For me, I would have liked to experience living in different prefectures or cities before settling down as quickly as I did. I love my current city and it’s definitely home, but it would have been interesting to see what else was out there in terms of living options.
I appreciate your input and hope you’re all enjoying your weekends. Take care!
30 comments
I was about to say the same thing you did. The only thing I would have changed is trying to settle elsewhere.
I like to visit Tokyo and all but living in a bedroom community next to it can get boring quick, surprisingly enough and I find myself enjoying Japanese nature and countryside infinitely more than Tokyo.
I often fantasize about just moving to Shikoku or somewhere else that’s bumfuck inaka.
Not getting sucked into the cheap drinking culture at such an early age. Not true anymore, but I look back and feel like I lost years to reckless decisions and binge drinking all over Tokyo because it was just “normal”.
Nothing. Perfectly satisfied.
I wish I had more of an effort into learning the language from the beginning. I was great for the first few months, and then pretty much stopped when I restarted my MA.
Nearly 10 years in and my Japanese is pretty much garbage. I’ve put some sporadic effort into it here and there – my reading has gone up considerably – but my speaking is terrible (I barely use it at work, and often find myself socially drained after work – barely even wanting to use my native language).
Also, while Kyoto and the Kansai are pretty great in many ways, I agree with the other posters who mentioned moving around a bit more (granted Japan is not the easiest/most cost effective place to do this). Despite not being that young (40) I still think I would enjoy a year or two in Tokyo (there’s still time I suppose).
Make more effort to make friends at the beginning / Be better at keeping in touch with people who have moved away.
Would have not wasted time in grad school, would have jumped ship to a gaishikei earlier. And of course if I had a crystal ball and could have foreseen remote work becoming a norm would have bought a house in some place like Tsukuba rather than Kawasaki.
I would leave sooner. (Finally happening this May).
This is great question.
In general, I wish I had figured out a way to be self-employed sooner. Not having a boss or being a boss is priceless. This applies to wherever you live, though it does take away a lot of the annoying parts of life in Japan like crappy bosses and low income. The first few years were a struggle but now things are better than ever.
More Japan specific, I wish I had joined group that do things like hiking or music or whatever much sooner despite not knowing much Japanese back then. It’s fine to have fellow expat friends, but I didn’t feel like I actually lived in Japan until I made actual Japanese friends. It takes a long to do so, and it has to be centered around a shared hobby or interest but after decades here my Japanese friends are closer to me than any of the expats who have moved away or lost contact.
I’ve been fortunate to be able to live in several different areas of Japan, so that’s not been much of an issue for me.
I’d say studying the language more. If I knew how long I’d end up staying, I absolutely would’ve studied more leading up to and throughout that first year or two of living here.
Getting to know my husband better and not have a baby so soon.
I would sign up for the medication discount program (turns out if you have a disability you can get your medication for a pretty low monthly fee) as soon as possible so I didn’t have to spend ¥¥¥ on prescriptions each month.
I would switch my phone to one with either a dual sim or the option for an esim and a sim card where the only difference between the US and JP model was the camera noise thing so I could get sms confirmation messages for various US things over wifi.
I would start using r/AsianBeauty earlier because it makes it way easier to figure out which drugstore products are good.
I would try to apply for a credit card earlier because when I first got here I might have been able to qualify for a student one.
I would start getting HRT at a clinic in Kyoto it took me years to find.
I wouldn’t mention I went to a clinic for psychiatric stuff to my academic supervisor.
I wouldn’t move apartments in April 2020.
Start taking driving school classes earlier
Yup. I wished I’d lived all over the place before settling. Sometimes I feel like I’ve wasted my time in Japan.
From a financial point of view, getting those point cards, point sites and mileage credit cards sorted straight away to make the most of all the new purchases I had to make.
Much better than your question yesterday.
I should have gotten my license converted earlier. I didn’t think I’d ever need a car. Now I’m living out of the city and driving quite a bit. I could have gotten my gold license by now.
Less work more pleasure.
Wish I would have explored living outside of Tokyo a few years earlier. The cost of living is literally half for me currently. 3LDK, way more space, car, fresh air for half the price I was paying in central Tokyo. I work remotely so there’s no daily commute.
Japan post bank instead of Yokohama bank
Letting alcohol take over my life almost completely would be about it for me. Almost lost a job, lost many friends with my constant drunken self-pity and self-hatred that followed many drinking binges. On the other hand, it did get me a lot of experience with both culture and language and it’s not like I was always in that depressive state (but when it was bad it was bad).
Other than that, I can’t really think of anything.
Studied harder, I suck at tests but should have tried harder. Have to get over it and get it done soon. I can get by on my speaking and listening but my reading and writing are in the toilet. Not what is needed for getting anywhere.
Had a better control of finances, well life in general. Certainly had more of a diverse skill set to get jobs that apeal rather than are easy.
Learn to be less stressed as I now have the resting heart rate of a humming bird.
Getting out of ALTing/English teaching sooner
Have no kids and get the fuck out when I could.
…would have traveled even more; maybe give hitchhiking a shot; would have liked to have lived in other major cities for a bit, as well as get stuck out in southern boonies. Never lived anywhere where I needed a boat.
I wish I wouldn’t have been so focused on getting 正社員 so badly some years ago.
It made the job so, so much more stressful than it should have been.
And because I wasn’t going to get it before the contract re-up period would be over, I left the industry to go into IT which was a 正社員 gig, and I hate what I do. Although I’m going back to my previous industry in a couple months.
Oh, and all my coworkers at my old job, the entire team got upped to 正社員 literally months after I left.
That’s the one thing that really sticks out in all my time here. Shouldn’t have gave in to the pressure and followed what I thought was the right thing to do.
Don’t get fat. Get a better job.
I would have come out of the closet much sooner. I’m not super unhappy with how it worked out or anything, but I definitely feel like I missed out in a lot of opportunities to enjoy LGBTQ culture in Japan when I was in my twenties.
If I could go back then with the knowledge I have now, I think I could have gotten more out of my early time and set a solid foundation.
I try not to “should have” too much because the decisions I made at that time were based on the knowledge I had at that time, the resources I had at that time, and other things.
If I could go back with what I knew now, I would open a second bank account for savings. I would have tried to put myself out there more. I would have tried to cut off toxic people earlier. I would have tried to have more confidence in my abilities and realize that coworkers and people who were putting me down were doing it because they didn’t have confidence in themselves.
I would have tried to find more frugal travel options. I didn’t travel when I first came and I wish I had.
And I would have packed less and spent more time finding high-quality clothing that fit.
Not being so serious about my studies in university and went out to clubs and drinking. I realized regardless, everyone got straight As… even those who never went to class and turned in a huge pile of homework on the last day got an A
I’d have started my time in Japan with Osaka. I’ve spent all my time in Japan living in Tokyo and wonder if the grass is really greener on the other side.
But it’s too late to stay over now I already have my mind set to go back to my home country. Honestly feels like finally letting go of a dream that didn’t go well. 🙂 But wonder if I started with Osaka, would I still end up wanting to leave.
No ragrets.
It is what it is. Things I did in the past that wasn’t optimal taught me something.
reject NHK