My friends in Japan have kooky Kim Jung Il breathing down their necks...

[UdoKier]

... who knows what weapons he's got pointed at them...


They have a military and economic powerhouse, China, showing more hostility over political gestures and use of disputed territories, culminating with Chinese protesters attacking the Japanese embassy en masse the other day.

Relations with south Korea have cooled, and they are STILL essentially in a recession that began 15 years ago, and yet....


NONE of them is even remotely convinced that the world is about to end. Ain't that funny?

It is looking more and more likely that we will be moving back there within the next year. Someone needs to take care of my father-in-law, and SINCE THERE IS NO UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE IN THIS COUNTRY, it would be impractical for us to bring him over here. We could not afford decent basic care for him.

So I will have to re-adjust myself to hitting my head on the tops of doorframes, being ogled by EVERYONE, having "HARRO!" shouted at me everywhere I go, and dripping with sweat from June to September. I'll have to work MASSIVE uncompensated overtime, but at least...

my kids will get a great education, and there will be no worries about guns in the classroom or gangs

We'll all be fully covered by health insurance that costs less than $100/mo for a family of 4

The cost of living is less than half what it is here in San Francisco.

Nobody believes in mumbo-jumbo like the rapture.

Religion is generally about social custom and culture rather than fanaticism.

I will focus on making a good life for my family and leave the arguing and the politics up to the locals. It's their country to change.



I will miss San Francisco. I wish we could have afforded to stay longer. I really love this town. But to be perfectly honest, I don't much love what this country has become. I'm tired of it. There is a whole world full of sane people out there. Why continue to live in the world's looney bin?

[democracyindanger]

1. However,

you can kiss decent Mexican and Italian food goodbye.

[UdoKier]

2. I like Japanese-style Italian food well enough.

But I have to admit the Mexican food is pathetic.


It's fun to pay 1600 yen for a movie ticket, too. And you always have to wait 3 months after it comes out here in the US.

[democracyindanger]

3. On the plus side

Beer in vending machines. And schoolgirls' panties, too, if you're into that sort of thing.

Where 'bouts you going to live?

[alittlelark]

5. schoolgirls panties?

uh....

[UdoKier]

6. Kyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, probably.

We lived in Fukuoka City, Zasshonokuma before. It was okay. If I can, I hope we can live up in the mountains this time. I hate the heat and humidity in the city. It's a bit more bearable if you get high up enough.

[Borgnine]

4. Maybe it stems from the fact that....

...they already had the bomb dropped on them. Twice. Everybody over here is such a pussy about "the end of the world" because we're relatively unscathed.

[UdoKier]

7. Reminds me of the folks who say "Remember 9-11"

Even though many of them HATE New York and live in burgs with ZERO chance of ever getting attacked.