I want to make it a yearly habit to think back and reflect on the previous year. 2024 was certainly a mixed bag for me. It was pretty much the worst year of my life in terms of family incidents. But in other ways, it was one of the best years of my life. I think I’ve been pretty good about looking at both sides, but it can’t hurt to actually reflect on the many positive (and the few, but heavy negative) experiences I’ve had in 2024.

Ocean in Denmark Beach in Denmark with people

It’s becoming a tradition that we’re going on an additional trip to Denmark with my friends in winter, in addition to the summer trip. This time, we stayed over New Year’s. I’ve been spending that time with friends anyway in the past decade or longer, but being on vacation in a nice little house with a bunch of friends makes it even better. Admittedly, there was some alcohol involved on New Year’s Eve, but I still had a really good start into the new year. Some friends and I went for a dip into the cold ocean on January 1st. We also did a bunch of other fun things on that day, including Mario Kart, sauna and hot tub, Terraforming Mars, and Unfair1. During the Denmark trip, we also went to a local bouldering gym with a small group, which was a first for us I think.

Cold lake in Denmark with a friend

As an aside, I’ve been writing an almost daily journal for a while, and looking back at my journal entries from the beginning of the year, it seems like at that point, I was still thinking about the possibility of moving to Japan, though I started to doubt that path because of how important all these trips with my friends have become for me. This also shows me how important these journals can be, especially when reflecting on the past. I totally forgot that this was an option I still seriously considered back then, even though it was just a year ago.

Protest in Göttingen (1) Protest in Göttingen (2)

In January, I also attended two anti-fascist protests. To be honest, in the past I haven’t been very interested in going to these, but after a conversation with my friends, I’ve come to the conclusion that if it’s something I strongly value, I should be part of these movements. I’m still not the biggest fan, but it’s very much like voting: Even though your single contribution doesn’t do much, it’s still important to do your part.

Lake in Copenhagen

At the end of January, I actually spent two nights in Copenhagen, for the first time in my life. It’s a pretty cool city!

Snowy winter view in Norway Carrot cake that says Steffi Johanna building the sauna Sunset view while skiing Skiing with Helmut and friends

From there, I continued on to Trondheim to visit Johanna and Helmut again for a couple of weeks. Another winter tradition. I actually helped them finish building their sauna2 which was a lot of fun, and we made good use of it.

After a few more weeks back home in Göttingen (including my 33rd birthday, though I didn’t do much for it), it was finally time to go back to Japan! It’s been almost exactly four years since I’ve last been there, and I was craving to go back. I saved up some vacation time and worked ahead a little bit so I could be there for almost six weeks without having to work.

Temple in Tokyo Me, Igor, and Yoriko Random street in Tokyo Me and Igor at a store

I finally met my dear friend Igor again, and also finally met his wife Yoriko for the first time. I was really happy to spend some time with them during those weeks in Japan.

Photo from a car with Mt. Fuji behind a cloud Pirate boat with toori gate in water and Mt. Fuji in the background, in Hakone Toori gate surrounded by woods, in Hakone Me posing in front of Mt. Fuji on a beautiful day in Fujikawaguchiko Taking a break during the road trip at a bautiful lake near Takayama Snowy ryokan in the mountains near Takayama

Some other friends from Germany also came to Japan and we went on a little road trip together. I stayed at a Ryokan for the first time, which was an amazing experience, especially the combination of snowy weather and outdoor onsen. We took trips to Hakone, Fujikawaguchiko, Takayama, and Kanazawa, with Osaka as our final destination.

Beautiful shot in a park in Utsunomiya Street with mountains in the background in Nikko Me hiking, on a mountain peak near Nikko

After the road trip, I went on a short solo trip to Nikko for some nature hiking. I was a bit low on energy during that time, so it was actually just one day of hiking, but that, at least, was beautiful.

Shot of the sky with cherry blossoms in the foreground Igor with cherry blossoms in the background Cherry blossoms over a river in Tokyo Woman with umbrella in Shinjuku Park surrounded by cherry blossoms

I spent some time in Fujisawa, and FINALLY was in Japan for the sakura (cherry blossom) season! 🌸 Though I didn’t get to experience the full hanami experience, I did at least see a whole bunch of blooming sakura trees. Very beautiful.

Penis statue carried by lots of people

Igor, Yoriko, another friend of theirs, and I went to the Kanamara “Penis” Festival together. What a strange experience, but fun to go there with friends!

Numazu station with large posters of anime girls Anime girls on a bus in Numazu Mt. Fuji near Numazu, with temple in foreground Mt. Fuji looking over Numazu Mt. Fuji seen from a street in Numazu Me swimming in the ocean in Numazu

I randomly chose the city of Numazu for another short trip within Japan. I did not know that it was known for being kind of a pilgrimage place for fans of an anime called Love Live Sunshine. The whole city seems obsessed with it, and it’s kind of fun. It’s also a nice place, being close to nature and the ocean. (And yes, I went for an obligatory dip into the ocean, of course!)

At the end of my Japan stay, I spent some more time in Tokyo, though unfortunately I got pretty sick and spent most of my time in my hotel room.

This long trip to Japan taught me two main things:

  • Solo trips might not be for me anymore. It was nice to spend so much time in Japan, but it also gets lonely, especially if you’re traveling around where you don’t know anybody. I’m not the kind of person who instantly connects with random people. I did connect with some random people (through bouldering and Meetups), but still spent most of my time there alone. With that in mind, it would have been better to make the trip shorter and prioritize activities with people I know there.
  • At this point in my life, I don’t see myself moving to Japan. Moving to Japan has been on my mind for years. But even though I love Japan and like spending time there, it’s just too far from most of my close friends in Europe. Those connections are just too important for me, and I can’t imagine only seeing them once a year.

At this point, I was sure I wanted to have some change in my life, but apparently it was not going to be moving to Japan. I actually had two other options in mind:

  • Apple Developer Academy in Naples, Italy.3 I found this earlier in the year and applied for it. I actually spent a whole bunch of time during the Japan trip to prepare for the online exam and the video interview. Competition was tough, though, and I didn’t get in.
  • Moving to Norway. You might have noticed that I spend a lot of time in Norway, always visiting my friends Johanna and Helmut. Over the past few years, I’ve grown closer and closer with them, and jokingly saying that I should move in with them turned into a serious option.

Admittedly, I’ve been talking about a bigger life change like this for a while, and didn’t act much on it so far, but this changed in 2024. Spoiler: I’m writing this after just having moved to Norway! More on that later.

Ice cream at Smiles in Göttingen

It’s now May and with the warmer weather came lots of ice cream and trips to nearby lakes in Göttingen. For the first time in 2024, I spent more than a month at a time at home, though not much because…

Summer sledding on snow in Norway Me swimming in front of waterfall

At the end of May came another trip to Norway. This was our yearly cabin trip with other friends from Germany. Once again, we had a fantastic time, even though it was a bit colder that we were hoping.

Shortly after, I went to one of two yearly (Nintendo-focused) LAN parties. We had a good time there.

Me before the run

Unfortunately, I took an old friend named COVID back home with me. I didn’t realize it until almost a week later. I actually participated in a 10 km run in Göttingen right after the LAN party, just when the sickness starting to hit. I wondered why it was so much harder than previous years and why my time was a whopping 12 minutes slower. I should have realized earlier that it might have been COVID, but only found out after some other people who attended the event posted their positive tests. Luckily, I recovered from it fairly quickly.

Landscape in Norway

Call me crazy, but not even a month after returning from the previous Norway trip, I went there AGAIN in early July.

Me sitting on a tree branch by a lake in Norway

While in Norway, we actually did another attempt on walking 100,000 steps in a day. I succeeded this challenge last year, but Helmut had to drop out and really wanted to do it again, so we did that in the Trondheim area. We chose pretty much the best day for it and started at 4 a.m. at their4 home. We mostly walked on one of the St. Olav pilgrimage ways into Trondheim, with the Nidaros Cathedral as a destination. There, we turned around and walked mostly along the coast back home. Johanna and I joined Helmut, though more as support without ambitions to get our own step counters to 100k. Helmut almost quit, but managed to turn it around and finally finish the challenge. I ended up around 90k steps I think, but felt really good for some reason. No major soreness afterwards or anything.

Only a day later, I received an alarming phone call: My grandma was dying and if I wanted to see her again, I needed to come back home ASAP. So I did that, taking a flight the next morning and being in my home town of Hildesheim in the early afternoon. At that point, my 90 year old grandma was not fully conscious anymore, though at times we were pretty sure she recognized us, even if she couldn’t really show it. I was able to say goodbye to her, and she died a few days later. It was not unexpected, as her health had been going down in previous months, but it was still a bit of a shock.

I returned to Norway two days later. We still had plans and I knew I wouldn’t be happy staying back home.

Me sitting on a big rock in Norway Me bouldering on a big rock in Norway

With another friend from Germany, we spent a week at a different cabin, one that is very much barebones. No water, no electricity, barely any phone connection. After the death of my grandma, this was just the right thing. We had a great time there.

Helmut and I paddleboarding on a lake

I spent another week in Norway after that and returned to Göttingen in early August. The first half of August consistent of the funeral for my grandma and Denmark preparation.

My friends swimming in the ocean in Denmark Me at the hospital in Denmark

Then it was time again for our big summer trip to Denmark, this time with 27 people. It was a nice trip, except for the fact that I dislocated my right big toe and had to spend half a day at the hospital. I had good company though and overall positive memories, even though my toe is still not fully back to health half a year later.

My friends and I at the park in Göttingen

Unfortunately, this year we had a COVID wave in Denmark, and a bunch of the people there got infected toward the end. As Johanna and Helmut were visiting me in Göttingen for the week following Denmark, that was a bit unfortunate. But I think we did the best we could, spending lots of time in a park and playing board games with our fellow infected ones. I did not get COVID again as I just had it, but I still received lots of germs and my body felt weaker than usual.

At this point, I had decided with Johanna and Helmut that I would quit my job in Göttingen and move in with them to Norway in January 2025. September, but particularly the last quarter of the year, consisted of lots of planning and preparation for that. At first, the plan was to first move in with them and then figure out what to do (i.e. find a job, I guess). However, I was already scouting job postings in September and applied for a single job at the end of September. At my previous job, I was a full-stack web developer, using Vue.js for the frontend part, and for that job posting, they were specifically looking for someone with Vue.js experience. I got a call from them a few days after submitting my application online, and an invitiation for an in-person interview in October (when I planned to be in Norway anyway… yes I know). It sounded very promising.

In early October, another incident hit my family. My mom had a ruptured aneurysm in her brain and had to get emergency surgery, and didn’t fully wake back up. I wrote in detail about it in this post. As I said in the beginning of this post, in some ways it was the worst year of my life. The death of my grandma, and even more so this incident with my mom, were the main contributors to that. I received lots of emotional support from my friends, and I was able to deal with the situation fairly well, considering the circumstances. But it was still tough, among the toughest things I remember in my whole life.

Landscape in Norway Helmut and I running into the ocean in Norway

In mid October, I went to Norway once again. It was supposed to be a suprise for some other friends who went on a hiking trip there, though the surprise didn’t land well for certain reasons I only realized after the fact. I still think it was the right decision to go to Norway again. Being among friends, especially those who supported me emotionally, helped me immensely in dealing with my family situation. I was also able to interview for the job I mentioned in person and received an offer which I then accepted. And we just had a really good time together.

A little Japanese-like garden with fields in the background

I returned to Göttingen in early November. November and December consisted of a lot of preparation for moving and lots of social events. I also wanted to do a good job wrapping up work at my previous job, which I think I managed to do.

In the time around Christmas, it got really busy for me. I had to get ready to actually move to Norway, and prepare my apartment for my friend who I sublet it to.

I spent Christmas with friends this year. It was lovely. I’m very grateful for having those friends who invited me to join them for Christmas.

Beach in Denmark

December 27th was my last full day in Göttingen. There was still a lot to do with regards to packing, preparing the apartment, and preparing the Denmark trip, but with the help of my friends, we got it done. We left for Denmark on the 28th and had a lovely week there with a “smaller” group of 15 people.

Some random things that didn’t fit into the chronological timeline above.

Me sitting by a loaded barbell in the ground

I continued my strength training throughout 2024, albeit with long breaks every time I was out of the country (which was, as you have just read, a lot). I made some progress, but not as much as I could have with a more continuous training schedule.

It was somewhat similar with bouldering and yoga. I did it somewhat regularly while in Göttingen, but almost never when on the road.

In December, I finally started making YouTube videos again! I originally hoped to get back into making videos quickly so I could upload some more videos in January, documenting my moving process and getting used to life in Norway, but I underestimated how much time I needed for all the other things and overestimated my energy levels in January (I was sick right after arriving in Norway and it took a while to recover). Thus, I haven’t yet uploaded the video where I actually arrive. However, you can still watch these four videos I made since December:

I’m currently working on the follow-up video, about being in Denmark and then the train journey to Norway.

Thanks for reading all of this! 2024 was a strange year. Despite quite some setbacks, both in my family and in the world out there, I feel good about it. It prepared the way for 2025, which I’m very excited about!

Please let me know how your 2024 went in the comments below! I hope you had a great start into 2025. Thanks for reading, and talk to you soon! 👋

  1. Terraforming Mars and Unfair are both really good board games. ↩

  2. Helmut made a YouTube video about building the sauna, please watch it! ↩

  3. https://www.developeracademy.unina.it/en/ ↩

  4. Now also my new home! ↩