The other side of the Japanese postcard

The Japanese postcard, as I'm sure, like any another country is very different on either sides. The beautiful colourful side showing the best scenes for the tourist is mesmerising. I have lived in Japan for over 2 years now, as a student. I have a very good picture of the other side of the postcard.

As a student I have interacted with many of my superiors. They have been my teachers, mentors and my guide. Everyone of them have always made sure I am panic stricken (or pretend at least). It is not a very good gesture to show your confidence (eg. rectifying grammar of an english sentence) The universities are ill-equipped with foreign-friendly material. Knowing the language is the unspoken rule of the thumb. For a student on a short visit (a year to 4 years)...its going to be quite painful to survive amongst the crushing attitude. I have heard tales of Japanese people being nice and disciple but I have never met such sadistic people before. The people of the older generation (over 50 years) seem to live with separate set of values and hence r the reason y the world loves Japanese people. The new generation is too bossy for their own good. Lets not even get to having a Japanese boss to work with....I have friends and most of them quit within a year or two.

Hi Yaw and Mog,

It's very interesting to read your account of living in Japan. It's something we have considered in the past, but my wife keeps reminding me the natural disasters in Japan. We will later move to Indonesia which I personally think has a lot more natural disasters than Japan. However, I truly agree with you that Japan is an amazing place for culture and simply being different and civilized compared to so many other places. The ongoing battles between China, Korea and Japan about "comfort women" we all read about, it really was terrible, but then this was before most of our lifetimes and perhaps some form of total apology or compensation should be given, however, I am in certainly no position to know the full details or to make any judgement on that. I just love to visit Japan as an amazing place to be whether it is taking photos or visiting Tower Records in Shibuya or eating in a cute place in Kyoto, I just love it. As for integrating with the locals, just having my family with me is more important but we do already have some great friends in Japan.