[Farang]

Hello!

Let me quickly introduce myself - I am a 20-year-old finnish guy, who spent an exchange year in Japan 2004-2005. I left for Japan out of curiosity and I knew hardly anything about Japan before I arrived here. After massive culture shock I started to adapt to the life of gaijin in Japan, and met a nice girl of my age from the very school I attended. The same girl followed me for an exchange year in my country and now we've been happily together for 3 years.

I am finishing my studies in my country this year and will be doing compulsory military service for 6 to 12 months starting from july, she will graduate spring of 2009. Now this has raised series of questions. We both want to move to a same country. Currently living 7900km apart, even though we meet quite often (I've spent almost 2 years in Japan altogether) and skype makes staying in touch easy, it's still pain in the ass.

We haven't really thought about all this that much, but I've been gathering info from here and there recently. But there are quite few things I just don't seem to find easy information about.

First of all, I'd like to know what are our chances for living together in Japan? How easy it is to acquire a visa on the basis of merely having a relationship? Working holiday-visas are not an option, as Finns can't have one.
Also, in reality, how easy it is to get a job in Japan, especially in northern Kyushu, without other than high school and army schooling? How about applying for universities/colleges/other schools in Japan as a foreigner?
My girlfriends parents offered marriage as an option but we were eating dinner out and they were quite drunk, and admitted that they don't let their daughter get married quite yet :P.

So these are my few questions, I'll probably have more laters.