Who is Mardy?

Mardy is a Japanese national who left his job as a new graduate and moved to New Zealand — following his girlfriend across the ocean. What started as a leap of faith became the foundation for 1QQ2, a personal blog where he writes candidly about working holidays, career shifts, relationships, and everyday life in a new country.

Since arriving in New Zealand, he has navigated the transition from a Working Holiday Visa to a Work Visa, picked up barista work, explored cities like Auckland and Wellington, and shared his unfiltered opinions on everything from workplace culture to international dating.

His writing is casual, opinionated, and grounded in real experience — no sugar-coating, no official advice, just one person figuring things out and putting it into words.

Mardy's journey from Japan to New Zealand was never just about geography. It was about trading the expected path for an uncertain one, leaving behind the stability of a new graduate position in favor of a working holiday visa and the unknown. That leap of faith, taken for love, became the catalyst for a complete reexamination of what a fulfilling life looks like. Along the way, the blog 1QQ2 emerged as a space for raw, honest reflection on the realities of immigration, the quirks of Kiwi workplace culture, and the small victories of building a life from scratch in a country that feels both foreign and familiar.

The move to New Zealand demanded more than just packing a suitcase. It required learning to navigate a new visa system, picking up barista skills to make ends meet, and adapting to the rhythms of cities like Auckland and Wellington. Through it all, Mardy writes with a candidness that avoids both sugarcoating and cynicism, offering a grounded perspective on what it actually means to start over in your twenties. Whether discussing career shifts, long-distance relationships, or the quiet loneliness of being far from home, the writing resonates with anyone who has ever wondered whether the life they left behind was worth the trade.