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An Ottawa native who moved to Japan on a yearlong Working Holiday Visa says the experience has upended her expectations about where she wants to live next. Alessa Hickman, who grew up near Canada’s capital and had planned to return home after a single year abroad, describes falling for Japan’s everyday rhythm and planning a period of travel before deciding whether to settle back in Ottawa.
What drew her to stay
Hickman says rising costs at home and the timing of her apartment lease helped nudge her toward leaving Canada, but it was the experience in Japan that made her reconsider a short stay. She had visited Japan a few years earlier and signed up for the Working Holiday program with the intention of staying for a year; after her first night out in Tokyo she began researching ways to remain longer, she wrote.
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Since moving, Hickman has lived in multiple cities, including Tokyo and Osaka, and traveled to more than a dozen other towns and cities across Japan. She credits the country’s transport network — particularly its trains — with making spontaneous weekend trips and frequent exploration far easier than the travel she knew growing up in Ottawa. Meeting people from around the world and trying new restaurants and neighborhoods reinforced her sense that staying put simply because she was from one place would be limiting.
Returning to Canada — but not settling yet
Hickman acknowledges that returning to Canada is the next practical step: her Working Holiday Visa is ending, and moving abroad permanently would require more planning and paperwork. She says she plans to leave Japan in a couple of months and to spend time in Southeast Asia on the way home, and might add extra stops before arriving back in Canada.
When she does return, Hickman expects to keep traveling. She’s considering another yearlong visa or an extended period abroad, and for now does not intend to resume life in Ottawa in the way she once imagined. Instead, she’s thinking about driving or moving across Canada to see the country from a new perspective — partly motivated by how much she realizes she hasn’t seen of her homeland since gaining the experience of living overseas.
What she’s taking with her
Hickman, who says she is still in her 20s, describes the year in Japan as both clarifying and destabilizing: it didn’t provide definitive answers about where she will live long term, but it expanded the range of possibilities. She plans to carry the lessons and feelings from this time abroad into whatever comes next, whether that means more travel, another visa, or exploring Canada with fresh eyes.
