Long Term in Japan

It's beginning to look like I could be in Japan for a long time. Its not that I necessarily plan on doing it, or that I'm applying for permanent residence. A lot of it depends on my career and other factors. But the fact remains, if I got a tenured position in this city, and things shaped out that I would live here for the long term, I'd be quite happy with that.

That surprises a lot of people at home. It didn't surprise anyone I stayed for a few years, but it does that I wouldn't move back to Canada. Why?

To start with, the basic stuff- I really like the city I'm in, and it's dependent on that as much as the country it's in. Living in Fukuoka is a lot different from living in, say, a small village up North, just as living in Toronto is a lot different from living in the Yukon, or living in San Francisco is a lot different from living in Alabama. And it has everything I want from back home in terms of food, books, movies, clothes and other creature comforts. It's true I don't see my family more than once a year or friends from back home very often. But with the net and skype, no-one really seems that far away if you really want to keep in touch with them. And beyond that, one thing I learned after college was that moving was going to be a reality anyway. Most of my friends all moved to Toronto after graduation, some to BC, some much further. Realistically, I would have had to have relocated and made new friends no matter what I did in Canada. And the distance between say, Toronto and Nova Scotia is so wide I realistically wouldn't have seen my family more than once a year anyway.

There's a second level to it too, though, and that's the comfortability level of living in a different culture. Living out in Asia seems like the kind of thing that would be fun for a year or two, but that you eventually move on from. As a friend speculated the last time as back, "At first, everything is new, but eventually you get used to it, and then it's just another country".

Very true. While you might make Izakayas, sushi and sumo wrestling a regular part of your life, the fact remains that after a few years, the novelty wears off, and it just becomes everyday routine. The upside, though, is that if you like your life, that's really not a bad thing. In fact, it's a good thing, because at that point, you end your vacation and just get back to normal- you just happen to be doing it here instead of somewhere else. I don't really have any of the frustrations of adjusting to things that I had in my first couple years here. As far as the few that remain, what I began to realize was that they were well within the threshold of frustrations I'd face anywhere in the world. Let's face it- are you really comfortable with the way things go in your home country 24 hours a day, all the time? What about last week when comcast put you on hold for an hour, and then gave you the runaround with your bill? What about that rude nurse that gave you a hassle about visiting your friend in the hospital because there were only 10 minutes left to visiting hours? What about the traffic? What about the calls from telemarketers?

We accept these things as "the way it goes" and just get on with things, and yet if we experience somewhat novel inconveniences in other countries, we chalk it up to a problem with the entire culture. When you think about that, that doesn't make a lot of sense. Not like it's a deal breaker either way, but the truth is when I think about it, after several years out here, I actually put up with fair deal less hassle in my everyday life here than I do in Canada, not more.

I know people out here that have been in Japan over a few years, and aren't happy about it. But if you look more closely, there are other things going on. Maybe the main reason they came out here and stayed was for the girls and to have a good time, and now they're a bit older and that just isn't enough anymore. Maybe they're stuck teaching English conversation, and hate it, but can't find other work. Maybe they never learned to speak Japanese, and just get frustrated not being able to communicate with anyone outside of their little bubble. Worst of all, maybe they just stay not because they're happy with it, but because they're just not sure what else to do with themselves.

All good reasons to not like it here. But do they really involve Japan itself that much? It reminds me of people that go to New York, don't really get to where they want to go there for whatever reason, and then spend all their time blaming New York City itself as the root of their problems, as if the very concrete conspires to make them unhappy. Its easier and more tempting to blame an entire foreign country and culture for your problems and frustrations, but in the end it makes about as much sense; its not that the place is fundamentally bad, per se, just that in your given situation, its not all that good for you.

Once you get used to it and get in a situation you're happy with, a city in Japan just becomes another place you feel at home at and another place you could live. Some people from back home moved out to Toronto, some England, or the Netherlands, or Shanghai. And you're where you are, one other place on the list of places you could be.