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What do you like about living in Japan?

What do you like about living in Japan ?

  • Tasty and cheap food

    Votes: 94 54.7%

  • Speciality restaurants, which means quicker service

    Votes: 47 27.3%

  • Reliable trains

    Votes: 104 60.5%

  • Huge department stores

    Votes: 49 28.5%

  • Order and respect of authority

    Votes: 67 39.0%

  • Peaceful people

    Votes: 103 59.9%

  • Clean streets

    Votes: 105 61.0%

  • Politeness and helpfulness of the people

    Votes: 82 47.7%

  • Cute girls with a real sense of fashion

    Votes: 67 39.0%

  • Mild and dry winters (in Tokyo at least)

    Votes: 38 22.1%

  • Onsen (hot springs)

    Votes: 71 41.3%

  • Japanese nature (better than in my own country)

    Votes: 56 32.6%

  • Japanese seasons (more clear-cut than in my own country)

    Votes: 39 22.7%

  • Matsuri (festivals) and other traditonal celebrations (setsubun, shichigosan, obon...)

    Votes: 76 44.2%

  • Love hotels

    Votes: 32 18.6%

  • The energetic atmosphere (of big cities)

    Votes: 54 31.4%

  • Japanese TV

    Votes: 53 30.8%

  • General non-religiousness of the Japanese

    Votes: 48 27.9%

  • Non-argumentative character of the Japanese

    Votes: 31 18.0%

  • Low taxes (by European standards)

    Votes: 27 15.7%

  • Japanese aesthetics (wabi-sabi, sado, traditional architecture, gardens...)

    Votes: 67 39.0%

  • The ability to integrate aspects of foreign cultures and systems

    Votes: 29 16.9%

  • The relative lack of political debates and demonstrations

    Votes: 25 14.5%

  • Japanese-style houses (with o-furo, tatami, kotatsu...)

    Votes: 80 46.5%

  • The numerous mountains, good for hiking and skiing

    Votes: 53 30.8%

  • Good service and attention to customers

    Votes: 70 40.7%

  • How easy it is to move around cities in bicycle

    Votes: 49 28.5%

  • The homogeneity of society

    Votes: 25 14.5%

  • The original street pattern, with very broad avenues and very narrow back streets

    Votes: 33 19.2%

  • The fact that Japanese banks don't charge monthly fees on bank accounts

    Votes: 25 14.5%

  • Kitsch decoration (pink, neons, cute characters...)

    Votes: 30 17.4%

  • The relax attitude toward sex (lack of Judeo-Christian shame about nudity, porn, etc.)

    Votes: 47 27.3%

  • The kindness and interets showed toward foreigners

    Votes: 48 27.9%

  • The blissful joy and excitement of Japanese women

    Votes: 45 26.2%

  • The dedication to work of the "salarymen"

    Votes: 18 10.5%

  • Shopping on Sundays

    Votes: 53 30.8%

  • The ambiance music in train stations and cute voice of the announcers

    Votes: 39 22.7%

  • The ease to set up a company in Japan (little redtape)

    Votes: 18 10.5%

  • The numerous bilingual Japanese-English signs in big cities

    Votes: 39 22.7%

  • The sense of honour (linked to the concept of "face" and "embarassment")

    Votes: 40 23.3%

  • The customs of "omiyage" and "duty presents" (who doesn't like giving and receiving gifts ?)

    Votes: 28 16.3%

  • Seeing women in kimono from time to time

    Votes: 65 37.8%

  • The Japanese imperial family (the oldest in the world and still respected)

    Votes: 24 14.0%

  • The abundance of convenience stores and vending machines

    Votes: 80 46.5%

  • Fast-food restaurants serving more kinds of teas than soft drinks

    Votes: 56 32.6%

  • The low cost or mobile/cell phones compared to the quality

    Votes: 41 23.8%

  • Living in Japan made me know JREF

    Votes: 24 14.0%
  • Total voters
    172
i love specialy i dont know how its not number one. but how they treat customers is just amazing.
 
animation/manga made me interested in Japan when I was a kid, now i just booked a 21 trip to Japan for this August. I also read things about the famous order and respect in Japan. plus the hotsprings seems really nice to me.
Also i would like to add sailor school costumes ;p
 
@Valashu-kun

i live here in japan and the whole respect thing isnt all that great, specially if ur a foreigner living in japan. but u will have a good time has just a tourist. have fun
 
Nya...
I love animes, mangas, j-music <<aham aham aham aham
and how the japaneses lives

*¬*
 
Love the ladies in the spring/summertime!!! Short skirts, high heels, hot weather... = great eye candy

Wow... the longer I stay here the more I start to sound like ghettocities...
 
I love the transportation system, especially the trains. So convenient. They can be expensive at times but I'd rather take the train than buy a car.
 
Peoples are very helping and nice . They love each other because my friend told me who visit last time japan. That its a nice place to live.
 
No multi-culturalism - 99.8 percent one race! Everyone generally thinks the same way and paddles the same way up the river. Similarly, they agree with, generally accept, and follow the same rules. There is so little social confusion. And unlike some foreigners, I never complain about the system they put us through. I accept I am visitor (going on 10 years)and if I have renew my VISA every 3 years (and what a pain!), get fingerprinted at the airport, and many other little things just to live here under the rich umbrella of their socially-smooth-as-silk nation... so be it.

And as a people, the Japanese are easy and pleasent to live amongst. They are clean, well-dressed, polite, quiet, tolerant of those around them, and never stand on a soap box, stomp their feet and yell... "I got RIGHTS!! I'm an INDIVIDUAL... Listen to ME!!!" at the slightest sign of social inconvenience. Unlike most Westerners, the Japanese generally realise they the old adage, the needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few.


Now, if only there was more space, cheaper golf courses, and you could buy turkey at Thanksgiving... I would live here forever.​
 
Why is it that there is no mention of Japanese MEN??ﾂ :?
 
Good point. Japanese men is probably lacking as an option because a man made up this poll. I'll see if I can't add it as an option, as the OP is no longer an active member as such.

EDIT: Sorry, it looks like 20 is the limit for poll options...
 
Here is what I like that would be hard/harder to find in my home country (USA):

-feel safe everywhere
-ability to live without a car (ie, density of cities, public transportation)
-enjoy using the language
-food culture, in particular the small restaurants/coffee shops (though out in the inaka japanese food is utter ****, I am so sick of it and can't wait to move to the city)
-I feel more skilled here/feel like there are more opportunities for me here, now, at this stage in my life
-less complaining to relative strangers. The japanese complain, but in America I just had random people complaining to me all the time, whereas here its more to friends, etc

いじょうです。
 

Safe - yes.
No need for a car - yes
language use -
food culture - perhaps, but still miss having turkey
skills - there's teaching English and ... what else? Unless you have a high level business skill that not one of the 123 million J-people here have... you teach English.
less complaining - Oh God.. GIANT YES!!! Westerners just never shut up and blow off steam at anyone in ear shot. And you might want to add how Westerners love to speak at high volumes so people - not apart of their immediate compnay - can still hear their opinions, rants, complaints, you name it.​
 
Hmmm, so why is that?
 
diceke said:
Hmmm, so why is that?
Click to expand...

It all goes back to "the self is important" concept in the West, whereas in Japan, people tend to see ranting in public, stating opinion loudly and brashly as a sign of embarassment, bridging on psychotic behaviour as it shows no signs of respect or consideration for others.

But Western children are worse than grown-ups or even teens; being told by their parents from the time they can crawl that they are little princes and princesses and that they are never wrong and that they are so so special!! All that breeds is rude, ignorant children who solve problems by raising their voice. Whenever I go home, I feel like I am in that old Star Trek epsiode with that planet of bratty, spoiled kids, who try to take over the Enterprise.
 
Let`s see, I`m sure these have been said like 5000 times by now but here is my list.

Feeling of safety, not having to depend on a car/ convenience of things being close together, being foreign (this goes both ways though), easier to eat healthy, easy access to good tea, all you can drink deals, good ramen, good fish, not bored or fed up with it even after 4 years, being able to use my second language (Japanese) regularly.
 
I hate it when those kids raise their voice and make a big scene here at JREF.
 
I'm here for the cars.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Moss burger
Arcades
Yoshinoya
Shinjuku
Love the vending machines
 
A Taiwan neighbor once worked and lived in Nagoya,has a long list of things she liked about living in Japan.


She could even sing the ever popular Japanese folk song

" Sakura ... Sakura ... :sing: ".
 
I checked almost that whole list. A few especially though, when compared to where I live now (Seattle, WA) Yes, I don't live in Japan, but I have been there twice, soon to be three times.

Reliable Trains - Here, you either sit in gridlock or ride buses that are consistently up to 15 minutes late.

Mild and dry seasons, distinct seasons - The temperatures in Tokyo would be perfect for me almost the year round. Even the temperatures in January are not cold for me, and post-tsuyu summer is a little hot for my taste, but tolerable. Compare that to Seattle weather, where total and utter crap is too kind for describing its weather about 7-8 months of the year.

Now for the not so Seattle-centric stuff.

Also, there is just so much more fun stuff to do there. Whenever I have been there on vacation, I was in my hotel room to sleep, shower, and not much else. I was out in the city about 15 hours a day, compared to here, where the nightlife doesn't interest me at all. Japan you have awesome pachinko parlors, karaoke, and game centers to go to... here, the nightlife just doesn't interest me at all.

Japanese TV... I am just a total ****** for it, especially the completely wacky shows (i.e. Human Tetris). Unlike American TV seems like nothing but dramas and reality shows.

Politics... here in the US, just eww. I think Bush is one of the worst presidents in history, and I am so sick of turning on the radio and hearing how one or the other candidate is corrupt in some way. The economy is in the toilet too. In my Japanese history class, we learned a term called "amerika-byou" (American sickness). I can see why it was invented.

Also, just so advanced in technology. There, technology develops in really cool and useful ways (i.e. toilets with remote controls, human-esque robots, etc.). Here in the US we use technology for stuff like making shoddy operating systems, anti-piracy measures (*cough* DRM *cough*), and basically being Big Brother.

I could go on and on, but my post would be as long as a dissertation. Really, really hope I can move to Japan someday. So much there appeals to me, while here things have been going downhill since 2003.
 
I like japan, because it's nature is beautiful and very peaceful people and How easy it is to move around cities in bicycle.
 
i would love to live there because of the japanese interesting food,japanese nature and the otaku culture!
 
tada said:
I
Japanese TV... I am just a total ****** for it, especially the completely wacky shows (i.e. Human Tetris). Unlike American TV seems like nothing but dramas and reality shows.
Click to expand...

The Human Tetris concept was taken directly from a Russian TV skit show believe it or not; actually it does say that in "kanji" on the TV screen during the episode. Funny as hell, regardless.​
 
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