days of my career so far. The three months that we had to prepare and move were also exciting, and terrifying, frustrating, invigorating, and freeing. But we’ll talk about our preparations in another post.

I hope that this blog will help those who are interested in moving to Japan or other countries foreign to them. We will both be posting regularly (hopefully) about the interesting and difficult things we encounter and the adventures we have with our little family. Moe will post in Italian and I, in English. We hope it inspires you to explore your world as well. There are so many amazing things to see!

Great, first post done! And here we are!