hahahaha, I don’t post publicly on youtube.
I’m just trying to be objective
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Japanese will at least they pretend to smile and like foreigners. You can feel the dislike of foreigners just dripping off most Koreans. The number of times I got passively aggressively shoved while there.
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I can easily pull in about 40-50k NTD (take home pay) working for Walmart in Texas, full time. I can even cook my taxes a little and pay nothing out of pocket (meaning any and all taxes has already been paid for me by the employer). BUT, the cost of living is much higher. I was lucky to rent one of those rent by room apartment for 450 a month not including utilities, but you should be aware that most people in Austin pay over 800 a month, not including utilities or internet (which can cost more than 50 USD a month). Add a car and 50,000 NTD a month is basically living hand to mouth, where even a 10,000NTD sudden expense will bankrupt you (many Americans fit within this category). If you get a college degree you MAYBE can get a job that would bump your take home pay to 100,000NTD a month (about 3000 USD a month). That sounds great when you have to consider you now have a student loan payment of about 300 a month, health insurance payment (which is variable but if your work coverage is crap then you need better ones) of around 200 a month. Perhaps you bought a new house and your house payment may be over 1500 a month. But getting a degree is no longer a guarantee of a good job so you could be working at Walmart and all of a sudden your normal living expense + car + student loan payment will put you over the edge. Bankruptcies do not erase student loan debt either. Get sick and for whatever reason your insurance company was able to weasel themselves out of covering you? Tough luck because now you join the millions of Americans who went bankrupt because of medical debts.
Taiwanese wage is bad, I don’t disagree but 60k NTD and you can live like a king in Taipei, even rent a house in Xinyi district. But if you really want to save money or pay off your student loan debt you can live very cheaply. I managed to live for 10,000NTD a month once… lived in college housing that costs 2500 a month.
I never been to Japan or Korea but I can’t imagine the cost of living be any lower than most Western countries but it’s much more crowded, not to mention they don’t worship white foreigners like they do here. So to each his own…
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This is why I came here. I made more money back home but it was a soul crushing 9 to 5. The money wasn’t worth the freedom with my career change.
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I partly agree with the second half of your message. Taiwan generally tends to pigeonhole western foreigners into an English teacher bucket. I’ve tried to move into my home industry for years and been pretty much told that these large companies hire locals only.
One was interested but checked with HR and was told no. The manager then said I could work contract though. She then lined the person who referred me to her and they had a good laugh. She had lied about the contract offer. HR never approved that, she said that to keep face and get me out.
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I came here not intending to work, retire.
Something I didn’t think would happen to me! Getting bored so quickly, don’t want to teach English, I agreed with my girlfriend I will do conversational English, she finds the persons.
I decided to start a small business here that involves something I enjoy, however also involves tourists! put it on the back burner I think.
I think a home business will do well here for foreigners, especially using skills dealing with western people.
Taiwan is really still pretty much un-tapped to the Western tourism market.
However looks like conversational English for a while, I don’t intend to leave Taiwan, beautiful place.
Another thing are Japanese female police officers as hot as Chinese, North Korean and Taiwanese?
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Former Japanese police officer:
I think she’s alright.
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If you work in the semiconductor field it’s not true. It’s a huge boon to your resume and work experience. Some of the best companies are here, and it’s hugely valuable to western companies. Don’t get me wrong working in a taiwan company was soul crushing but looking at where I ended up I can honestly say I would have never gotten my job if I didn’t work in taiwan.
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I’ll just speak for myself here but Japan is not the utopia many think it is. As a foreigner also I worked in Japan for 2 years as an English teacher. Am now in Taiwan doing the same. It’s not a permanent career choice and I’ll leave Taiwan after this, my third and final year. I wish to pursue my professional career back home. I am unmarried, dating, yes, but no children so I’m a bit different to most of the boards regulars here in that regard.
In Taiwan I make 72 000 NTD a month. In Japan for the same job I made a bit more: 290 000 YEN a month (about 80 000 NTD.) Japan is more expensive to live in. Culturally they are worlds apart and nothing alike, with the exception that both have good public transport facilities.
I could go and list Taiwan pro and cons but since this about Japan I wont. Both places, like anywhere else have good and bad about them.
So where did it Japan go wrong ? Well, eventually it just became dull. It was more of the same day in day out. And the longer you’re in a place the more flaws you’ll start to see. I remember even in casual conversation I used to get so frustrated with locals who never had any opinions. I could never get a yes or no. Of course the infamous “Its difficult” popped up many times but for me that didn’t mean 100% no. To them it did. A Japanese person will never categorically say no to you, it is too direct for them. I started to realise the vastly different aspects of cultural norms between us. Those here who’ve worked in Japan will know completely what I mean.
I never felt I understood any of them deeply not even my girlfriends. People I met would say one thing to my face and do another. I dated a fellow Japanese teacher for 4 months who worked at a different school. I wasn’t exactly faithful to her but it turned out she had a long term boyfriend the whole time. He was a Japanese university student who she had been with for 2 years.
I felt like she should have told me? Not because I was jealous but because I don’t wanna be responsible for disrupting someone’s relationship. She callously told me "Well, he is far away from me now and you’re a foreigner so its not cheating. " I’m sorry, but wtf? After 5 months she married him, now has a baby. He has no idea what his wife did with me. It’s crazy.
There seems to be a lack of empathy in people there. Like their emotions are blocked or something. Now, in my experience Taiwanese people have the opposite problem : they can’t seem to control their emotions, with many women I’ve encountered here acting like teenagers who throw strops despite being in their late 20s or 30s. Not all, but a fair amount I’ve encountered.
From the outside looking in Japan seems like a utopia with its bright lights, reputation for advanced technology and it’s cute, inviting culture. But after I moved there I felt like I was duped. Like it was all propaganda. I saw people look clinically depressed on a Friday night on the midnight train home. Everyone seemed to be overworked, downtrodden and kinda fake. It all felt artificial. Now, maybe I was the problem who knows. But I felt a growing dislike of Japan bubbling up in me which was my cue to go.
The work was unfulfilling, the people didn’t seem genuine and every little thing took forever to achieve to to ridiculous bureaucracy and paperwork. The more I dug the less I liked. I saw a woman working in shopping mall that had clearly lost her mind. A pretty young woman in her 20s with a plastered, almost deranged forced smile on her face as she shouted out to absolutely nobody “Ohaiyo! Ohaiyo!” every 5 seconds. Because I was waiting for my then gf to buy some clothes I watched her some more. She continued this for 15 minutes. Shouting and bowing like a robot to nobody in particular for ages. Did she do this all day? How sad, I thought.
It wasnt what I expected but perhaps I’d have been better off accepting it for what it was then hoping it would be what I wanted. We as foreigners cannot change Japan and if you follow and embrace their norms you will enjoy it. If you cannot then you will be the inevitable square peg in a round hole.
For those who place am emphasis on being an individual I would say it is nearly impossible to live in Japan long term. For those who are not so strong willed, who value the collective over the self, then I would say Japan is the place for you.
Also, though I did have problems with the culture side of things etc I should mention that Japan as a country is absolutely beautiful. I lived in the South and I was taken aback time and time again by the nature around me. In the end your experience will be unique to you and you alone but do not expect it to provide all the answers to lifes questions. Its just a place like anywhere else.
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Yes, you will always be gaijin in Japan, but then, so what? That’s a free pass to many helpful things.
That said, I completely understand how hard things are here (in Japan) without really good Japanese, which is really hard to learn. It is a bit easier to get by without the same level of Chinese in Taiwan. Very few Japanese speak English beyond the bare minimum to pass junior high.
You absolutely would not fit in to any industry without excellent Japanese, except perhaps some parts of academia. And even there it is still bad unless you’re able to do basic living in Japanese: tax, insurance, council stuff all have no assistance at all.
And even if you do get up to speed in Japanese reasonably fast (if you’re young it’s easier), you’re still gonna totally hate the way work is done in most Japanese companies.
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That’s because you lived in a big city. They suck. Okinawa is a pleasure, totally different.
I take part in local ceremonies, race traditional wooden sailing boats in the summer with a bunch of fishermen in the islands, farm an allotment with my Japanese GF, and so on. completely hooked on life here, would never think of leaving.
I think I could live in a place like Fukuoka. People there seem more open and interesting/unique than in the more central cities like Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, etc.
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No bro, 1 year was inaka life down in Kyushu and the other was a certain famous city in Kansai. Apples and Oranges. I wouldn’t take back my time there but just trying to offer OP a bit of a balanced explanation that Japan is not all that frankly. And yeah, Okinawa is awesome. And I agree with you that as a white foreigner we get away with a fair amount of Gaijin Smash without much blowback.
May I ask how long have you been in Japan ?
Wow, coming up on 11 years now. Comfortable university admin job makes things easier. but moving anywhere is hard, and most countries offer similar living standards these days. Unless you’re a farmer in Burma.
What a humongous blazing asswipe.
That poor little 7-11 girl, jeez.
If I was there I woulda got the cops meself.
And pissed on his shoes.
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Very good summary. I concur.
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+1 I love Fukuoka
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Well said, this is the best response in this entire thread IMO. I’ve met bitter foreigners all over Asia who struggle with this exact problem. Issue is, the grass is always greener somewhere else, and it’s often easier to move than it is to have some deep introspection and personal growth.
(It’s also completely valid to decide you don’t like somewhere and don’t want to live there. Just echoing what you said about not being able to change somewhere’s culture as an outsider.)
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I briefly dated a woman from there. So I guess I could have moved there if I really wished to pursue it. Alas, not meant to be.
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I’m curious about why you think that. I’ve spent time on every continent except Antarctica and I have the exact opposite view.