Hi there, this is the first post on my new blog. I’m more used to writing through fictional characters (who can be as witty and brave as I want them to be) than through myself, but I love writing and books and travelling, so I’m willing to try this out.

Most people don’t like change. I’m not a huge fan of it either. Whether it was moving house or leaving home for uni, the thought of my life never being the same again would hound me for nights on end. In fact, I often found that – like when I get those dreaded vaccinations – worrying about it was worse than the actual event.

Moving house and going to uni all turned out well – I really didn’t want to leave Exeter! – but now I’m fast approaching an even bigger my-life-will-never-be-the-same-again event.

I’m moving to Japan.

The thought of boarding a one-way flight to Tokyo in less than a week fills me with equal amounts of fear and excitement. Half of me is ecstatic that I made it through the JET Programme’s interview (I was 99% sure I’d failed it) and will get to live and work in a country I’ve been fascinated with since I was 16. The other half of me is crumbling beneath the heaps of bureaucratic work I’ve got to do (moving to Germany was hard enough, and that’s in the EU) and terrified of the unknown. What if the kids I’m teaching hate me? What if I can’t cope with homesickness? What if I can’t survive without monthly cuddles with my adorable cocker spaniel? (She’s called Poppy and she melts my heart.)

So my emotional state is very much a seesaw at the moment, tipping one way then the other depending on how my day is going (and which book I’m reading).

But I know from my time in Germany that there will be highs and lows, new people to meet and interesting things to see. There will be foods I’ve never tried before and strange rules that baffle me, but I’ll get used to it. And in the end I hope that, like Germany, Japan will become my new home away from home.

At least, that’s the plan.

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