The meaning behind my blog name

Melbourne to Okinawa

It wasn't until a month or so ago that I was alerted to the fact that people didn't know what the term Sea Change was referring to in my blog's name. I actually never realised that it was an Australian thing.

From Wikipedia: A seachange (or sea change) is an Australian term, ultimately adopted from a term found in Shakespeare's The Tempest^[1] which describes a form of human migration that involves individuals abandoning city living in favour of a perceived 'easier life' in rural coastal communities. The term was popularised by the popular ABC TV television series SeaChange, which triggered the phenomenon of many city-dwellers mimicking the drama's protagonist's escape from urban life.^[2] The result of this phenomenon (known as the 'sea change effect') is a rapid boom in tourism and real estate development in coastal Australia, particularly in New South Wales. A similar term, treechange, describes the movement of urbanites to the countryside.



So the reason I called my blog Sea Change Okinawa, was because prior to accepting the job in Japan, we had been thinking of making a Sea Change within Australia, as neither H nor I had been brought up in a city, and thought it would be nice for little G to experience a country upbringing at some stage during his childhood. It turns out that the places we were thinking of making a Sea Change to in Australia, either had no job prospects in our fields, or the housing was crazy expensive (Australian real estate, am i right??). Luckily, the job over here in Okinawa came along, and it was the best of both worlds! The chance to live overseas, AND move to a smaller beachside town - perfect.