[GoNative]

I do realise that where I live is rather unique in Japan and that I don't really experience Japan in the same way many do who say have lived in the big cities like Tokyo or Osaka. I mostly interact with other foreigners and with Japanese people who have spent varying amounts of time living overseas and generally speak good to excellent english. In the company I work at for instance we have 4 Australians (one who is a Chinese Australian and speaks english and Chinese) , 2 New Zealanders (one who is Taiwanese decent who speaks english, Japanese and Chinese), 2 Frenchman (one who speaks Japanase, English and Chinese as well) and 4 Japanese (3 of whom have spent tiime overseas and speak excellent English). The ski village itself has people working here from all over the world. The one thing most of us have in common though is a love of snow sports. Regardless of where we are from we all come together on that!
All this has meant I have mostly been able to continue living a fairly western lifestyle within a Japanese setting rather than living a Japanese lifestyle as a westener. It's a little bit like say a Chinatown in a major western city. This multicultural sort of environment is something I really enjoy and am used to from where I grew up.