{"id":36,"date":"2026-10-06T11:07:55","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T03:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mrben.net\/?p=36"},"modified":"2026-10-06T11:07:55","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T03:07:55","slug":"why-i-left-my-comfort-zone-to-start-over-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mrben.net\/index.php\/2026\/10\/06\/why-i-left-my-comfort-zone-to-start-over-in-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Left My Comfort Zone to Start Over in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Three years ago, I had a stable job, a rented apartment I knew by heart, and a group of friends I&#8217;d known since university. On paper, everything was fine.But fine was the problem. I felt like I was watching my own life from the outside \u2014 showing up, doing the work, going home, and repeating. I wasn&#8217;t growing. I was just maintaining.So I sold most of my things, booked a one-way ticket to Osaka, and started over. The first six months were brutal. I couldn&#8217;t read the train signs. I burned instant noodles for dinner more times than I&#8217;d like to admit. I cried in a 100-square-foot bathroom after a particularly hard language test.But slowly, things shifted. I met neighbors who taught me how to order takoyaki. I started a small vacation rental business. I picked up coding again at night. And for the first time in years, I felt like I was building something that was actually mine.Leaving your comfort zone isn&#8217;t glamorous. It&#8217;s mostly awkward and exhausting. But if you&#8217;re reading this and feeling stuck, I&#8217;ll say what I wish someone had told me: the discomfort is temporary. The regret of never trying is not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three years ago, I had a stable job, a rented apartment [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrben.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrben.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrben.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrben.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrben.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mrben.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38,"href":"https:\/\/mrben.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions\/38"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrben.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrben.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrben.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrben.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}