Fucked Reasons for coming to Japan

[Takechanpoo]

hey that is really kind advice.
really.
if you misunderstand chrysanthemum kindness against gaijins, you will be severely fucked and regret forever like senior FGs in this forum.

[Pachipro]

I came from a lower middle class family so we had no money. I joined the military for a better life outside of New York City where I knew I would never amount to anything.

I went to Japan with the US military at first when I was 18. At the time I couldn't even find Japan on a map, or care. I went to be with friends who were stationed there and it sounded cool.

After a while Japan began to grow on me, especially when I got my own place off base and started teaching English for the easy money. I kept on extending my enlistment in 6 month increments in order to stay in Japan until the military told me I'd either have to re-enlist or get out. I was already 3 yrs in Japan.

I knew an ex-Navy friend who was attending University in Japan and he told me how he did it and that the GI bill would give me $300/month for schooling. So I applied, was accepted, got out and stayed in Japan for another 12 1/2 years. I had my own successful English school and sold it to return to the US just before the Japanese boom economy went bust.

We wanted to buy the 5 room mansion we were renting, but the price tripled in three years so I said fuck this, we could live better in the US and we left.

I still return twice a year and will retire there in a few years as I came of age in Japan, enjoyed living there and still consider it to be my home and a place I am most comfortable in. I will probably die there.

If it wasn't for Japan I sometimes wonder what my life would be like today. Probably not good. Living in Japan taught me to be self-sufficient, depend on no one but myself and, if you're going to make it in this world, you have to do it on your own. I received help from no one except the small amount of cash from the US government for my time in service that helped me through school.

Thanks to Japan and the education I received there, I am now completely financially independent and needn't work for anyone ever again if I choose not to.

Living in Japan taught me how to live on my own and to be accountable and you should be grateful for that rooboy. It sounds like you are doing quite well. I think your parents did well by kicking you out of the nest and forcing you to make your own living and your own way in this world. Now you can say you did it on your own with no help from anyone! Congratulations!

[Blah Pete]

I joined the US Army and they sent me to Japan.
I was nervous about seeing action and terrified of the Kamikaze Zero pilots and Banzai infantry charges like in all the John Wayne movies.
So when I arrived in '86 I was really shocked when I found out the war was over and had been over for about 40 years. Guess I should have studied a bit more in school...
Well, anyway since there was no fighting going on and everything had already been rebuilt I ended up drinking beer for 4 years. I learned Japanese so I could buy beer easier.
After my time was up a Japanese company offered me a salaryman job* where they would actually pay for my beer at night**.

* Required sitting in a smoke filled office trying to look busy.
** Required dealing with boring drunk ojisan customers.

[Samurai_Jerk]

..and of course a forum board hardly constitutes a random cross section...BUT: No wonder Japan continues to be xenophobic when (if this board is any indication) most immigrants are fuckups and malcontents who fail at life in their own country. Hardly a good advertisement.

Open your eyes and read the title of the thread.

[prolly]

Open your eyes and read the title of the thread.

plenty of ways to have a "fucked reason" without being a fuckup yourself.

[rooboy]

Judging by the bitterness of 'Prolly' I guess it just shows that there's none more fucked up than those who jump into threads on forums like this to keep waving their stick at those who are happy to talkk about their own experiences without worrying about others'.

I think Prolly's one fucked gaijin in denial - his/her problem. As for Taka - if you really are Japanese and want to join in on English language forums son, my best advice is to improve your reading skills. My point has gone completely over your head - not that there's much going on inside it.

Perhaps you'd better stick to bitching about gaijin on Japanese language forums? It might help you.

[Greji]

plenty of ways to have a "fucked reason" without being a fuckup yourself.

Are you speaking from self experience, or are you just preaching....?

[Takechanpoo]

As for Taka - if you really are Japanese and want to join in on English language forums son, my best advice is to improve your reading skills. My point has gone completely over your head - not that there's much going on inside it.

Perhaps you'd better stick to bitching about gaijin on Japanese language forums? It might help you.

If you will really have lived in Japan for 2 years or so, you understand what I was trying to say.
Anyway remember my Chrysanthemum words.

[Kurofune]

When I joined the US Air Force, I listed Japan first on my location request sheet because I wanted to study aikido. A few months later I got orders for a two-year tour at Yokota Air Base, which I extended a year. I learned aikido for a few months, then switched to iaido and kyudo. I also started dating a J-girl and got engaged. When my time in the Air Force was up, I went back to the US to finish my degree while she stayed in Tokyo to finish hers. I returned to to Japan three years later as an English teacher. My plan was to get a masters degree (maybe PhD) while in Tokyo, land a job as a professor, and continue practicing iaido. Graduate school didn't work out, but I got married and spent a great six years teaching at a variety of places. I'm back in the US now and plan to return to Japan indefinitely within the next few years. This time it'll simply be because I miss it and want to live there.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I guess I should give my real reason for coming.

In my first year of college I was told I had to study a foreign language. I had done Spanish and French in high school and junior high and didn't really enjoy them so I decided to try something completely different. It was a small school in a small town in Georgia so there weren't a lot of choices. But besides all of the the standard European language you find in a US college they had Japanese and Chinese. For some reason I chose Japanese. Through that I developed some interest in Japan and also heard about JET.

I applied to JET my last year of school got in and came for three years. I went back to the states to work but never really got Japan out of my system. I had also always wished I had studied Japanese intensely in Japan. So I came back as a student year before last with plans of going to law school in the States after a year of language study. But after doing the language school I got a good job offer and decided to stay. I doubt I'm leaving anytime soon.

[eighty5er]

I don't live in Japan yet, but I do know why I want to live there. Kinda.

Disclaimer: I don't come from strict parents or anything. I migrated to a foreign country when I was young and although I look and sound like I'm Dutch (and have a Dutch passport) I don't feel any relation to this country. My life here is good, I have loving parents whom I can rely on for anything, I have many friends, don't have trouble getting girls or anything like that. And The Netherlands is one excellent country to live in, great social standards and a very open society.

Why leave?

I want something different. I don't feel like this country is my home. I need to get out, see what's out there. It just feels right to go to Japan. After being there for a month I miss it bad. Oh yeah being 5ft6 means I fit in a lot there. (Especially considering I live in a country inhabited by statistically the tallest people in the world.)

The only thing that pisses me off is that you need a degree to get in. The Netherlands works with a system with 3 different types of high schools, the school that about 65% of the country visits only grants entry to vocational school which you need to spend 4 years doing in order to get into college to get your Bachelors (another 4 years, which I'm about to start). That's just retarded.

[Blah Pete]

The only thing that pisses me off is that you need a degree to get in. The Netherlands works with a system with 3 different types of high schools, the school that about 65% of the country visits only grants entry to vocational school which you need to spend 4 years doing in order to get into college to get your Bachelors (another 4 years, which I'm about to start). That's just retarded.

Spend a year or two in the US and you can get a 4 year degree easily. Tuition for foreingers is expensive but standards are lax and the Japanese won't know the difference.

[Taro Toporific]

I don't live in Japan yet, but I do know why I want to live there. Kinda.
...The only thing that pisses me off is that you need a degree to get in...

If you don't have a degree and you are Western, forget it. Go the fuck away. Nobody wants you.

If you are a 3rd worlder, Japan is just OK. You can be dishwasher for few years until you marry a rich Japanese girl and come up with a better scam.

I'm sorry: This is the cruel truth. Please prove me wrong. If you bet the odds, more power to you---But you could have been a success in any fucking country.


PS: I've worked in The Netherlands as a donut baker. It's 10x23 power better place to live(not work) than Japan.

[eighty5er]

Spend a year or two in the US and you can get a 4 year degree easily. Tuition for foreingers is expensive but standards are lax and the Japanese won't know the difference.

If you don't have a degree and you are Western, forget it. Go the fuck away. Nobody wants you.

I'm going to get my degree anyway, so it's OK.

PS: I've worked in The Netherlands as a donut baker. It's 10x23 power better place to live(not work) than Japan.

I'm not saying it would be a better place to live, but I need to get the fuck out of Europe. And it just seems to much more appealing than yet another western nation. It's more for the experience than anything, I don't plan to stay there all my life. But when comparing The Netherlands with Japan, what's better / worse?

Thanks for the replies !

[Iraira]

I decided to throw my career in the trash and come here to do a couple of post-docs (research positions, not actual copulation with living persons, although that has happened on occasion). After spending 9 years (undergrad & grad) at UC Irvine, moving to Japan seemed to make sense. Actually, after 9 years at UC Irvine, moving to Vietnam would have been the more reasonable choice, but given the bird flu and SARS, salarimen sneezing on the back on my neck on the train on a daily basis is perferable.

[Tsuru]

It's 10x23 power better place to live(not work) than Japan.

He's absolutely right. Even though I have a degree (engineering) and absolutely love (almost) everything to death about Japan, I would never ever want to come here to live let alone start a family. My J-fiance agrees wholeheartedly. Very few other countries, if at all, can match Holland for quality of life, employment opportunities and social security. Also, don't forget that you are the proud owner of a passport of a country loved all over the world. Non-existent as the bond to that country might be, compare that to the people who have to pretend they're from somewhere else just to be left alone.

Ms. Tsuru and I are having a lot of trouble actually trying to stay here as a couple, and that, combined with the fact that I'm not 100% Dutch makes me feel pretty much the same way as you about my nationality. I have to warn you though, don't throw everything away with the bathwater. The grass is always greener on the other side and all that, but Japan can be and has been hell for more than a few people who came here with best intentions.

I suggest you work your ass off with that degree in your pocket, save some money and try living there for a few months to try it on. The Euro/Yen is through the roof and life in Western Europe is now fast becoming more expensive than Japan.

Another tip: take a fast train and use Paris CDG, Duesseldorf or Frankfurt to fly to Japan. KLM to Japan from Schiphol pretty much equals rape, money better spent on buying rounds of drinks and getting laid.

[Rezz]

I came here to live and start a family... haha

[eighty5er]

I would never ever want to come here to live let alone start a family. My J-fiance agrees wholeheartedly.

Yeah but why?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking to settle down in Japan. I just want to spend a few years living there. Currently I'm not tied to anything here. No house, car, job or steady relationship. I can just get my degree and piss off when I like. Come back when I've had enough. How is this ill-advisable?

Thanks for the flight advice. When I went to Japan I flew from Brussels, was only 650 Euros for a return!

[Captain Japan]

I decided to throw my career in the trash and come here to do a couple of post-docs (research positions, not actual copulation with living persons, although that has happened on occasion). After spending 9 years (undergrad & grad) at UC Irvine, moving to Japan seemed to make sense. Actually, after 9 years at UC Irvine, moving to Vietnam would have been the more reasonable choice, but given the bird flu and SARS, salarimen sneezing on the back on my neck on the train on a daily basis is perferable.

There's two anteaters on FG????? I never would have guessed that. I am class of '91 and '94.

[Jack]

I don't live there now but we are definitely making plans to live there. I told my wife that I want to be burried in Japan. Soon I will have my own business in Tokyo and when we move to Japan I am forever never ever and until eternity ever coming back to Canada. Fucking country with no sophistication, class, or honour. Where mdiocre passes for good. Where "cheap" is considered high end.

[FG Lurker]

Fucking country with no sophistication, class, or honour.

Canada will undoubtedly be greatly improved by your departure. Tokyo on the other hand...

Where mdiocre passes for good. Where "cheap" is considered high end.

It sounds like your sorta place Jack, why do you want to leave?

[FG Lurker]

I want to be burried in Japan.

I wish you great luck in achieving this goal in the shortest possible span of time.

[james]

I told my wife that I want to be burried in Japan. Soon

"I told my wife that I want to be buried in Japan, soon." sounds much better to the rest of us.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Where mdiocre passes for good.

Does anyone else see irony in this statement?

Doesn't wa mean mediocre?

[Iraira]

There's two anteaters on FG????? I never would have guessed that. I am class of '91 and '94.

class of '93 and '99. I was the white bio major driving the unmodified Integra.

[Takechanpoo]

I decided to throw my career in the trash and come here to do a couple of post-docs (research positions, not actual copulation with living persons, although that has happened on occasion). After spending 9 years (undergrad & grad) at UC Irvine, moving to Japan seemed to make sense. Actually, after 9 years at UC Irvine, moving to Vietnam would have been the more reasonable choice, but given the bird flu and SARS, salarimen sneezing on the back on my neck on the train on a daily basis is perferable.

you are Vietnamese?
i love Vietnamese.
especially Viet girl wearing Áo dài
you wear Áo dài every day?

[Greji]

[Iraira]

[quote="Takechanpoo"]you are Vietnamese?
i love Vietnamese.
especially Viet girl wearing Á]

Nah, I'm one of those cursed "guai lo" (not sure about the spelling of it) that you love so much. Have downed several thousand Vietnamese egg rolls, countless bowls of pho, bun bo hue and several Vietnamese girls in my life time, but that is besides the point, goes without saying, and should not infuriate you. And to further depress you, I carry almost an equal number of X and Y choromosomes, ie., I ain't female, but if I was......Takechan-baby, I'd wear an Ao Dai for you every day.

[Takechanpoo]

Nah, I'm one of those cursed "guai lo" (not sure about the spelling of it) that you love so much. Have downed several thousand Vietnamese egg rolls, countless bowls of pho, bun bo hue and several Vietnamese girls in my life time, but that is besides the point, goes without saying, and should not infuriate you. And to further depress you, I carry almost an equal number of X and Y choromosomes, ie., I ain't female, but if I was......Takechan-baby, I'd wear an Ao Dai for you every day.

you must had been raped, abused or betrayed by some men in your child period.
so you quited being female.
my Chrysanthemum compact penis can make you turn back to female.
try it!

[Greji]

my Chrysanthemum compact penis:lol:

Compact? Is that like in car? Meaning short and cheap?