Six Reasons Your Plans to Move Abroad Might Not Work Out
Cracked.com | August 15, 2011
If you hang around Internet message boards, about once a month or so somebody will announce they're fed up with America and want to move abroad. The reasons vary: they want to escape to Canada to get away from the corrupt corporations, or they fear a President Bachmann. Maybe they want to go to Japan and get a job as President of Anime...
Moar!...

Link goes to page 2...

EDIT: LMAO -- so true.

gaijinpunch wrote:Link goes to page 2...

EDIT: LMAO -- so true.

yar... i often tell all my friends that want to move to japan that they are fuckin stupid... dont waste your time or money doing it... its a fucken trap.

come here for vacation... you can do everything you want minus all the culutural bullshit, visa, and working here...

In all honesty, the 2 year stint I had in Hawaii came with a far higher culture shock rating than Japan. Japan at least has variety. Hawaii doesn't have that. Variety goes a long way.

I read the damn article. Pure trash. That's why I avoid the foreign community. I left America to get away from whites, blacks, and Mexicans. Especially whites because they make up the largest racial group, and because they dominate the cultural landscape of America - I hate that.

I found that living in a mostly monoculture society is far better than a multi-culture society. It's easier and things work more smoothly, unlike in America. Japan is the greatest country on earth for me.

McTojo wrote:I have absolutely nothing meaningful or worthwile to add to this thread.

FTFY.

Marked Trail wrote:Six Reasons Your Plans to Move Abroad Might Not Work Out
Cracked.com | August 15, 2011
If you hang around Internet message boards, about once a month or so somebody will announce they're fed up with America and want to move abroad. The reasons vary: they want to escape to Canada to get away from the corrupt corporations, or they fear a President Bachmann. Maybe they want to go to Japan and get a job as President of Anime...
Moar!...

Hilarious!

Escape to Canada eh?

The suddenly want to follow manly sports and become lumberjacks? Or maybe its all the pristine green....and I'm not talking about the scenery.

chokonen888 wrote:Escape to Canada eh?

The suddenly want to follow manly sports and become lumberjacks? Or maybe its all the pristine green....and I'm not talking about the scenery.

Poutine dood... th3 poutine...

Coligny wrote:Poutine dood... th3 poutine...

[SIZE="4"]Montré]
"ça va faire une maudite poutine"
http://www.montrealpoutine.com/reviews.html

Mike Oxlong wrote:[SIZE="4"]Montré]
"ça va faire une maudite poutine"
http://www.montrealpoutine.com/reviews.html

The absolute worst thing about poutine is that I will probably love it when I try it.

Tsuru wrote:The absolute worst thing about poutine is that I will probably love when I try it.

I'm dreaming aboot it ever since i discovered the recipe... but I want to try it in context in Canada...

Marked Trail wrote:Six Reasons Your Plans to Move Abroad Might Not Work Out
Cracked.com | August 15, 2011
If you hang around Internet message boards, about once a month or so somebody will announce they're fed up with America and want to move abroad. The reasons vary: they want to escape to Canada to get away from the corrupt corporations, or they fear a President Bachmann. Maybe they want to go to Japan and get a job as President of Anime...
Moar!...

Nice timing on this. Just last week I had posted about Bucky Jr. #2 who had indicated an interest in moving to Australia. I have shared this link with him. I will be interested to hear his response.

haha - yeah this article was hilarious and spot on

i gotta say i had way less culture shock coming here the first time around 10 yrs ago, so maybe your son going to australia would be no biggie - english language and he's at that flexible age where is expectations havent hardened in his brain into crusty inflexible synapses

Coligny wrote:aww dear... I went back for a week 3 year after landing there... I was not exactly happy with the landscape... I think now after 8-9 years I shall not even try to consider it 'coming back' but more like every other tourism vacation, preferably in a tour bus full of obaachans...

I'm surprised to hear that you've been "assimilated" after only 8~9 years. I figured it'd take a bit longer.
Unless, of course, Paris really sucks these days.

Paris is a wonderful city. It's the people that really suck.

[quote="Yokohammer"]I'm surprised to hear that you've been "assimilated" after only 8~9 years. I figured it'd take a bit longer.
Unless, of course, Paris really sucks these days. ]

I felt uncomfortable moving back the the US after only 3 years in Japan. I stayedin the States for 4 but never really felt settled in. I've been back in Japan for 6 years now.

Samurai_Jerk wrote:I felt uncomfortable moving back the the US after only 3 years in Japan. I stayedin the States for 4 but never really felt settled in. I've been back in Japan for 6 years now.

Another PFG (Permanently Fucked Gaijin).

Looks like my TRA (Time Required for Assimilation) estimate was way off and/or too one-fits-all. I suppose it depends on background, age, and experience too.

Interesting. Most people who've been out of their home country for a while figure it'll be easy to go back and fit right in whenever they please, and I think that "I can leave anytime I want" attitude can make being an expat easier. But it also leads to complacency about repatriating that can in turn lead to a nasty surprise. That's one good reason to visit "home" from time to time, to keep perspective and prevent the rose-colored tint from setting in too much.

Complex, innit.

Yokohammer wrote:I'd like to add that for us old-timers (say, 30~40 years or more in Japan),

Hammer, you fucking Nooby's just have to get adjusted to the time change.....

damn name wrote:Paris is a wonderful city. It's the people that really suck.

Why ? you live there ?

Yokohammer wrote:I'm surprised to hear that you've been "assimilated" after only 8~9 years. I figured it'd take a bit longer.
Unless, of course, Paris really sucks these days.

I think it was more aboot de-ass-imilation from France. Since back then I was living in Nagoya... and it was clearly an awfull experience.

As for now... it would effectively be a totally different (and worse) matter since I effectively feels at home (albeit a messy one) in Toyohashi. Even going over the bridge to Toyokawa for some shopping feels like an expeditionnary trip... And still I can barely make an understandabul sentence in japango... But I feel a bit part of the landscape most coming from the fact that I don't play much of the recluse with stuff to hide... For people I recognise as regular in the hood and who say hello or seems to be curious I always praticed the 'info overload' policy. Read, when you provide information to people, IN HUGE IRRELEVANT QUANTITIES (and you might have noticed how incredibly good I am for this)... they have no window to make shit up... I don't know a lot who escaped the tale of my first trip to Japan in a plane with my insane french cat one breath away from going berserk despite a diet of horse tranquiliser...

Greji wrote:Hammer, you fucking Nooby's just have to get adjusted to the time change.....

Hey, I was only talking about us "normal" old-timers, not guys who crawled out of the primordial slime of Yamanakako.

Yokohammer wrote:Interesting. Most people who've been out of their home country for a while figure it'll be easy to go back and fit right in whenever they please, and I think that "I can leave anytime I want" attitude can make being an expat easier. But it also leads to complacency about repatriating that can in turn lead to a nasty surprise. That's one good reason to visit "home" from time to time, to keep perspective and prevent the rose-colored tint from setting in too much.

THIS

Got plenty to complain about here and makes me appreciate some things from back home but every week I spend back in LA I get reminded of crap back there. Do my best to pick and choose the better from each cuntry.

Yokohammer wrote:Hey, I was only talking about us "normal" old-timers, not guys who crawled out of the primordial slime of Yamanakako.

That was pretty low, if I do say so myself. Besides that it was Biwako. BTW, you shouldn't forget Cranky in your slams. I think he was in the mast for Noah when they dropped off a couple of Nihonzaru.....

Greji wrote:That was pretty low, if I do say so myself. Besides that it was Biwako. BTW, you shouldn't forget Cranky in your slams. I think he was in the mast for Noah when they dropped off a couple of Nihonzaru.....

Yep, Noah was a snotty midshipman under my command.
I remember asking him onetime how long he'd been at sea, "Two years before the mast, Capn ." he replied.
"Nonsense, boy!" I said. "That fuckin mast has always been there!"

CrankyBastard wrote:Yep, Noah was a snotty midshipman under my command.
I remember asking him onetime how long he'd been at sea, "Two years before the mast, Capn ." he replied.
"Nonsense, boy!" I said. "That fuckin mast has always been there!"

Really LOLed to that one!

CrankyBastard wrote:Yep, Noah was a snotty midshipman under my command.
I remember asking him onetime how long he'd been at sea, "Two years before the mast, Capn ." he replied.
"Nonsense, boy!" I said. "That fuckin mast has always been there!"

See Hammer. He was even Cranky back then. I heard that he started his Japan career when Perry used him for an anchor in Shimoda....

Yokohammer wrote: That's one good reason to visit "home" from time to time, to keep perspective and prevent the rose-colored tint from setting in too much.

Complex, innit.

Or even talking from people from home does the trick. Talking to a mate (who's in the police force) once a month on skype turns my rose colored specs to blood.
I also notice the opposite. Friends who are out of Japan for a few years get mushy on Japan. It get's hard to talk to some of them because they suddenly become defenders of everything Japanese!

Ganma wrote:It get's hard to talk to some of them because they suddenly become defenders of everything Japanese!

I didn't know you knew Jack....