So you want to live in Japan? - Japanese Culture and You

[Pierrot le Fou]

So you want to live in Japan? You want to teach English? You want to study abroad? You want to emigrate? You want to make a pilgrimage? There are so many people whose view of Japan and living there is unrealistic or overly optimistic, and so many people who can use a reality check. I hope to provide some realistic information and insight into living in Japan as someone who's done it for a couple years.

Yes, this makes me biased, because clearly I am not you, and my views, beliefs, and notions about Japan have been shaped by my residence and my perceptions before I came.

To help you understand what that bias is, I'll explain first why I'm here.

I have always loved languages. I studied French in elementary school at a bilingual French/English school in the US. I studied Spanish in middle school as well as high school. I have been interested in Japan since the Ninja Turtles and the Karate boom of the 80's, and was egged along through high school with exposure to Japanese games and cartoons, which I had been previously exposed to but didn't realize them as Japanese products.

When I got to college, I floundered around searching for something that would grab my interest, and took a smattering of courses in all subjects, from anthropology, to logic, to higher level math (linear algebra), to Constitutional law and religion. I took Japanese my second year along with some science and more math, to round out the base of politics and science. My second year of college, my Japanese professor changed, and what had been a fun course turned into a boring review of Kanji, and didn't aid me in my goal of conversational ability. I failed and gave up on Japanese. I ended up graduating with a degree in religion and political science.

My first year Japanese professor ended up at Harvard, which was where my house and my job where I was post-graduation. We met up for drinks and dinner now and then, didn't practice conversation that much, but kept in touch because we got along well. I hated my job at the time, working at a tech company doing quality assurance testing for printer software. I bitched to my professor about the job, and she kept suggesting I teach in Japan. Eventually she brought an application for the JET programme, and told me to get it done or else.

I applied, got into the program, quit my job, and left for Kyoto prefecture in August of 2003. I was placed in the same prefecture as Az, and rode down on the shinkansen together from Tokyo, impressed with his Japanese and wondering how the fuck I was going to function with my minimal grasp of Japanese.

I could read kana without much of a problem, maybe about 50 kanji with any competence, and knew a smattering of phrases with relatively poor hearing.

I had very little concept of what to expect, as I knew very few Japanese people, and as I was soon to find out, Japanese people living abroad are quite different from Japanese people still living in Japan. Incredibly different.

I think I'm a rather middle-of-the-road participant in the JET program. Many people come because they have a large interest in Japanese language and/or culture. Many others come because they stumbled upon the program and figured that it was a good way to travel around Asia. Most applicants have very little job experience in the 'real world' post-college. I was neither ambivalent towards Japanese culture, nor drooling over the chance to experience it. I had been once during college and enjoyed it, but lost most motivation with the change to a crappy professor.

So in short, my bias is that I applied neither as a Japanese fanatic, nor as a freeloader looking for an easy job with decent money.

As I said, most of the people on JET fall into one of those two categories -- those who think it's an easy job that will allow them to put off real work for a while and do something fun, and those who have this image of Japan as a focus of their studies and interests and want a chance to experience it first hand.

The former group tends to not do so well in Japan. Most of the people I know who had no interest in Japan, and couldn't speak the language, got out of the country quickly. The job they thought was easy turned out to be relatively boring, and the life outside of their job generally included a boatload of alcohol, and a constant feeling of isolation. That is a generalization, but one that is based on observation rather than assumption.

The latter group tends to divide into several different types depending on where their interest in Japan stems from. The anime/manga/whatever fanatics tend to do the worst, realizing quickly that Japan is not a mecca for nerds and geeks, and that most Japanese people have seen far less anime than they have. They start to realize that reading the manga and watching it here isn't much different that doing the same in the US using their computer.

The people who have an interest in a martial art, cultural property, the religion, the cooking, or some other aspect tend to do well or poorly depending on their placement. Some find that their area has the cultural things that interest them, and let the hobby occupy much of their free time, and find that it gives them a focus for their stay. Those who get placed far away from someplace they can actively pursue their interest tend to leave quicker, or find another job and relocate to some or no success.

The most successful group is probably the people who study the language extensively beforehand, and view fluency and improvement in their language/translation skills to be a worthwhile goal to pursue, and actively pursue it. They are the ones who most often go on to adapt to the Japanese lifestyle best, and the ones who tend to turn into long-term residents. An understanding of Japanese is critical in understanding the society, cultural quirks, and other miscellany in this country without going entirely batty.

People like me, who don't quite fit into either group, tend to end up viewing this as just another place to live. It's just another job. It has its good and bad points, just like the job that came before it, and depending on how rewarding our job is we will stay or go as we please. Some of us study more than others, most of us end up with at least communicative Japanese, and I feel like we tend to adjust better than many other people because of our view of Japan through our own eyes without the heavy tint of perception and expectation to warp what we see.

There are, of course, exceptions to all groups. There are the people like me who blow off the job because they realize that it's not as demanding as their previous job, and end up turning towards alcohol or travel to enjoy their time here before taking off as soon as contractually possible. There are those who come by chance to delay entrance into the real world who find the job rewarding, or their experiences rewarding, and stay longer term than they expected to. There are those who are into a certain cultural property, and find out that the way it's done in Japan doesn't live up to their expectations.

So many martial artists complain that the Japanese give out ranks too arbitrarily and easily, making it meaningless and easier than what they were used to.

And some of the language people discover that Japanese isn't going to net them a high-paying job quickly and easily, and that the effort required to get a job with it is quite a bit more than what they expected, as they realize how different their book learning was from the real deal.

The JET motto is 'ESID' (every situation is different), and while there are broad categories to fit people into as I just did, there will always be outliers. I am not a predictive genius of how someone will cope in Japan, but I can suggest the trends that I've seen.

So now comes the advice, now that I've given some background and information on what I've seen. Since people tend to be piss-poor about judging why they came here, and incredibly dishonest with themselves a lot of the time about what they want or expect, I sincerely doubt that the prior descriptions will be enough to figure out what type of experience you're likely to have. Here is a list of questions I think you should ask yourself before coming, and answer honestly, as well as explanations about why they're important...

What do you want to come of your stay here?

The concept of living abroad and gaining experience with it is a wonderful one which I wholly support. And I believe that everyone who has the opportunity should try to live abroad at least once in their life to see what it's like and to experience being an outsider. It will develop skills quickly that most people will never learn.

However, why Japan? Why here? There are so many countries in the world where you can visit and enjoy. Japan is one that is VERY hard for people from the West to live in, because of the difficult language, the wholly different culture, and the difficulty of fitting in and adapting. While people may talk shit about the French, it is possible to be accepted into French culture and not stick out like a sore thumb after living there for a while. Chances are that you will not be able to manage the same feat in Japan on appearance alone.

So why Japan? As yourself why you want to come here rather than somewhere else in the world. And be honest with yourself, because we're moving on to the next question...

If your image of Japan turns out to be false, how disappointing will it be?

As I said, I support people travelling abroad to learn about a different culture. However, if your entire stay hinges on the perception of the country you have, and whether or not the reality lives up to that image, you are less interested in experiencing the culture, rather than exploring something you think you already know. And whereas that can be fun, it can also explode in your face when the reality doesn't compare to the image you had.

There are many a miserable person who gets to Japan and thinks it's the land of easy women, awesome gadgets, forward thinking efficiency, and then sees the reality not matching up, and finding that everything they were looking forward to receiving without effort isn't going to happen.

For instance, I came to Japan with my contact with Japanese people being solely immigrants to the US from Japan. I spoke to these intelligent open-minded individuals who I obviously liked the company of enough to spend time around. I expected Japan to have a good portion of individuals like this, so that I could have similar friends around me in Japan as the Japanese I knew in the States. My enjoyment of Japan wasn't dependent on that fact, but I figured that it would be a nice bonus.

I was entirely wrong. The intelligent, the motivated, the driven, the tolerant, the exceptional -- those are the people I met in the US. And the average, well, the average is the same everywhere. It took me a long time to meet people here that I was expecting to be quite prevalent. It didn't crush me, but it did change my perception of my first several months when I had few Japanese acquaintances that I could count on as anything more than drinking buddies...

Can you swallow your pride?

This has got to be one of the most important questions for anyone living in Japan. Japanese culture is focused around preserving the 和【わ】 (wa, social harmony), and that means that sometimes you have to swallow your pride and apologize when you did no wrong, or hold your tongue when someone says something stupid, or tone down your argument against a wrong to prevent a friendly meeting from turning into something a little more hostile or uncomfortable.

And it's a hard lesson to learn.

I am a bull-headed piece of shit asshole a lot of the time, and I know it. It's REALLY hard for me to concede that I'm wrong when I can see it as clearly as day. It's REALLY hard to look into somebody taunting me, and lording their correctness over me, and conceding. So when I have to do the same to somebody who isn't even right, it's a real fucking struggle. Swallowing my pride, bowing my head, apologizing for an inconvenience that is not my personal fault is humiliating -- but necessary.

In Japan, so much depends on your social relations and social network. No matter how great your job is, the shit that surrounds your job will occupy a large portion of your time, and most of your time is outside the classroom. There have been so many people who have left due to problems with their supervisor, with their schools, with the expectations of the people above them, and because of their inability to swallow their pride. The people who are the most timid tend to be given a LOT more slack, because they are going to assimilate to the system a lot quicker, or at least not fly in the face of the system.

You have to be able to swallow your pride. If you honestly can't do that, then you are going to run into a brick wall in Japan going full-speed, and it's going to hurt.

How tolerant are you?

This ties in with swallowing your pride in some senses, but in a different way. Japan is an entirely different culture. Entirely different. There are going to be things that you cannot change. You are going to want to change them. You are going to want to take your view of the world and try to shape Japan to it, but Japan is not going to budge if even every foreigner in Japan took that view (and there's not even a chance of that happening anyway).

So you're going to have to be tolerant of people who don't think like you. You're going to have to be tolerant of viewpoints that you disagree with. You're going to have to be tolerant of shit that's said to you without malice but that hurts. You're going to have to grow a thick skin and learn to turn the other cheek. And it's going to suck sometimes. Which is another reason you need tolerance.

You cannot explain so much of this to Japanese people. They are just not going to understand. They are going to take your passionate cries against the system and view them as an affront to them, their identity, and their country. They may be internationalized, have lived abroad, and have experienced some discrimination of their own, but they are still going to have trouble relating to what you're saying. They're still going to shut their ears when you start to rant.

And that's what the foreign community is so good for. That's what foreign friends do best -- let you bitch about a shared experience.

But the foreign community is small. Very small. And unlike home where you can pick and choose your mates based on personality, especially in the middle of nowhere in Japan, proximity more than anything will dominate choices of people you will be around a lot. Tolerance of people you may not even give the time of day to in your home country is of critical importance, because you don't want to drive away your support group.

Sometimes you just need another foreigner to talk to.

What's your goal?

What do you want to do with your time in Japan? The more specific you can be, the more you can pursue an interest, a hobby, or a further career path or study, the more content you will be. Idle time tends to be in abundance when you come to Japan, especially at the beginning. You will find that the flurry of activity when you first come here dies down, and you will be sitting in your apartment wondering what the fuck you just got yourself into.

Finding a hobby -- no matter how inane -- is going to help a bunch. Alcohol tends to be the replacement for a hobby, and causes serious serious problems with many many people here (myself probably included). Without somewhere to direct your energy, you will turn to not-so-healthy behaviour. So find a gym, find a sport, find a hobby, find a group, and get out and DO SOMETHING with your time here.

Study, take correspondence courses, work on becoming a world-class cyclist, get in shape, learn a traditional Japanese art, ANYTHING, but have a goal.

All of the advice given in response to the previous questions culminates in one last question which is of utter and complete importance. If the answer to the following question is no, then you should never ever ever come to Japan for more than a trip, because if you get unlucky...

Can you ask for help when you need it?

No man is an island, standing independently. You will suffer culture shock when you get here. If you have proclivity towards depression or mental illness, you may see it flare up. Every year on the JET program, at least one participant seems to commit suicide. There are safety nets. There are solutions. There are ways out. But sometimes everything just catches up with you, and you think you can handle it but couldn't.

You need to have the balls to say, "I can't do this alone, I need help" and go to counselling, or go home, or do something hard like cancelling your contract and going home early.

Yes, this can be true anywhere you live, but Japan truly is a harsh mistress for many people. The stress of living in a different country, a different culture, constantly being stared at, being talked about in front of your face without understanding, being pissed on at work, feeling incapable at your job, the short winter days, the lack of sun, the lack of people around you that you trust, the distance from home, the loneliness, the feeling of being stuck -- most of us feel many of these, not necessarily that strongly, or all at once, but they are different for every person, and some can't handle it.

Everything is just so different here that a swing of highs and lows makes you feel like a manic depressive without their lithium much of the time. You have a wonderful day where you feel like the best damned foreigner who ever set foot in Japan, when you managed to succeed at a hard task through effort and determination, and days where everything is falling apart and you can't find anyone around you to keep you from falling to your knees and sobbing.

And that is going to weigh on you. And it can continue. For days. For weeks. And some people let that get to them. They believe they don't need help. And then they believe there's no one who can help. And then they kill themselves.

So you need to be willing to ask for help. You need to be able to suck up your pride and say, "I can't handle this." You need to be able to make tough decisions on your own, or ask for the help of someone who can help you make them. You need to be able to realize when you're at wits end and get out of a bad situation. And that means you need to realize that you may have to ask for help. Don't bullshit yourself on this point. One out of 5,000 a year is a lot bigger chance than winning the lottery. It can happen to you. Don't fuck with your life because you have this view of visiting Japan as a life's ambition which is all that matters.

Realize that help is there if you need it and have the ability to ask.

I think Japan is a wonderful country, and I have been living here for over two years because I enjoy it. But it also isn't all roses and amusing anecdotes about cultural mishaps. It takes a huge strain on your mind and on your body if you're not careful, and sometimes even if you are careful. It can be a wonderful experience, but it isn't perfect, and it probably won't meet your perceptions/expectations of it. I can't tell you what living in Japan is like, because I'm still learning more every day. I just want to offer guidance to people who may not look before they leap. The ground is not solid and paved with gold off that edge, and expecting it to be will only cause you get hurt worse.

Don't let me discourage you from coming or let me colour your perception of Japan as a place that drives even the most stable men mad. Please, take some words of advice and ask yourself those hard questions before you make such a huge decision. And take a day at a time. Because life is too short to waste being dishonest to yourself and miserable.

Good luck.

[Faumdano]

Whew, that was quite the post, and an interesting read, thanks.

[Chinpokomon]

Very good stuff.

PLF, Seeing how you seem to stubbornly persist in arguments on these forums, I'm actually quite suprised to see how much insight you have (in my perhaps faulty viewpoint) into how Japanese society works.

I think the bit about swallowing your pride is especially important. Trying to see things from the other guy's point of view, learning to accept that you might not always be right, and developing a thick skin, all of these are priceless pieces of advice.

I have one more piece of advice that I didn't see mentioned.

The JET motto is 'ESID' (every situation is different)

In the context that PLF was talking about, this was applying to your JET experience. I'd also like to say that for the Japanese too, every situation is different.

The Japanese are each individuals. Everyone has their own unique personality. Some of them don't like sushi. Some of them are racists. Some of them are super geniuses. Some of them are very traditional and do things the "Japanese Way".

Going around saying "Japanese people are racists" or "Japanese people don't understand X" is counterproductive, in my opinion. I think every time you catch yourself saying "Japanese people are such-and-such" you need to take a step back, start over again, and say something more reasonable like, "I've noticed some Japanese people seem to such-and-such"

Oh yeah, and learn to speak the language, because Japanese people don't speak English well.

PLF, I may not always agree with your way of arguing things on the forum (I prefer a more diplomatic approach), but I find myself agreeing with many of your points. The forum is lucky to have you.

Edit: This thread should be a sticky

[Mushu]

Thank you for this great guide PLF

@chinpokomon: better to be overly cautious and skeptical than to be naive

Wow..great read...as alot of people have inquired about jet i think making this a sticky would be an excellant idea.

[Mechs]

Nice guide man. I didnt read the whole thing but was still an interesting read.

[Pierrot le Fou]

Originally Posted by Chinpokomon

for the Japanese too, every situation is different.

The Japanese are each individuals. Everyone has their own unique personality. Some of them don't like sushi. Some of them are racists. Some of them are super geniuses. Some of them are very traditional and do things the "Japanese Way".

Going around saying "Japanese people are racists" or "Japanese people don't understand X" is counterproductive, in my opinion. I think every time you catch yourself saying "Japanese people are such-and-such" you need to take a step back, start over again, and say something more reasonable like, "I've noticed some Japanese people seem to such-and-such"

Excellent advice I tend to fail at following. I also have trouble with several of the things I listed as questions. Nobody's perfect. Those are just the big questions you should be asking yourself before you go.

I'm not a very diplomatic person. I believe in the strength of my ideas, and present them with as much strength as I believe them. Sure, it turns lots of people off, and I realize that, but it's far more frustrating for me to dumb down my argument and my passion in an attempt to coax someone into believing me bit by bit because they couldn't handle it all at once.

I know that's what most people need to change their opinions, and I know that I probably use one of the least effective methods to actually convince people, but I figure maybe people who read it and are on the edge on the issue I'm talking about will read it, be convinced, and use my points to diplomatically coax others.

I should truly just be more patient, but that doesn't seem likely to happen.

[Sector]

Great post. I guess this will give the otakus in America a great ideal how Japan is not all about anime, porn, and such of Japan greatness.

I guess not everyone realize that wherever you go, you wont get the same hospitality when you're at home. I've been living in the United States through out most of my life and when I return to my country in Asia, it's just so different and sometimes you feel frustrated with all the stares you get and the way how they treat you.

[nice gaijin]

well spoken, I applaud your efforts sir. You have very well represented what I have seen in my short experience there, and what I see with many friends and strangers who try to live in Japan.

Definately a good read, and I will use it as a reference for the next person who asks me one of those generic "what's it like living in Japan" questions.

[EIJI]

Being a Japanese, I ‘m always thinking about what Japan is. Yes, we have accustomed to western culture for almost 140 years. I can read western novels, poems, philosophies and watch all variety of western movies in Japanese. But the problem is that I have never met a REAL foreigner around me who honestly says something to the Japanese and Japanese culture. Technically I have never met you yet, but I think you are the one.

When I read this, I almost felt like leaving Japan right now.
Anyway, it’s a great work.

[Pierrot le Fou]

If you're ever down in Kyoto EIJI, I'll buy you a beer.

[EIJI]

Thanks.
Smoeday in KYOTO. This is not Tatemae.

Pierrot, I applaud you on your extremely well-written and thoughtful post.

I have lurked on these forums for quite a while, not wanting to partake in the (sometimes) inane discussions going on here; however the brilliant editorials and the occasional interesting thread have kept me coming back.

Anyways, Pierrot, in the beginning I thought you were nothing but an attention-seeking freeloader of Az' fame, but recent posts have made me change my mind. You are saying many things about Japan and Japanese culture which echo my own thoughts exactly.

I am here now, and I'm here to stay!

[Pierrot le Fou]

Can't I be both things? An attention-seeking freeloader of Az' fame with a good point to make now and again?

[hanacker]

Originally Posted by pierrot le fou

So many martial artists complain that the Japanese give out ranks too arbitrarily and easily, making it meaningless and easier than what they were used to.

Ahh, I always wondered how my girlfriend got a black belt in judo in one year. I thought Japanese would have been pretty strict about that...

The people who are the most timid tend to be given a LOT more slack, because they are going to assimilate to the system a lot quicker, or at least not fly in the face of the system.

True, but don't be too timid. When I was working at a factory, lots of the managers said I was too quiet. When I left, one of the senior guys said "It's too bad you didn't speak up more". Don't be an asshole but don't be afraid to take risks in conversations even if you don't feel comfortable with the language.

But the foreign community is small. Very small. And unlike home where you can pick and choose your mates based on personality, especially in the middle of nowhere in Japan, proximity more than anything will dominate choices of people you will be around a lot.

So true. I guess I was lucky I didn't run into many unbearable foreigners. The Indonesian guy I hung out with most of the time was a blast.

[CopraSanctum]

That is an excellent post, Pierrot. However, I have got the impression that it pertains mostly to the white and black foreigners that definitely stick out like sore thumbs in Japan. I have been wondering about how asian JETs, especially those of chinese descent, are treated; do they get it worse or do the japanese just fail to realise that they are not japanese? I hope you can shed some light on this issue because I am chinese-Indonesian and I plan to do JET in the future.

Thanks for your guide anyway.

[Pierrot le Fou]

If you are asian looking, then the rules probably apply even more, because many people will mistake you for Japanese, or expect you to somehow be able to adapt better, because of their slew of experiences with the Zainichi Koreans and the like who, despite not having Japanese blood, can speak fluent Japanese and live like Japanese (due to the merits of only having been born and raised in Japan)...

South Asians are generally treated more like cheap labour of sorts, because most South Asians do cheap labour in Japan. So if your features are more Chinese, you'll probably be expected to get with the program quickly, whereas if they're South Asian, you may be treated worse than you should be. However, native-level English speaking will garner you respect if you act professional and keep a thick skin about it.

Really, it's like hazing for a fraternity I think. Us non-Asian folk get to try to pledge, but we have no chance of actually making it, whereas the Asian folk are put through worse Hell and actually have a chance. That's my perception, but I'm not Asian...

[Ichisan]

If anyone's thinking of going to Korea most of what pierrot le fou posted is still true.

I applaud you for taking the time to write this up. I am not planning to visit Japan any time soon, but if I do, I'll remember this. Thanks. (:

[SoulPlay]

Pierrot, as always, thank you for the many words of wisdom and reading the entirety of the post has proven to be a very enriching insight of the Japanese culture. This should be stickied. Anyways, Je vous felicite par votre conseils de trop importance...

[Oosutorariajin]

Dont get too big headed and stop hidding behind Az's fame but i honestly think you may have just saved someone's life in the future. The only thing i can give here is an affirmation. I myself moved from scotland when i was 8. I was young and obviously thrown into it by my parents. I had expectations of Aussieland that were so far from the truth... the classics, Kangaroos bounding down roads and it is always sunny.

I also had some problems fitting in at first because i felt so different. I slowly became more comfortable and made friends, now it is my home.

My point is that also watch yourself. sometimes you dont realise but end up making it harder for youself to get into a comfortable rhythm because you inadvertantly segregate yourself further than the natives hav around you.

Sticky it!

Thanks for the guide, it was really interresting and I'm sure it'll be useful later (since I want to visit Japan, even if it's only for a couple of weeks).

Thank you for that insightful post. I went to Japan for about a month over the summer, and I'll tell you that it was the hardest thing I'd ever done in my life.

Something I think is vital before going to Japan is doing a lot of research about the culture and their way of life. I'd read some books and gone to some websites beforehand, and it actually saved me a lot of trouble that some of the other Americans had to mess with because they weren't prepared. I also agree with Pierrot that it's important to examine why you want to go to Japan and to look at other study abroad opportunities in other countries before making your final decision. (I actually considered New Zealand and England before deciding to stick with Japan.)

If you do enough research, it should become blatantly apparant that you will be required to step out of your comfort zone on a regular basis during your stay in Japan. I think a lot of people don't realize this -- they just want to watch the anime or read the manga or hook up with the girls. They don't think about what they'd do if they had to dress their 3-year-old, Japanese-speaking host twin sisters for school or if they got lost in a foreign neighborhood that's so tightly packed that you're pratically passing through people's front yards just by walking on the side of the road, and all people will do is stare at you while you frantically wander around. Or if they bit into a piece of food only to find tentacles hanging out of it.

I enjoy some anime and manga, but I made it a point to distance myself from it while I was there. I think Pierrot was very right in saying that it's the same as watching or reading it back in the States. While I was in Japan, I tried to experience as much of the culture as I could, even if it took me out of my comfort zone, because I knew it was once-in-a-lifetime experience. I found myself especially enthralled by the historical sites in the area, and I wound up spending nearly three hours at the Peace Museum in Hiroshima one day. There were some American kids there who did NONE of the cultural activities, opting to go to the freaking arcade and mill around at the anime store every freaking day. Though I'm sure they had fun, I think they spent their money on things that they could have easily done back in the States and wasted good opportunities to actually experience Japan.

The only reason I visited anime stores was so I could buy merchandise for friends and family who were expecting it. (Though I bought a few things for myself while I was at it. I'm not a total stick in the mud. ) I didn't mention it to my host family at all until my host mom overheard that a lot of the American students who were visiting were really into it and she asked if I liked it, too.

Despite how challenging and difficult the experience was, Japan was a blast. I owe a lot of surviving the transition to doing research and going in with the realization that it's a culture with its own quirks, delights and flaws and that there WERE going to be embarrassing situations that were gonna come up and slap me in the face. With proper preparation, studying abroad anywhere can help a person learn some interesting things about themselves and the world around them.

I'm considering going into JET for a little awhile after I graduate college, and I'm definitely going to take Peirrot's words to heart before making a decision. Thanks again for the post.

[novacane]

Fantastic post. Hopefully this will shed light upon the people who think "I want to go to Japan because (insert naive, irrelevant reason)".