Year 2 approaches

Year 2 approaches in about 3 days. I moved to Tokyo Aug 19th, so I'm like 3 days away.

It makes me ponder what Year2 will be like and how I should change it up as I think reinvention is key. I found myself in Roppongi/Midtown on Fri night again, kind of doing the same old thing... and you know what it is getting a bit lame. Thus I definitely need to venture out a little and do different things and part of that means hanging w/ different circles rather than VIG and the old gang.


I actually ponder seriously if I will go to HK -- maybe even end of this year is within reason. I'm not sure if its a good idea or not, given I've been in TK just 1 year and have not sucked the life out of the city/country yet to the point that I would never return... but will I ever do that I wonder?

I think thought process for HK is:
+ career growth as its a booming market
+ cheaper tennis
+ easier to travel out of HK to see the rest of the WORLD (rather than just Japan)
+ more expat friendly (although for me its a wash since I speak japanese in japan)
- less single girls
- dirtier / more aggressive / ruder society
- while its expat friendly i dont speak chinese which limits me...

Thoughts for TK
+ I have established myself, have lots of friends at work, etc. socially its a blast
+ I speak japanese and am improving slowly
+ snow season is awesome
+ lots of single girls
- shallowness of j-girls is kinda annoying me
- market is kind of dead here unless i become super fluent in japanese

So.. the smart money says to stay in TK milk it, clamp down and learn more, and in +1 yr make the move.

But I'm not always smart. I am going to ramp up and test the market in a few weeks and see if I can get a VP or Director position by job hopping. If I can then its well worth going. As much as I like my company it is dying out.. and internal VP promotions are very political. Requires like 10 people to sign off, while getting hired as a VP requires just like 3 or 4.