On 11/25/2003 9:55 AM, Raj Feridun wrote:

> My wife is the one that really wants to go back to the USA at the
> moment. We do both agree that the educational system there is alot
> better for the children. I'm not the biggest fan of the Japanese
> school system for whom I often work. 

It's interesting you should say that. My wife and I have been quite 
pleasantly surprised with the schools our son has attended here in 
Tokyo. In particular, elementary school turned out to be a lot more 
relaxed than I had expected. Of course now our son is now in the third 
year of jr. high and going through the whole juken (or preparation for 
juken) thing, and I'll admit that it seems to be no fun at all -- kind 
of like the stereotypes we've all read about. But elementary school was 
a joy. Interestingly enough, our son was under more pressure to conform 
at the expensive private school he attended from age 3 through 8 in 
Chicago than he has been since we moved back to Tokyo. And there were 
discipline issues as well. In Chicago we were constantly being called in 
to talk to the counselor or his teachers about something or other. But 
since we moved back here we've had nothing but glowing reports from the 
teachers.

So you might say that I've gone from being rather doubtful about the 
public school system in Japan to being a firm believer. We'll have to 
see what high school is like, though.

> My wife would go back to the
> states in a FLASH if I managed to get a good job back home. I guess
> I've just fallen in love with the much more laid back and relaxed
> lifestyle of my employment here. I was never very much good at 9 to 5
> gigs. There is the added problem of basically a 10 year gaping hole in
> my resume for the time I've spent in Japan which is fairly irrelevant
> to anything I might do back in New Jersey.

My wife likes the US well enough. She had lived there about 3 years 
before we got married and we were in Chicago another 6 years or so. 
Still, she doesn't seem very hot on the idea of a permanent move. That 
plus my job situation plus our son's education are likely to keep us 
here for the foreseeable future. But I'm not complaining, really. After 
all, we can always visit the US, and going there on vacation means we 
can enjoy ourselves the whole time we are there.

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Scott Reynolds                                      sar@gol.com