On Tue, 28 Oct 2003 09:01:41 -0800, "Bryce"
<fukuzzz@takethisout.hotmail.com> belched the alphabet and kept on
going with:

>
>"LRW" <deja@celticbear.com> wrote in message
>news:3a1d1813.0310280820.b8c2e1a@posting.google.com...
>> OK, I found a couple of threads here that answered most of my
>> questions (for now) regarding a Westerner teaching English in Japan.
>>
>> But how about this: My wife is getting her degree in computer
>> animation.
>> (The idea of living in Japan right now is just a distant dream--when
>> it becomes a closer goal, we'll of course be doing more industry
>> focused searching, but until then, I'd like to hear your opinions.)
>>
>> What are the chances that this 32 year old (will likely be a few years
>> older by then) redhaired and freckled American woman (I can see that
>> as being either a big plus or a very big minus) with only little skill
>> at spoken Japanese of getting a decent job in Japan? (Tokyo or
>> otherwise?)
>>
>> (I know, "decent" is a matter of opinion. Our unreachable dream is
>> between her computer animation and my teaching English we might
>> maintain a semblance of the very middle-class lifestyle we have.)
>>
>> Any experience or opinions, I'd love to hear them!
>> Thanks!
>> Liam
>> druid-at-celticbear-dot-com
>
>
>very small chance.
>

I would tend to think so also. Not merely because of the things that
Liam has listed; all of those can be overcome. I was just wondering
how many gaigin-gaigin couples actually end up living and working here
on a long-term basis. There must be some....somewhere. Adapting to
life in a foreign country can be difficult, and I don't think there is
a gaigin here who hasn't on several occasions felt like grabbing
whatever will fit into a knapsack, running to the airport, and shaking
the dust of this place from his/her heels forever. Having a partner
who is native to a place helps provide some degree of incentive to
tough it out. In other words, it never happens that *both* partners
hit that phase of their gaiginhood at the same time.

But what of couples where both are gaigin and the Japan Honeymoon ends
at roughly the same time?

Liam, Japan is an exciting and fun place to be when you're entirely
ignorant of it. But as you move along through time, you reach a point
where the shine sort of wears off of it, you become more and more
aware of what's going on around you (and find that really, really
don't care for it), you weary of being essentially a overgrown child
incapable of functioning as an adult  and you want to say to hell with
all of it. This happens to everybody. In fact, hang around long enough
and you discover that it ain't a one-time thing; it comes in cycles
and you'll do it over and over again, even though the instances do
become farther and farther between...provided you actually hang around
that long, that is.

If the two of you are looking to come over and fart about for a couple
or three years, then the prospects of earning a living wage and having
a pretty good time are actually quite strong. But if you're looking at
making some sort of more long-term move, such as raising your kids
here and living here at least until retirement, then you need to think
exceptionally long and exceptionally hard about this.

Think about it. Most of the people who come over and fart about for a
couple of years are fresh out of school, in their very early 20s. They
have the (usually mistaken) impression that having lived/worked in
Japan will be some sort of resume enhancer for when they return to the
"real world" to live out their lives. Whether it turns out that way or
not, at the age they return they are still relatively employable and
normally don't have the burden of being encumbered by a family. By the
time you actually get over here, spend two or three years, stare the
big FOUR-ZERO straight in the eyeball, and examine just where the hell
you are and just what the hell you're doing in/with your life....what
are your prospects at *that* point going to be? If things are going
great for you here and life is rosy, it won't be an issue. But if
you're hitting the typical "I have this fucking place!" part of the
cycle, maybe have the additional aggravation of being a parent in a
land which can sometimes seem like a nuthouse when it comes to
child-raising and education for those of us who came up in an entirely
different environment, AND feeling the impending hand of Father Time
creeping up on your aging ass and daily gnawing at you with the
question "Is it too late to get out of here and re-establish a normal
life/career back home? Or am I stuck where I am?"....well....then what
are you going to do?

Most folks who do this and are even halfway successful at it do it
much earlier and have the benefit (though it doesn't always seem one)
of having a Japanese spouse to provide support/incentives in more ways
than I feel like typing up at 3:21 in the goddamned morning when I
really ought to be in bed.