IVe been here 3 and a half years, and I gotta agree with many, its a good place to stay. BUT i gotta say, its certainly not the trouble free paradise that some are building it up to be. And i would never live my life here.
My best year was the first one and its gone down hill since then. Why? because the more I learn abou the Japanese the more i lose respect for them. This comes from having my eyes opened slowly over time.
Now firstly, I do like japan. There are many things Aus could learn from them in many areas, so hats off. but yeah, there is also the same feeling in reverse.
People dont realise this, but Japan is an incredibly racist country. Now thankfully im not talking a "noose the black man" kinda of racism, and I guess thats a good thing. But where as you can enter aus as a forigner, do some hard work,, learn the language, get citizenship and then be seen as an Aussi, this doesnt happen in Japan. Here you do all the above, if your lucky get the passport and then spend the rest of your life being seen as an outsider and stared at. Getting real Japanese friends that last will be very hard and you will have to put up with suble racism and bullshit until you die.
The thing is that Japanese people are very nice and polite to your face, but you will have big trouble being included among most. This is why I and others find that the start of our stays are the best. At this time you dont notice that they are taking the piss; you just think that they are fun, bubbly and friendly, where as afterwards they are laughing it up at your expense. I get near daily examples of this bullshit and I gotta say, it gets really f*ken annoying when its so constant.
So why am i here, you ask? well if i tune out this bullshit, there is still a stack of things i love about being here. The concerts, nightlife, the people (but only when they are being genuine), my hobbies, work, the lifestyle. I mean, can you really get away with downing beers on the train and have noone bother you in Aus? doubt it. car/bike stuff too, i speed (safely) every day on my scooter and i have never had a problem. When i owned my fully tuned mark 2 i only got pulled over once and where in aus the plod would have cracked open champagne at the thought of how many canaries they could give me, here they just said its too loud, fix it, bye. Pretty f**king cool.