The moment I truly knew I was home...

[String]

...was when I bought something at the airport in Detroit and the women behind the counter deadpanned me the whole time and said nothing even though I was speaking to her. Oh, it was a sweet moment.

What about you?

[GomiGirl]

When I go home, I count the minutes until somebody (usually a taxi driver) with a cheeky grin asks the Australian Greeting of "G'Day, Waddaya know?"

Bloody Brilliant. Cracks me up everytime.

I do like going home to the land of cheerful people!!!!

[Taro Toporific]

The moment I truly knew I was home...

...When I say "Howdy" to every person I meet.
...When nobody says booshit, if I whip out my Buck knife to cut my danish in half at Starbucks on Santa Fe... and feed half to my horse, Quest.

[homesweethome]

When I say: "Hey"! to people I don't know.
And they say: "Hey, where ya' been"?
And I say: "Where the sun don't shine and the grass don't grow."
And They say: "Welcome home boy."

[fatslug]

i know im home when i see FAT FUCKS everywhere !

[maninjapan]

Nothing like a good old trafic jam on the M25 to remind you you're home!

[Currawong]

When I get to a train station, it's virtually un-manned, the ticket gate seems to take forever to feed my ticket, the train is late, it's full of graffiti and some kids are lounging with their feet on the seats.

[Oradea]

When i walk down the city centre at 5pm in the evening and get 17 "Oi, Whit you lookin at ya daft cunt?" classic rhetorical question....well it was when i left, apparantly these days the little fucks need an answer, or they will "Boot yer baws intae next week"

That and an orange double decker bus signal my homecoming.

[Iraira]

When I was waiting in line to get my piece of junk rental car, and the local news station blared, "Another wave of deadly violence occured in Downtown LA today, with a triple homicide, in broad daylight...."

[Taro Toporific]

The moment I truly knew I was home... when I walked out the swimming pool and it was just me and the lifeguard babe at 2:30 in the hot summer afternoon (and she didn't ask me to wear a swimming cap on my shaved umi-bozu head).

[tonikoro]

When I was waiting in line to get my piece of junk rental car, and the local news station blared, "Another wave of deadly violence occured in Downtown LA today, with a triple homicide, in broad daylight...."

The moment I know when I'm back in LA is when I cannot wait to get into Baja Fresh and gorge myself on Mexican food. The second is when I feel self-conscious about smoking in public, and the third moment I know I'm home is that people are no longer staring at me like a brutha from another planet.

I think it's safe to say as a "Gaijin", it's worth it to go home at least once every two years to gain sanity and a "real-world" perspective.

Which is funny, you ever her japanese people overseas refer to the natives as Gaijin?

[Greji]

Which is funny, you ever her japanese people overseas refer to the natives as Gaijin?

All the time. If you ain't from the land of the rising sun, you are a gaijin even if you and the J-people are standing in the middle of Times Square!

[Iraira]

Sorry, this is wayyyyy off topic but, it's Mexican food! Baja's good, but Chipolte is better. Late at night...Tito's Tacos.

The moment I know when I'm back in LA is when I cannot wait to get into Baja Fresh and gorge myself on Mexican food.

[ichigo partygirl]

When i though how fat and white everyone was. And i heard the guy sitting next to me say 'where is da kai'?? (where is the food).
Going from 37C to 4C is not fun people.........i really dont advise it

[American Oyaji]

Hey IPG!!

How've ya been!

[ichigo partygirl]

tired..........those of you who move back home can understand how tiring it is. The last week in Japan was crazy busy and just a rollercoaster of emotions...well that was nothing to being back. Everything seems so different...everyone seems white and fat and loud and they all have accents!!!
Talk about reverse cultureshock. Its soo weird but im sure ill get used to it!!
Thanks for asking

[kurogane]

People in the supermarket say Sorry when they brush by each other.

It's nice to be in a place where people have manners.

Much as I hate to say it, though, the chickles are some kinda fat. Esp. the young ones (20s). Like hippos in human clothes type fat. Like Pillsbury Doughboy and the Michelin Man have spawned a new variety of the human race type fat.

In summer, it is not a happy sight.


What the hell have dese kiddies been eatin'??

[GuyJean]

Like Pillsbury Doughboy and the Michelin Man have spawned a new variety of the human race type fat.

I guess nobody assumes the growth hormones, antibiotics, and whatever else our meat is injected with will trickle down to us; I've noticed my legs and arms have gotten shorter while my breasts and thighs larger.. and I'm starting to shit eggs!

We are what we eat...

GJ

[maninjapan]

[quote="GuyJean"]I guess nobody assumes the growth hormones, antibiotics, and whatever else our meat is injected with will trickle down to us]


Well put me down for a huge slice of pizza - because you know its the 8th 9th and 10th coming up!

[akatsuka]

[kurogane]

[akatsuka]

[Mulboyne]

I'm in London. OK, fruit is cheap here compaired to Japan, but ... theres not much choice in the UK if you want yummy healthy food and are poor yucky healthy food is cheap! (maybe i just have expensive tastes...)^^

I think if you are cooking for yourself then you can easily eat healthily and cheaply in London. Just stay away from over-priced bags of mixed vegetables and pre-washed salads. Better food labelling also means you have a pretty good idea of what is in what you are buying. If you eat out then your money won't get you very far although you can get cheap and healthy options in Thai and Indian restaurants, less so in Chinese.

[kurogane]

I think if you are cooking for yourself then you can easily eat healthily and cheaply in London. Just stay away from over-priced bags of mixed vegetables and pre-washed salads. Better food labelling also means you have a pretty good idea of what is in what you are buying. If you eat out then your money won't get you very far although you can get cheap and healthy options in Thai and Indian restaurants, less so in Chinese.

Akatsuka,

Yup, what that wise young humanoid wrote. Fresh ingedients that are not specifically designed to be a component of one of 44 varieties of boiled mush are readily available, and I think you should avail yourself of them. WHen I could get off my fat and fish and chups addled bottom, I was able to cook well, and relatively cheaply in the UK.

I loved the way your quaint people referred to vegetables as "Fresh", as though there was some sort of novelty value to the idea of fresh vegetables in a supermarket. And they called me a colonial!!!!!!!!

And, if you get to Edinburgh, check out Kebab Mahal (I kid you not). Finest Kebab this side of an Al Qaeda Freedom Fighter roasted by an allied flamethrower.

Good Luck with the Back to Japan Plan!

[akatsuka]

yeah, i guess it is true. if you are cooking for yourself in the uk, you can get healthy things quite cheaply. its just snacks that I find difficult - if i want a snack, thats healthy and can be bought from a shop its hard. >_<

maybe i dont look hard enough! I am quite lazy in that respect......

[Kurofune]

I also found myself knowing the Japanese word for things, but not the English word, and I cant even say that my Japanese is that good, so why that was is beyond me!

I had the same thing. I sometimes had to stop myself from sprinkling a Japanese word into an English sentence.

a big thing was trains & buses.

The big thing for me is that we don't have adequate public transportation in suburban US. I miss reading on the train. I'll always want a car for weekend driving, but I hate relying on one for work and errands.

How much more expensive everything was.

Things were significantly less expensive in the US when I left in '97, but many parts of the US are at least as expensive now.

How much more sweeter all the drinks were...

I did okay for my first few months in the US, then got a corporate job and starting eating crap. I gained a lot of weight and found out that my triclycerides had skyrocketed. I cleaned up my diet, and my weight and triglycerides came back to normal. Not being able to consume dairy wasn't a problem in Japan, but it really limits what I can eat at restaurants in the US.

How nobody could really do their job.

My job exists mostly to clean up other employees' screw-ups.

How awkward and clumsy everyone and everyone looked, and how skinny and short I felt.

Ditto. Way too many asses the size of trash can lids. It's a form of pollution.

How people said to me “don’t work too hard” (hatarakisuginai de) when I went to work, instead of “ganbatte ne!” (Do your best)

My friend recently commented half in jest that people are supposed to hate their jobs. I'm no corporate boy scout, but why condemn so much of our lives to unhappiness and mediocre productivity?

How inconvenient the English ‘convenient stores’ (corner shops) were...

I found an NTTDocomo bill receipt (complete with Family Mart stamp) last night. It made me reflect on the comment such a convenient system makes about the Japanese.

How unlogical everything seemed to be done.

Things were illogical in Japan too, but it frustrates me more here. I think it's because the illogical moments were countered by the pleasant aspects of life in Japan. In my part of the US, the illogical stuff is countered by boredom and mediocrity.

I'm also sick of the prevalence of trash TV. I'm disgusted by my country's tolerance of it.

Damn, how do I get the Japanese bug out of my system? Well, until at least I go back...if I can...

My J-wife and I were talking about it last night. I think we're going back. We didn't talk about a time frame, but I think we'll be back by this time next year.

[akatsuka]

Things were illogical in Japan too, but it frustrates me more here. I think it's because the illogical moments were countered by the pleasant aspects of life in Japan. In my part of the US, the illogical stuff is countered by boredom and mediocrity.

I'm also sick of the prevalence of trash TV. I'm disgusted by my country's tolerance of it.


My J-wife and I were talking about it last night. I think we're going back. We didn't talk about a time frame, but I think we'll be back by this time next year.

Thats true, Things were illogical in Japan, but illogical + pleasant aspects of life = logicalisation. In England, things are done sloppy and illogically sometimes, and that plus the fact I dont much like it here makes it feel al ot worse. Shame.

Hey... theres plenty of trash on Japanese TV too! But, yep, its a harmless form of trash I guess? I dont understand how 'big brother' has become such a phenomonan (spelling (?!)) here (in US too??) is... as dull as crap and the people starring in it all have problems. I dont get how watching these people is entertaining? (Although, ainori has some fucked up people too...)

At least you can go back, Kurofune. I dont have that opportunity. Good luck to you

[sublight]

When I get to a train station, it's virtually un-manned, the ticket gate seems to take forever to feed my ticket, the train is late, it's full of graffiti and some kids are lounging with their feet on the seats.

Man, same here. I remember the look of shock on my wife's face when I explained to her that Boston subways are never behind schedule, because there's no 'schedule' for them to fall behind.

[dimwit]

To me when I go back to Canada for the summer holidays, the thing I most notice is the way that the post office and garbage collection actually function in Japan. Back in Canada, posties deliver the mail eventually only after rifling throught it to see if there is anything worth stealing. Garbage is collected once a week, at 6:00 in the morning so the collectors can get paid double time for working early.

[KanpaiQuigley]

I'm in one of the "deadliest" parts of Philadelphia (North), where white boys like me get robbed on the regular. I can't walk down the street past sundown, or I'm asking to get mugged. I remember being in Tokyo, a bazillion times bigger, and never even having to so much as look over my shoulder at 4am on a drunken 30 minute walk back to the hostel all alone... I miss the sense of security soooooo much! And it's also so goddam dirty. Homeless people EVERYWHERE. Needles and crack vials in children's playgrounds. Disgraceful...

And, as previously stated, everyone is so fucking fat and trashy. People in oversized t-shirts and sweatpants everywhere. The Nihonjins dress to a T before leaving their house every morning...

Also, other men especially are so much more aggressive. I gently and accidentally bumped someone at a nightclub the other night, and it almost turned into a parking lot brawl. Everyone is so fucking macho... I like to dress nice, and people call me a fag over here. Sorry guys, I just don't think a lime green XXXXXL FUBU jumpsuit looks good on me... losers.

Oh, and the taxi doors don't open themselves