Today is my last work day in Tokyo. It’s been a long time coming but boy, did it arrive fast! It feels like the last few weeks have just flown by with all the preparation I’ve been working on. Let me go over a few of things that have been on my mind just in June:
- Arranging a shipping company (my wife handled this)
- Selling our household goods on Craigslist.org and keeping track of who is buying what and when
- All of the work related paperwork that goes along with the move
- Getting my UK Work Permit
- Transferring my iPhone to a friend
- Cancelling the gym — And finding a new gym in London
- All the good-bye parties (sooo many of these)
- Closing bank accounts
- Buying plane tickets
- Researching where to live in London
- Securing a hotel for the first week’s stay
- Planning, planning, planning and more planning
There is nothing like the amount of planning and research that goes into a cross-continental move. In fact, I’d say I am far, far more prepared for this move than I was when I came from Seattle -> Tokyo. That move was a bit amateurish since my parents had never moved abroad and I certainly had no experience. To be sure, I overpacked for that trip and sent a LOT of ‘Stuff’ as Trent likes to capitalize on The Simple Dollar. This time I am working diligentally to underload our Stuff and avoid a lot of wasted effort in transporting goods we don’t need. For example, we got a package deal of 9 boxes for our shipping service, we have 2 that are virtually empty and are not trying to fill with something (good thing, I will bring my Desktop in the end but that was VERY encouraging in our Stuff reduction quest).
