We have a report from the fj.life.in-japan Dynamics Officer that obakesan has
exploded. Flight director confirms that:

>Its my assumption that many 'gaijin' living in Japan (especially those from 
>Nth American / European / Australian origins) are doing so [because of | due 
>to] a having a [spouse | girlfriend | boyfriend | de-facto] who is Japanese. I 
>believe I recall Mike Cash (hope you're still out there some where) once used 
>the term "inmates" to cover this.

I never saw it that way. I've been married to a local Gifuess for nine years
now, but that wasn't the catalyst (or even the intended purpose) of my decision
to stay. Call it an advanced state of denial, or of idealistic delusion, but
despite the many headaches commonly attributed to living in this country I don't
particularly see it as being ridiculously worse than residing in any other First
World nation.

I'm not sure if it's because I came early enough in age to still be adaptable to
such drastic cultural changes, or what (I arrived at age 21). But at one point I
decided to follow my own road, lead where it may; 16 years later, with a house
I'll be paying for until age 65 and two cars and pets and a garden with broccoli
in it, it's far too late to just pack it all up and go somewhere else, least of
all back to America.

I like it here just fine. Sure, work is hard, stuff is expensive, I have to
commute a lot, nitpicky social obligations are a bore. But if 130 million other
people can do that, then so can I.


-- 
The 2-Belo                           [the2beloATmsdDOTbiglobeDOTneDOTjp]
alt.flame  alt.fan.karl-malden.nose  alt.alien.vampire.flonk.flonk.flonk
meowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeowmeow

"I kept hearing this 'untz... untz... untz... untz...' sound in the 
background of all the music. Fun time, though; lots of young kids with 
dilated pupils." -- Bob Dylan, after a visit to a rave party