Without getting into a long diatribe about who I am and why I'm here, I would just like to say I can't wait to get out of Japanoland and back to the US.
I am likely going to be working in the valley for a software company that uses/deals with automation(ansible,puppet etc) and I just heard they might delay bring me out there from early Jan to April....
Japan is definitely a candy land for tech geeks hoping to visit and get a boner from vending machines and neon lights but living here is blah.......
Save me from this place!
Have any of you every been sent somewhere far away for work and felt like you wanted to come back this bad?
I'm gonna be away from my son there too, but It won't be as bad as being here and away from him. As for my wife, meh depends on her attitude towards me.
I have never lived on the west coast but at least it's more familiar than here.
Both, I definitely think Japan pays highly skilled IT working disgustingly low wages and in general there are many things about this society that make me cringe but over the latter is most likely what bothers me more.
I do love my family here but I don't even live where they are, I would prefer to bring them to somewhere like Utah, Colorado or Hawaii(my wife fav place in the world), then suffer their cultural quirks when I am trying to get stuff done.
Don't let me discourage you though, my situation/background is different and this place is excellent for a holiday believe me.
I think now is actually the best time to visit here because Abe has deliberately devalued the Japanese yen to try to stimulate economy and make export easier.
Well personally I trade on the stock market for money. As long as I can trade in the US markets from japan (which I know I can), then I should be fine. I simply want to go somewhere where the people aren't fucking useless.
When I went to kyoto, everyone seemed to be minding their own business and were extremely polite and patient.
I do a lot of word working. Not professionally, but for fun. I was able to actually buy hand forged tools for a decent price and I only had to wait a few hours for the tools to be custom made for me.
The food was high quality, the houses were well built, and everything just seemed like someone gave a damn when they made it.
If there is a place in the US like that, I would be packing up right now. But I have been around the US MANY times, and everyone is so god damn concerned about making a buck, that everything is cheap shit.
And in turn robs the people of some of their moral fiber.
It's a crowded situation here, and about morality particularly with how men view women... If I ever have a daughter surely she will not grow up here.
If you choose to live in country side areas here sure everything you said applies, in the Kanto region however simply no.
Fact is however I must eventually buy a house here and get old my wife loves her family very much and there is a family restaurant here that must be delt with later on. So I will probably buy a house eventually here.
For now however I just want to strictly work for companies in the US because I love what I do and it makes wonderful money in the states but getting paid less than 50k for writing script to me is insulting. Sure Indians are doing it for less but are Indians creating the cutting edge platforms or developing the newest protocols? No, that is a western thing now and for the foreseeable future will be because western people whom actually like what they do almost always create the best things out there.
I mean if you feel I am wrong please tell me which platform or software technology or heck even hardware platform Japanese or anyone in the east invented?
This interests me...more than it should. I would enjoy hearing more about Japan, hahaha. Feel free to ramble and vent, It's fascinating to me since I have never been outside of the US (not even on vacation)
I was in a similar situation, in Taiwan. An ex-colony of Japan's though I'd say these day's Taiwan is very Chinese. (that will upset many people, but that's how it feels to me). I visited Japan from Taiwan and Japan gave me the same sort of vibe in some ways but I admit I was only there on holiday for a few days.
Can agree, generally, IT makes a terrible career choice on that side of the planet. The labour laws are also hilariously out of whack, a left over from Taiwan's manufacturing heydays. I remember often running into a guy working at HTC on the train. He had like one day leave when his kid was born. He worked pretty much the whole week and late too, taking the last train home or sleeping in the office.
Also, heard from programming friends this recurring joke that most of them quit after a while to make a better living selling fried chicken on the road side and in night markets.
Fortunately I worked for a company there that had a very different culture to the norm, very rare. I did like living there, it was awesome, but all good things....
I mean I could go on all day I don*t want to bash Japan continuously. 1 huge headache here is when you are about and about in the city it is almost impossible to find a public trash can so if you are the type who likes to get snacks and other drinks often throughout the day bring a small plastic bag to put in your book bag or something. So aggravating that a country looking to make headway in tourism doesn't have the convenient of something so essential.
There are many small inconveniences about living here that add up to a frustrating experience overall.
I have lived in Taiwan as well both in Kaohsiung and Taipei it's also a wonderful place to make peanuts for programming. I would never go there again for anything business related or work prospect.
1 thing that is less frustrating is that I can speak fluent mandarin and my reading and writing is on par with high school students communication there was easier than here. I still grew to dislike living there after a few months as the summer there is just as brutal as here if not worse. Humid sticky and stinky.
It would behoove any smart developed nation to be very selective in choosing who they allow to immigrate to their country. Many people from destitute poor nations and nations known for people whom have a disdain for nations whom aren't following their religion have recently tried to over stay their visa's. When you have no legitimate status here and not a skill set to offer that is in demand I would imagine the appeal of making money in "Not so legal ways" would increase.
With all this said I am a private person not a social butterfly so Japanese people being xenophobic means nothing to me as I mainly talk to my wife her family and 1 work colleague only.
I have noticed however the weabo's who come here to find out living in Japan is nothing like watching a romanticized cartoon/anime, often describe this place dishonestly on web blogs and or social forums to avoid further ridicule.
I will reiterate my previous statement, Japan is an AWESOME place to come on a holiday in almost all facets experience wise. It is NOT however an AWESOME place to live much less to raise children in.
Thanks for the replies guys I got to get back to debugging now, lunch break will end and I am hungry. :)
Things like idol culture and shit? Or generally how extremely culturally conservative they are? I'd love to hear more about that. I wouldn't disagree with you about Japan not being a great place to raise children, but I'd also say pretty much any country is getting worse for raising kids. Education takes longer and is getting more expensive with wages not being as competitive. I'd imagine it probably is even worse in Japan though. There's a reason the birth rate is an actual problem there. There's not much of anything to incentivize having kids.
The thing that sounds awesome to me would be living in cheap, small housing, and being able to get good internet. Cause I wish I could find that here in the states. It's always in a shitty part of town with worse than time warner/comcast levels of speed for still to much.