[anrakushi]

SSJup81 - While as an Australian, I can, with a fair bit of red tape, get into Noth Korea I am only allowed to be there as a tourist and from my understanding from people who have travelled there before, i would never be without a guide even if i wanted to be. I'm very interested in North Korea but it is just not realistic to plan to be there. South Korea is predicted to become possibly the second richest country on a per capita basis, their economy is set to become stronger and stronger. not the same can be said for Japan unfortunately.

As for communicating, one thing i found difficult was that Japanese didn't tend to understand, and im generalising here from my experience, how to slow down their speaking. this can make things difficult. but you do adapt to it and those who are familiar with dealing with non-japanese are generally more likely to slow down, use easier japanese etc.

I remember the internet company used to call me early on when i was in Japan and they would use 敬語 (keigo) which is the very polite, honourific language. of course at that point in my studies of Japanese i had not learnt that and even though they were saying simple things I couldn't understand them. i kept saying to them that I couldn't understand but she just kept saying the same thing in 敬語 to me as if repeating it will magically make me understand. luckily there was also a guy who worked at the company and he was great, he would talk to us (fellow students) in slower conversational japanese and we could understand what was going on.

I've gone through my initiation of living in Japan so now i'm ready for some hardcore countryside. I'm hoping they place me in a nice small town if i get in ^^ Where i live now in australia all i can see out my window is a field for grazing animals and then the mountains behind that covered in good old aussie bush.

as for living in the country and not learning much Japanese, that is dead easy depending where you live. hell i managed to find soo many australians around osaka and i wasn't even living in that city. it just depends how willing you are to get out of your comfort zone.