Hello from Hong Kong

Please introduce yourself
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jaman
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Hello from Hong Kong

Post by jaman »

Hi all,

I was born in Tokyo and am half-Japanese but I left after a year and grew up in Australia. I am slowly inching my way back, presently living in the Hong Kong “countryside” after a stint in Singapore.

Since I write software for a living, for practical (i.e. job) reasons I tend to be browsing for interesting housing around tokyo or fukuoka. That said, with 2 boys (nearing primary age), 2 dogs, 2 cats, and a turtle, whether a move ever happens is very much up in the air.

In any case, I’m glad to have found this forum and enjoy browsing the wealth of knowledge available.

Cheers

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Zasso Nouka
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Hello from Hong Kong

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Hi Jaman and welcome to Japan Simple Life, we really do appreciate you taking the time to sign up.

I was staggered to discover Hong Kong actually has countryside, I kind of thought it was all one huge mega city but apparently that isn't the case and there is still mountains and forest existing there and it looks quite nice.

I also come from an IT background, Cisco System certified CCSP (now a CCNP, I think) but have since downscaled to farming and also brought over pets from the UK (3 cats). Moving with animals isn't particularly hard, you just need to get them vaccinated before travel although not sure about procedures for a turtle but cats and dogs are pretty straightforward.

If you are wanting to do remote work then you are in luck as high speed fibre optic cables seem to be pretty ubiquitous and even our little village has 2Gbps connectivity, plus with the current covid situation some municipalities seem to be grasping the concept that they can regenerate through encouraging remote workers to settle in their communities and are offering some attractive opportunities.

jaman
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Hello from Hong Kong

Post by jaman »

Yep not a bad spot -- I'm a few minutes walk from the beach, there are cows and buffaloes wandering about, small organic farms dotted about, and many abandoned buildings (there is a Facebook group "Hong Kong Abandoned Villages" if you are into that sort of thing).

With covid, the world is indeed changing very fast and remote working looks increasingly workable. On the other hand, covid also makes moving right now more complicated. Easiest option for me would be an internal transfer to work in Tokyo for a while, giving me more time to explore leisurely.

@zasso In terms of bring animals over, my impression was that it is pretty hard to find rentals that will allow pets, increasingly so for a foreigner. Did you already have a place of your own when you brought them over?

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Zasso Nouka
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Hello from Hong Kong

Post by Zasso Nouka »

jaman wrote:
Sat Dec 05, 2020 2:28 pm
Yep not a bad spot -- I'm a few minutes walk from the beach, there are cows and buffaloes wandering about, small organic farms dotted about, and many abandoned buildings (there is a Facebook group "Hong Kong Abandoned Villages" if you are into that sort of thing).
Sounds awesome, why on earth would you want to move :lol:
jaman wrote:
Sat Dec 05, 2020 2:28 pm
With covid, the world is indeed changing very fast and remote working looks increasingly workable. On the other hand, covid also makes moving right now more complicated. Easiest option for me would be an internal transfer to work in Tokyo for a while, giving me more time to explore leisurely.
Yeah Covid just makes everything complicated, let's hope once reliable vaccines are widely available things will settle back down to normal.
jaman wrote:
Sat Dec 05, 2020 2:28 pm
@zasso In terms of bring animals over, my impression was that it is pretty hard to find rentals that will allow pets, increasingly so for a foreigner. Did you already have a place of your own when you brought them over?
Luckily Mrs Nouka's parents knew a pet friendly landlord and we were able to rent a house from him, it was a bit run down (not horrific, just a bit old) that allowed us to look around to find land. You might have more luck finding something just outside Tokyo rather than in the city itself if you are willing to look at older buildings.

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