Konnichiwa, I’m Roland. Born in the Philippines in the late 80s, a kid of the 90s, and in my teens by the early 2000s.
I am of a generation that witnessed the transition of everything going from analogue to digital. The change fascinated me constantly and ultimately sent me to pursue a degree in software engineering.
After college, I found an opportunity to work in Japan. It had been both a struggle and an adventure to leave everything and everyone I knew behind back home.
Roland arrived in Japan in June on a cold rainy day. “It was my first time to be in a country with four seasons and seeing my breath turning to mist out in the street was exciting,” he says. ”Everything was just so pristine and polite, even the rain here felt as if it was being considerate compared to the almost daily downpours back home”. Photo by Finan Akbar
I only brought stuff you’d take for a 2-week trip overseas. A suitcase of clothes, some toiletries, and foodstuffs from back home. My parents told me that what I could bring to Japan is most probably available here anyway and at much better quality and variety.
I was also fortunate the company provided furnished accommodation. The first couple of years of my life here, I was living out of my suitcase. I didn’t have anything to my name except for a few eating utensils and a giant bowl.
When I got hired, they gave me a 3-month intensive language training while they processed my documents. When they flew me in and started working, they gave me a private tutor after work as well.
That took care of getting my business-level Japanese up to standard, but the actual fluency came from talking in Japanese every day.
Learning a new language is certainly difficult, but it can be made easier by how passionate you are to learn it.
I was already interested in Japan, to begin with, so I took the initiative to take basic Nihongo classes during college.
Roland has an aunt who used to tell him stories about her life in Japan. She painted vivid pictures of a typical daily life here, sharing the truth and inconveniences of being a foreigner. ”I remember watching so many documentaries like Japan Video Topics about various aspects of Japanese culture. It didn’t take long before the dream of going here took root and I made a conscious effort to make it come true. It was that same aunt who told me of that job opportunity — she had a friend who was hiring and my aunt referred me to her — which eventually paved the way for me to achieve my dream”. Photo by Alex Knight
I worked on creating test modules for an IT company right in the heart of Tokyo. I’ve been a coder dispatched to update legacy systems (COBOL to be exact) for a government agency sometime after that.
I thought a 9-to-5 career in a cubicle was how I’ll be spending my days in Japan.
Ultimately though, life had more surprises for me to come.
I’m sure the change of countries has changed me and my priorities. So it wasn’t long when I found myself wanting to have a better work-life balance.
A decade later and I’m now in a government job here in Saitama that finally affords me a comfy lifestyle.
“I thought Tokyo was already quiet for a megalopolis, but the suburbs of Saitama is just completely silent. If I stand out there in the street off the main road, the only thing I can hear is nature and it still humbles me,” says Roland
It may not pay as much as a corporate position in the private sector, but I get some stability and lots of free time to pursue hobbies and build a home we don’t need to take a vacation away from.
Moving to a town with a small train station, surrounded by mountains and rivers, felt like home. Living in a tropical country is living with nature, and I missed that.
The city life had been exciting and an everyday adult playground. But the constant stimulation and how it permeates into your life can be tiring after a couple of years.
Upon arrival, Roland was surprised by how cooperative and meticulous the Japanese can be and how convenient it made everything for everyone. ”The first time I experienced Japanese hospitality and service, I felt like I was carefully catered to as a VIP,” he says
As a frustrated artist, I’ve been meaning to create more digital art again. I was able to pursue a new hobby as an amateur photographer and even made some decent money doing food photography on the side.
My wife and I also started travelling abroad; if not for the pandemic, we’d probably be out there again right now actually.
My workspaces have always paralleled my lifestyle.
The last one I had before this was during an RGB phase, which had bouts of juvenile bright chaos, and I loved it. Although, it seems that as I matured with age, the look of my setup matured along with me.
