Ten years, many timelines, one thread: Connections that come full circle
Today, July 1st, marks 10 years of marriage, and it made me stop and think about everything that led to this point.
Building a life across cultures has a way of putting things into perspective. It teaches you quickly what matters, what doesn’t, and how much of anything long term comes down to communication, patience, and consistency. It’s not always straightforward, but it’s grounding in a way that everything else seems to connect back to.
This year also marks 14 years since I moved back to Japan, this time expecting it to be permanent. But the starting point goes further back to 1997, when I first lived there after graduating from Japanese Studies. At the time, there was no bigger plan. I also graduated alongside the now CEO of Japan Consulting Office (JCO), which only really makes sense in hindsight. It’s one of those long-term connections that quietly comes back around.
It’s been 12 years since I graduated from GLOBIS’ MBA school in Tokyo. That experience still shapes how I think about business in Japan, and it feels very full circle to now be working with GLOBIS again as a consultant through JCO. I’ve also just been elected GLOBIS USA Alumni President for a one-year term, which is another way of staying connected to that community from a different angle.
On another timeline, after moving to the US in 2018, it’s now almost one year since becoming a US citizen, in the same year the US marks 250 years.
Having spent so much of my life between countries, it’s a reminder that identity isn’t something fixed. It evolves with where you are and the people around you.
More recently, reaching 10,000+ followers on LinkedIn has made me reflect on how much of my work is built on relationships over time. Not in a transactional way, but through ongoing conversations, shared context, and trust that builds gradually.
And this year also marks 3 years working with JCO in the US. In many ways, it feels like bringing all of these threads together, from that first decision to study Japanese, to living and working in Japan and the US, and now helping others navigate the same environment.
Looking at all of this together, the numbers themselves aren’t the point. What they really represent is people. Classmates, colleagues, clients, mentors, friends, and family.
Working between cultures, especially in Japan, reinforces that relationships don’t move quickly, but they do compound. The connections you make early on don’t disappear. They resurface, evolve, and take on new meaning over time.
So this feels less like a list of milestones and more like a reminder of how connected everything actually is.
And that the long game, especially here, is still the one that matters most.
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