June 1st marks the beginning of the next big chapter in my life. Just 15 days after graduation, I’ll officially begin work with Cerego, in the heart of Shibuya, Tokyo. Cerego just yesterday launched a major brand and site overhaul with smart.fm, the premiere learning resource on the internets. (As it were, I held off on an official post like this until the redesign hit, if nothing else than to avoid confusion).

Although I expected to land somewhere in the bay area, my new digs in Tokyo felt like it was destined from the start. I mean, the job posting advertised for a Rails developer with hacker aspirations to work on a product that was rooted in linguistics. And as if that wasn’t enough, the offices were in Shibuya, which not a few hours earlier, I had looked up on Wikipedia to satisfy my curiosity after playing The World Ends With You, a videogame set in a virtual rendition of Shibuya. On my first visit, this would prove to be surprisingly useful: I can’t describe how weird it was to think “Okay, here’s that Moyai head, so that means Scramble Crossing and Hachikōō are coming up” and actually be right. Thanks Square-Enix!

One of the first things people ask when I tell them about my new job is, “Do you speak Japanese?”

To this, I usually respond with a combination of furtive glances and an awkward smile, speaking to the fact that I, in fact, cannot speak Japanese, as well as my understanding that this is not exactly ideal for someone about to live in Japan. I could be worse off, though. I do, after all, study Linguistics and I’ll be working for a company that teaches Japanese. Nonetheless, there’s still a part of me that regrets my decision against taking Japanese in high school, because it was too オタク for my tastes.

Moving to Tokyo involves packing up everything I own into a couple suitcases and leaving everything else behind. To be honest, the whole process has this eerie religious undertone to it: selling all of my earthly possessions, making amends with friends and family, and whatnot.

I have an entire bucket list of things to do before I leave, including an epic midnight bike tour of all of the places I’ve ever lived—retracing fragments of South Fayette and exploring uncharted areas around Oakland. A sad consequence of this preparation are the empty checkboxes next to the names of all of my friends and family, placed there with the full understanding that with each check, I prepare myself for the possibility of that being the last time I ever see them again. And worse, leaving here means leaving behind someone very special, at least for a while. At moments, I can’t help but feel frozen in time, in the eternal now of self-reflection.

At heart, I’m a sort of romantic fatalist: things will happen as they will—no matter what—and it usually turns out alright. How wonderful it is to be a part of something so amazing. </waxing-philosophic>

June 1st marks the first day of my new life, and I couldn’t be more excited! This is the opportunity of a lifetime, and I’m ready to start kicking some ass. So to all my future colleagues in Team smart.fm: I’ll see you soon. And to all of my friends: let’s go out for a drink.

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