It’s the fourth day of 2026, time to review where I’ve been and where I want to go.
Every year I do this. Take time to think about the last 12 months, recalibrate, check priorities, and pause. Most of the time it comes with some amount of “I’m completely lost” and a pinch of “…but this is actually what you planned for”. So, in the spirit of recalibration, and writing things so that I can remember the original thoguhts, here it is.
First, Let’s Review 2025
It’s crazy. Last year at this time we were in Ottawa preparing our return to Japan. If I remember correctly, we were freaking out about kids schools, what to do with English lessons, stress about packing (or, me causing stress because I like to pack more last minute while my wife likes to pack 6 months before).
2025 was truly a year of big changes. The kind of changes that one does not plan for. For the longest time I had visualized settling in Canada, buying a house, being closer to family in the Americas and Europe, having this connection with Japan… But that did not pan out. Last year we sold the house we had bought 3 years previous; we moved back to Tokyo and kids joined the local school; I switched teams within the company from analytics to ads. And the previously life map I had for the longest time was just scrapped, burned down.
I like to say that within big unexpected changes, this one is one of the best ones. My family is healthy, I’m still healthy, kids are happy, wife is happy… so yes, it could be much worse. But that doesn’t take a way the feeling of partial defeat, of needing to pivot and learn how to do it effectively.
…I guess all successes are preceded by learning moments – like this one.
Planning for 2026
This morning I thought about the phase, “separating singal from noise”. That’s why it’s important to do this review. I need to make sure I find or define the signal, and focus my energy towards it.
So, what do we want in 2026?
Japanese needs to improve. Since now the plan is to say here indefinitely, I need to bring my Japanese up to native level. That means writing and reading. I keep saying this and studying lightly, but I need to ramp it up. I need to read more.
But, how do we make it measurable? How about a book a month? Something short but in my industry? How about articles per week? No, let’s do books. (Well, Gemini says that’s a bad idea, better make it a book a quarter.) Luckily, my coworkers have published some books.
Let’s see what we can do here. At least one book. And it is written ONE BOOK!
Better understand investments. But this is tied to my level of Japanese. Understanding the financial lingo, tools and tricks while you are in one country is hard enough. Being an expat with investments in Canada and Japan, and having all the tools and advice in Japanese… well, that’s next level complication.
That said, I do want to understand the lay of the land a bit better. Not only that, I want to start better undrestanding what the future has in store.
Feeling stable with kids activities and future. We are at the stage were we need to make decisions for where our kids are going to go school; and in Tokyo, that’s a big thing. There are a few school tracks people stress about, international, private, or public. Depending on where you live, the options can vary.
People who live in rural areas tend to go to public schools, private is more for those who have problems in the public schools. In big cities you have the private with better connection to universities, so everyone wants to go there – very competitive. And the there is the international schools, that typically ranage around the $20k USD per year per kid… no thank you.
Evolving Always
Let’s leave this post for now, publish, and add notes as needed.
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