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Body in Australia, Heart in Japan: Graduated from Australian Working Holiday in Four Months
目錄
Note: This post is translated by AI. If you find any unnatural phrasing or errors, please feel free to contact me via email or other channels. Your feedback is appreciated!
As the title says, I left Australia.
Decided to go to Australia temporarily in the middle of this year, and the decision to leave was also made in a hurry.
But I am very glad that I ran to Australia instead of continuing to suffer in Taiwan. Just four months broke me and reassembled me, reshaped the way I interact with the world, and let me see more possibilities.
When I met an old friend from Taiwan again before leaving Australia, she said "I was quite quiet in Taiwan", which made me realize how much I have changed or how much I have retrieved by coming to Australia.
After all, friends I met here wished I could be a bit quieter.
Same Yet Different Starting Point
Thinking that my original plan was to resign and go to Japan after the monthly rent in Taipei expired in November, didn't expect to still follow this schedule after a trip to Australia.
Transition process:
April, Applied for Japan Working Holiday Visa
Inspired by two engineer friends. One found a full-time software engineer job during working holiday and stayed in Japan. The other worked and skied at a ski resort. At this time, planned to work at a ski resort in Japan while practicing Japanese, then look for a full-time job in Tokyo.
May, Had a meal with a former colleague who came back from Australian Working Holiday, the idea of going to Australia sprouted
At this time, thought I could go to Australia for half a year before going to Japan at the end of the year. Also felt the pressure accumulated at work had reached the limit.
Chose Australia at that time besides wanting to maintain exposure to Asia, Australian visa application is convenient and fast, also Australian hourly wage is high. And because paid a sum of money after application, felt it was imperative.
June, Australian visa came down, found Japanese visa can be kept for a year before departure, planned to stay in Australia for a full year
At this time also thinking, maybe I would suddenly change life direction and stay in Australia.
July, Landed in Gold Coast, stayed temporarily at a friend's house who was studying locally. Only started to look up information and find jobs after landing
Originally targeted tourism industry or catering industry in the city. Also thought about whether to be a technical blue-collar (light partition, waterproofing engineering).
However, job hunting was not smooth at first. Just happened that a friend's friend's friend introduced a job in a fruit and vegetable factory, so set off. This article has a more detailed process.
August, Fruit and vegetable factory started. Anyway, earn some money here first, stay for three months then talk
Doing three months is because to get the second year visa qualification must work in designated regional areas for three months (renewing for the third year requires six months).
September, Planned to go down to Melbourne after finishing
First heard from a Taiwanese from Mildura saying can introduce cherry farm job which was very tempting. Then Japanese roommate also happened to want to go to Melbourne, so planned to team up with him to go down.
October, Started thinking if can go to Japan early
Stayed in Australia for three months. Quite a few backpackers around went back to their countries or scattered. Also found the trouble of moving from Brisbane to Melbourne is about same as running directly to Japan, both need to start over.
Of course staying in Brisbane is also fine, but exploration is about done. Want to confirm how actual life and work in Japan are earlier.
Thought for about two weeks, decided to leave after the factory ends. Details of thinking will be mentioned below.
November, With the help of an agent found a job at a ski resort in Gunma, Japan. After going around in a circle, still returned to the most original plan
Why Leave Australia
Since I was glad to run to Australia, then why did I leave early?
The main reason is still "Want to go to Japan".
When coming to Australia, I also held the thought whether I would fall in love with Australia and not go to Japan anymore, but after staying for four months still didn't have this thought.
The reason for not having it is not entirely because of Australia, but because I have dreamed of going to Japan for too long. I have to witness the ending of this dream first. Only after it is realized or shattered can I truly move to the next step.
I don't want to give future self any chance to think "if only I had gone to Japan back then". I have to at least try to be relieved.
Therefore, when thinking about the next step here, the first thought that popped up was "Go to Japan by next June at the latest". All planning must be carried out under this major premise. This made me feel quite annoyed, like a fishbone stuck in the throat.
Don't Want to Miss the Snow Season
My plan for going to Japan is to practice Japanese for a few months while working part-time, then go all out to find a job that can issue a formal work visa to me.
If staying in Australia for a full year, go to Japan next June. Snow season is about December to March. Working all the way until snow season ends, only 3 months of visa will be left before expiring. Feel the pressure is too big to find a full-time job in such a short time.
If go now, after snow season ends next March, I still have about half a year to look for. Although won't become easier but at least time is a bit more abundant.
Current Situation of Australian Working Holiday
Coming to Australia for working holiday can really kill many birds with one stone. Can earn a sum of money, can live well, can get along with people from all over the world, can broaden horizons, can see rain forests, deserts, ocean, snow. There are many things can be done, except for "visa and status".
Jobs that working holiday visa can do are mostly primary industries (farms, meat factories, factories) or service industries (housekeeping, catering). But there are still some jobs that can accumulate, like engineering type (light partition, waterproofing). Also some jobs can participate in after meeting good opportunities with special skills possessed before coming, like diving instructor in Cairns, rugby player, staff of regional baseball league, etc.
I came out with a goal to obtain formal visa and status. Choices I know currently in Australia can't really help me achieve this, or can't do it within a year. I seriously considered doing construction engineering, finding ways to switch to technical blue-collar, but need time to hone and also need luck to enter the industry. Having a Japanese plan stuck in the middle makes it hard to try. This also facilitated me to end this exploration of Australia early. If come back again next time can at least have two continuous years to invest.
Want to Find Home
Wrote in Written After Homelessness, I actually want a "home". When in Taipei, I always felt like a passer-by because I wanted to go to Japan in the future. Coming to Australia, I found I still feel like a passer-by for the same reason.
It's quite tiring to run around with almost all belongings. Luggage was always overweight when taking flight. Threw away many things at airport before departure due to overweight. This time also purchased excess baggage to come back. Dare not to buy things when going out to play. Even bought can only stuff into suitcase.
This is also why trouble from Brisbane to Melbourne is similar to going to Japan. Because distance from Brisbane to Melbourne is a distance of taking a flight or driving for five days. Even though restrained very much in these four months, luggage still kept increasing. Experienced another round of decluttering before leaving. Some daily necessities have to be bought repeatedly because cost of taking them away is higher than buying directly.
Besides physical space, psychological burden is also quite heavy. Because backpackers come and go, experienced too many partings in short four months. Although not everyone is very good, there are also good friends who hit it off right away. Backpackers saying goodbye to each other might be goodbye forever. Japanese and Taiwanese I still have chance to meet, but like Koreans and French etc., chances to meet again in future are slim. I still can't get used to parting.
Emotional connection with family is relatively weak, might lead to me valuing people around very much. Ecology of backpackers gathering less and leaving more is still too stimulating for my current stage.
Rather than experiencing the cycle of "building life circle and have to break it" again within Australia, better spend this energy directly on my real goal — Japan.
Review Expectations Before Departure
Reviewing what I wanted to do in Australia mentioned in Leaving Taiwan for Two Years: Heading to Australia and Japan and From Coding to Cutting Pumpkins: Official Start of Australian Working Holiday: find different life rhythm, explore various possibilities, write, write software I identify with or open source contribution. Things I didn't write out but wanted to do also included editing short videos to share journey and continuing to improve Japanese.
I found different life rhythm. Didn't know how to rest in Taiwan. Coming to Australia infected by atmosphere instead resting all the time. Before coming really wanted to know what feeling of "coming out to sunbathe" is like. Because I never sunbathed for the sake of sunbathing. But coming to Australia saw locals love to find a piece of grass spread a towel sit or lie there sunbathing during the day. Some might bring paper books out to read. Also started to come out to sunbathe like this before leaving.
I also explored many possibilities. Only after truly completely accepting possibility of not continuing to write code, did I start to see more possibilities. Imagination for making a living in past was limited by identity of software engineer. What thought of was nothing more than honing which programming skills, entering foreign companies, taking cases, writing SaaS services to earn money etc. But after actually cutting pumpkins in factory to earn money, realized I used to view sky from a tube. Only looked out through the straw named software development. Only could see that part of ways to make a living. Now after taking down that straw discovered innumerable possibilities in front of eyes are endless.
"Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna" revealed why chosen ones are all children. That is because only children contain infinite possibilities. That power of possibility can bring powerful energy to digital world. But when children grow up into adults, possibilities will converge into a line. I think my previous possibilities converged into the line of software development.
But if considering getting Japanese work visa, I might still have to return to software development first. Just able to have more energy to notice other possibilities.
Japanese is my most unexpected harvest. Some Japanese books I painstakingly moved there were not read, but my Japanese improved. Because Japanese are the most people I met in Australia. This is a change completely didn't think of before going to Australia.
They are quite willing to speak Japanese with me, also teach me a lot of Japanese. Future going to Japan also have many more friends can help each other (maybe mainly I will be taken care of by them).
I thought coming to Australia was taking a detour, but unexpectedly helped my original goal. This experience on one hand makes me amazed, on other hand makes me reflect past might be too arrogant. Arbitrarily imagining future and presuming position. But haven't tried not qualified to draw conclusion.
As for other parts not done are continuous improvement and tracking.
Conclusion
This article was written for a long time. From mid-October confirming to leave until now person is already in Taiwan. Accumulated three or four versions in between. Also details of my life in Australia and other changes brought to me were not written in.
There was a version written a bit negatively. Compared Australia and Taiwan then wrote a lot of negative views on Taiwan. But later felt this is not the emotion I want to flow in my text. Not what I want to bring to readers. Nor what I want to bring to future self.
These four months I also wrote quite a few diaries. A bit hard to organize them all in at once. Sometimes writing feels writing too detailed. Excessive information might blur the focus.
Anyway, this status report nature article ends here first. Expect to have another one chatting about what kind of life I lived in Australia.
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