[JohnBraden]

You are mostly correct, godwine. Those who think living in Japan will solve all their worries are just naive.

I lived there for 2 years in '87. Even though it was partly on the local economy in Misawa, Aomori-ken, most of the time I spent there was on a military base. I didn't have to worry about living off the local economy, even though the yen was about 130 on average when I was there. I was still given a cost of living allowance, along with flight pay, but even then, I still bought most of my groceries on base. I spent the two years there driving around on route 45 from Mutsu Bay to Sendai and inland. It was great. But I still had that anchor attached to the English-speaking military base.

Since then, I've been back as a tourist in '05 and last October. Judging from the time I was there, I don't think it's a country I would like to live in. There is the language barrier for those who didn't jump on the chance to learn it back then and are trying now to be a little better at it. The fact you're a gai-jin and always will be and will be treated as such. There is an understated discrimination always going on, though many don't notice it.

Wings explains it best for those people who actually have been there even for 10 days. It's a finite number of days and you have your ticket back to the comfort of what you've always known regardless of whether you liked the visit or not. It's not living there. It's the "just visiting" view of the country.

I liked it because it was exotic and so unlike what I'm used to. The country is beautiful, some customs are absolutely civil and should be adopted world-wide, the food is good, the women are cute.

I went there on vacation, so it was a respite from all that ailed me. I felt comfortable there because I didn't have a worry in the world. I couldn't read most of the signs and that made it cool, though impractical. If I knew the language and read the signs and they said "Pete's Eats", it would lose a bit of its charm to me. (I don't know if anyone could understand that). It was, bottom line, a vacation destination for me. I saw the masses of people going along on their daily toil and thought how depressing it seemed to me. I couldn't live there even if I tried. It's just not for me.

But as a vacation spot, it's the only place I go on "holiday". I will return next year and spend more than 11 days this time. I plan on going for 17-21 days, which to me is quite a bit, since I can only take a certain amount of time off from work and I don't like to travel like I'm 20 and living off the land.

In summation, most of the people who've never been there don't know what it really is like.... I've been there 3 times for a total of 752 days and I still don't know what it's like....