Question for the Longtimers(Ultra, Taro,etc)

[Pencilslave]

What's influenced you to live in Japan as long as you have? I'm just curious because of reading on the board about some of the difficulties gaijin face.

[cstaylor]

Inertia.

[fatslug]

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

and

women

am i right ??



ive been here over 4 years.....for me its really because of the
people.....yes i know many japanese r racist n shit ...for eg finding an apartment....but everytime i go home its the same ole shit.....same fucked up wankers......etc etc
theres always things happening in JAPAN !

[dimwit]

Marriage, a kid, inertia, the realization that after you've been here long enough your basically unemployable back home, and I would also add community. I don't think of my neighbors as Japanese and they don't think of me as a gaijin. Call it suburbian contentment if you wish.

[AssKissinger]

Marriage, a kid, inertia, the realization that after you've been here long enough your basically unemployable back home, and I would also add community. I don't think of my neighbors as Japanese and they don't think of me as a gaijin. Call it suburbian contentment if you wish.

It's been awhile since I used my old catchphrase but that my friend is some serious



BULLSHIT

[dimwit]

It's been awhile since I used my old catchphrase but that my friend is some serious



BULLSHIT

Perhaps I am getting a bit full of myself , but I also think in a small place like Matsuyama there is much, much more of a sense of community, and while I still get the racism from people outside the area in which I live, I seriously can't think of a single incident in which I have been treated any differently from anyone else in the community.

[MrUltimateGaijin]

being a god amongst men

[gomichild]

Marriage is a big part.

But also friends - I have some amazing friends here and it would be sad not to see them all the time.

I recently went back to my home town - and almost no-one I knew was still living there.

[james]

what is considered a long-timer, but i'll have been here six years in another three weeks and i'll likely be here for another twelve years. if i'm not a long-timer now, somewhere between now and then, i will be.

as for what's keeping me here, mostly inertia. my wife and i are settled with two kids, i have a decent business going, a routine i can live with and we have a decent quality of life.

with that said, i've got medium term goals, and plan to go back to canada so my kids can do jhs and hs there. since they're both still in diapers, that seems a long way off. i'm hoping to buy a house there and have it paid for before we go back and i'd like to complete (ie: get) a degree of some kind so that i'm not completely unemployable when we do go back.

[Hobo-Erotica]

On my very 1st night ever in Japan i went looking for that Citibank ATM in Roppongi. Nobody would tell me where it was, they would only tell me about "Chinese Massage"
Even when some girls did tell me where it was, i didnt belive them, thinking it was a ruse to get me in a massage parlour, and wouldnt go into the building.
I just kept wandering round and round, herribly drunk and needing a pee very badly indeed.
Finally i did go into the building and went up to the floor where the atm was. So desperate was i to piss, i had to take a sly one in a plant pot.
When i turned around a burly security guard grabbed me and threw me in a store room, while he called the police. It was only by climbing up through a small window in the room, that i was able to escape and resume my drinking.

So errrr watch out for that

[FG Lurker]

Marriage...Friends...Career...

I enjoy going back to Canada for visits but nothing ever seems to change. Friends doing the same jobs, living in the same place, doing the same things... Not sure if I can go back to that kind of life now! I find life in Japan more of a day-to-day challenge. It's rare that I go through an entire day in Japan without learning at least one new (useful) thing.

[james]

both leaving canada and leaving here were/will be decisions that are not lightly made, and even if we do go back for a time, odds are we'll find ourselves back here at some point for awhile. my wife is an only child so caring for her parents, whom have both been really good to us will be our responsibility. one i don't begrudge at all.

i enjoy my visits back to canada and every year i give my students an opportunity to visit the country. i'll be taking four of them next month during their spring break and we'll be visiting ottawa (my home town). in ottawa they'll do a 3 day homestay while i visit with my folks. after that, its on to toronto, niagara falls, banff and edmonton. my wife will visit with the kids at my parents' place the whole time. the students are really looking forward to the trip, and since i'm not doing it for profit they get a really good deal. truth be known, it's actually costing me personally a fair bit so that they can go, but it's fun for me too. been a year and a half since i've been back this time.

hmm.. drifting off topic here i guess :P

where in canada are you from?