Last November marked 10 years living in Japan. There have been numerous benefit but not without an equal amount of stress, scares, and isolation's. I will try to give you a honest over view of my Time in this beautiful county. Lets start positive, shall we? First and foremost Japan is one of the safest and most friendly places on the planet. I don't lock my doors unless I think my mother and law might come over. I leave my keys in my car ignition. I have had my wallet returned twice with all the money in it. I have never seen a bar fight, road rage minus a couple beeps of a horn, or a street fight even with public drinking being legal. The people of japan are so respectful and follow an honor system to the degree that they have cigarette and beer vending machines on random street corners with no ID required. The funny thing is underage drinking and smoking rates are 90% lower than in the US. My local train station has a box you drop your ticket in no one there to make sure your not cheating the system because there is no need to. I'm sure some people do take advantage of all these privileges but the number is so low there is no need to change it. The food in not just amazing but its some of the most healthy cuisine in the world. I live in Nagano about 2 hours outside of Tokyo and it has one of the highest life expectancy's, cleanest air and water. Japan in general has some of the strictest laws on banned chemicals and preservatives in food and drinks. The down side to this is their Doritos taste like shit and they don't have chips-ahoy. I was raised back and forth between Seattle and Hawaii. Although the culture and people are on opposite sides of the spectrum they do share one main thing in common besides the amount of rain. They are extremely divers multicultural places with people from all over the world. Japan is very different it has one culture and if your not born into it by 100% blood quantity and a social obedience to the culture you are a foreigner or outsider. This is called the naka- soto culture on inner circle outer circle. I have a good friend you is half Japanese, only speaks Japanese and has never traveled out side of Japan. He is treated very differently in a not in a good way. He lives with a non stop stress of being considered a foreigner or a half. A term used to describe non full blooded Japanese. It was so bad at one point he dropped out of high school. This mentality has certainly effected me on different levels. I've been turned down trying to rent an apartment because I'm a foreigner, denied entry to a bar, and even not allowed in public baths. To be clear the pros have differently out weighed the cons. The women are beautiful, the festivals and food are next level, and there logic when it comes to laws is admirable minus the drug policies put in place by the west. I would recommend anyone and everyone at least visit and if you have the opportunity to spend a year or two here take it. The fact that Japanese patriotism is shown when they stay after and clean up the stadium after a wold cup match instead of getting drunk lighting fireworks and eating until they cant walk truly is a good representation of who whey are as a people.
