[Nyororin]

I am one of the rare exceptions - I can`t say I`ve ever felt homesickness in Japan. I used to think it was because the home I`d left was not a good one, but these days I`ve come to believe that it was more because I`d already run through my course of homesickness. My grandparents moved, and at the same time I went to live with my mother. I wanted to go "home", but there was no "home" to go to. For years I felt that I was "staying with" someone rather than "at home", and this didn`t change once I came to Japan.

I`ve definitely felt homesick on trips once I had a stable place I could call home, so I am not immune to it.

I can`t speak from personal experience, but I`ve seen quite a few people go through the stages of culture shock (and generally getting stuck at the negativity stage)... And then leaving when they couldn`t deal with it any more.

I don`t think that homesickness is the main thing that will effect how you adjust... But it will surely have some connection. Homesickness is not really the same as culture shock. Homesickness is missing home (and perhaps family). You don`t need to be in a different culture to experience it. You could be an hour away from home and still feel homesick depending on the situation. Homesickness can surely make culture shock worse, but it is not the main factor.

I don`t think that experiencing homesickness on a short trip is necessarily going to reflect what your experience would be after a move.

You need to keep in mind that moving to another country is different than visiting. A vacation experience is going to be something completely different than attempting to forge a life in a location.
In a vacation setting, you will have nowhere to "call your own". You are living out of a suitcase, without any of the comforts of home and without the majority of your possessions. All the things you hold dear are, well, at home. Things you find you miss or need can`t really be obtained because it would be a waste to get a new one just for a short trip...
Hotel rooms can be nice, but they in no way compare to the safety and comfort of a place that is *yours*.

On a vacation, you have nowhere to retreat to and truly relax. There is usually pressure to get out and do countless things - most likely a complete departure from your normal lifestyle pattern. You can`t really "take a day out" and just lie around relaxing in a familiar environment.

Contrast that to having a home in Japan. You have no pressure to do and see things everyday. There is no strict time limit. You have a place to retreat that is full of YOUR things, and which is your space. Things you miss can be obtained. You have a pattern to your life, and are (or will become in a bit of time) familiar with your surroundings.

People who try to keep up a vacation type of feeling during a long period in Japan seem to hit bottom fairly quickly. Trying to see and do all is not at all conductive to settling in and making a place for yourself.

The biggest thing that seems to govern whether someone can live comfortably or whether they find themselves rocking back and forth whispering obscenities at anyone who glances their way is language ability. The better your Japanese, the better your experience is likely to be. Frustration with communication seems to be the biggest thing that sends people off the deep end. The better you know the language, the better you are at not only understanding what is being said, but at picking up on nonverbal cues and in interpreting unfamiliar situations. Culture and language are strongly entwined, so with language you will gain a level of cultural understanding. And even if something is frustrating to you, the ability to understand it in a cultural context can make all the difference.