Should I really admit all this?!
Here we go, anyway!
Hey guys! I'm Loretta and welcome to my channel "KemushiChan" !
Yesterday evening I was getting ready for bed
And I looked at the calendar and realized
It is the 2-year anniversary since I moved back to Japan!
In the 2 years I've made a lot of mistakes and a lot of improvement
So today, kind of as a look back on the struggles of the past two years
I wanted to share the 10 things I regret doing / Wish I knew before moving to Japan!
Most of these are broad tips you can use in general
But specifically this first one has a lot to do with Japan.
...and that's THIS!
Your diploma! It's very important in Japan
and one of the 1st things I wish I had done before moving here
was to order multiple copies of it!
There's a lot of times for your future employer or your future school
will ask you for a copy of your diploma
Not just your transcript, but your diploma,
and I don't know about you guys but
my college back home is not used to issuing diplomas cheaply or regularly.
I had to call and rush order an expensive diploma
plus the express mail fee to send it here
If you are moving abroad to another country, especially to Japan,
It's better to get copies as soon as you graduate or while you're still in your home country
So if you can...I'd order it now!
#2: This baby right here!
My Citibank account!
When I first visited Japan
I saw that Citibank branches were here AND back home in the states.
I thought,
"I'M TOTALLY MOVING TO JAPAN. SO I'LL HAVE A CITIBANK HERE and A CITIBANK THERE
...SO I CAN MOVE MY MONEY BACK AND FORTH"
I thought I was planning ahead!
But it doesn't actually work that way!
This is kind of like a specific thing for me
But it was really weird
You'll probably get a bank account abroad
that has nothing to do with your account back home
In the end I set up a JP Yucho bank account here anyway
so it didn't even matter in the end.
#3! Speaking of money...
The absolute biggest mistake I made before moving here
is creating debt back home and not paying it all off before moving here!
OH WE'RE GETTING PERSONAL!!
Especially as a US Citizen.
In the US it's very common to accrue school debt/loans
and maybe on top of that, credit card debt!
We are very debt/credit-heavy in the U.S.
So you have problems sending money back
how are you supposed to make your payments?
are you still paid enought to pay your loans?
When I moved here I wasn't paid nearly as much as I was in the States
So there is the adjustment of figuring out
how to re-budget my payment plans and things like that.
So if you move here as a recent graduate
or as an adult with some outstanding debt
DON'T DO THAT! PAY IT OFF!!!!
Try to pay off anything financial that's
leftover back home before you move over here.
NEXT! I wish I hadn't put my middle name on so many documents!
In Japan, there's usually only space for two names
Your first name, and your last name. I have three names!
I know some people who have four or five names
multiple last names, multiple middle names, suffixes...
and as soon as you start putting your entire full name on documents
you have to start doing that everywhere.
I've had times when I've been called my middle name
I've had times when I've been called my last name
I've had times when Boomer [husband] has been called my last name, and I'm my first name. It's crazy!
Like at work for example, I'll say:
Please call me Loretta! It's nice to meet you!
and they're like, where is your name on your ID card?
Obviously on legal documents, gov't-issued docs, etc.
you should use your full, real legal name
But in other cases where you don't have to
I just wish I hadn't. NEXT!
When I first moved to Japan I brought
T-shirts, stuffed animals, blankets,
I brought all of my creature comforts that made me feel at home
but at the end of the day the only thing I ever need in Japan
Is shoes that fit and pants for my booty!
and yet, there's always a shortage of both!
You can buy things like tops in Japan
but during rainy season you're not going to want your thick american T-shirts!
I wish I had just focused on bringing more shoes...more boots...
MORE HEELS...MORE BOOTS!!!....ok
Anyways you get it
I wish I brought the right things. NEXT!
I am still a work in progress but I'll be honest with you!
Wish I had learned more than one hairstyle before I moved to Japan.
I'm not a beauty guru!
My appearance/looks was something I was always bad at
something never really paid that much attention to...
I never learned my hair or what to do with it.
...and then I moved to Japan!
Possibly, one of the most surprisingly humid, tropic-summer places ever
and I was not expecting the journey it was going to take me on!
So while I am still slowly starting to learn things
I just, I wish I had gotten to know
...how to do "ME".
Before I was in a country where I had limited products!
NEXT!
Speaking of the physical... The other thing I wish I had done...
These here are the pages of doctor bills and dentist bills
that I racked up about a week before I moved to Japan!
I avoided everybody for as long as I could
[ MEANWHILE THE DAMAGE WAS GETTING WORSE AND MORE EXPENSIVE TO FIX... ]
...FOREVER in the states
I figured I should get one last checkup before I moved
and you know what they gave me instead?
A BILL!!
I had very good insurance and still my dental bill was about
Ten thousand and fifty... ohmygod. It was $10,000
$10,000 worth of dental treatment, which I didn't even finish!
I didn't even START what I wanted to do but we're not going there right now...
My BoDyyYyy. Getting my BoDdyYy checked out!
I racked up over $10,000 worth of doctor bills
just before I went only because
I waited until the last minute to do it.
So this is just a life thing, more than a Japan thing,
because I ended up spending my money that I wanted to use abroad
just making sure I wasn't gonna fall apart on the way over there!
So if you can, take care of yourself. Please.
[There's so much English in this video...]
NEXT! I wish I had brushed up on the language more
I think my Japanese level is pretty darn good
But that being said, I still wish I'd studied more before I moved here!
Taxes, insurance, useful #adulting things
I knew I was moving for for work and higher education
and I still had trouble using basic terms
Feeling frustrated like " UGH! Why did I know the word for a glass of water ?!"
There's always more to learn with language
But it could have saved some time and effort if I had just learned things in advance!
If you're coming for tourism, know how to ask questions
If you're coming for school make sure you know how to talk about like classrooms, grades
If you're coming for work, make sure you know how to talk about taxes, insurance
Dependents your family members, etc live and learn, huh?
NEXT! I wish I had moved sooner!
The longer you spend in one place, the more you start to settle in.
You start to buy furniture, you get a dog,
investing in things that make you more comfortable where you are
The more you do that the more expensive it is to uproot.
If you do sincerely want to try moving abroad
or want to try visiting a country just to begin
I highly recommend doing that as soon as possible
Just get a taste and see if you like it at all
Because the longer you wait to move/do something
the more money you'll lose while uprooting again
you're probably going to end up spending more money in the long term.
The final, last tip is more basic adulting...
Updating all of your documents, passports, IDs etc.
When I first moved to Japan I started meeting a lot of people
I was trying to make connections, find like job or school opportunities
and I didn't have a current business card that I could use professionally.
I had my YouTube business card and my old business card from work
But I didn't have one that was just my name and my best contact information.
Yes, you can make business cards here in Japan
but I knew how to make them better and more quickly back in the States
So I wish I had made kind of like just plain contact cards
I wish I had made a box of those and taken those everywhere
Because it would have made networking a lot more easy and a lot less awkward.
You meet someone you want to possibly talk about work
but you only connect on Facebook
and now they're all up in your personal stuff
I wish I had had some like nice clean business cards.
SO! Those are my ten points of Real Talk!
My tips and strangely large amount of financial-related advice
In general when you're moving abroad, it's a fun experience
and it's a chance to explore and learn something new about yourself
and the world around you.
And it's so much better if you can do that without
if you can do that without worrying about money
or your body falling apart, etc...
Happy Two-year Anniversary to me!
So thanks for sticking around for all this time
Let's look forward to some new adventures, huh?
Thanks so much for watching today!