How to adjust back.

How to adjust back?

When a person, who was raised in Southern California as I was, then move to Yokohama/Tokyo for 2 years, and then move back, how does said person adjust back to the life they once knew?

That is the question that I have been griping over for the past 3 months.

My wife and I came back from Japan after working a number of English Club jobs (learned that was a bad idea), and finally able to secure a Design/Mechanical Engineering position in a company based out of Shin-Yokohama. After my contract ran-out my wife and I decided that we wanted to move back to California. The main reason for the move was that we missed California, but all of the typical frustrations of Japanese big city living played a big part of it.

Such as:

- Being stuck in a train at rush-hour. (I lost count of the times that I felt molested by the purse or briefcase of the person behind me. Yeah, that was no fun.)
- When somebody says �gShouganai�h(For example, when your English Club employer urges you take more hours, but later when it�fs payday, does not have enough money that month to pay you. What do they say? They say �gShouganai�h.)
- The worse for me, the feeling of not upsetting the herd was more important than standing-up for yourself. (I found that this feeling reverberated across many lines of Japanese society. From the haken who was verbally abused by perm-workers, or English teacher who accepted unwarranted and illogical criticism from there students, and even the sweet Oba-chan who was caring grocery bags in a train and was not given a seat by a man who was talking on his cell-phone. I�fm not kidding this happened)

Now don�ft get me wrong, these were some big issues for me, but overall I loved Japan, and all options it offered for enjoying life.

Though, when we moving back I have found there are ironic annoyances in my current life.

Such as:

- Driving in a car for an hour each way for work, and feeling lonely because you don�ft have people around you at all times.(I was surprised about this one.)
- Having the saying �gShougania�h replaced with �gWe can�ft do anything about it�h (I figure the people who say these things accept the problems in life to easily)
- Last, when an overabundance of people protecting their rights, when doing so infringes on the rights of others. (Example: The guy in the apartment below you, who has an out of control party which last until 3:00am. What does he say in a drunken stammer to the police man who arrives at 2:30am? �gThis is my apartment, I pay rent, I should do what I want in my apartment.�h, he says. Well�c.., what can say about this. Mmmm, �gAt least he pays rent�h.)


So how does one deal with these new irritations? Hence, that�fs why I�fm asking you people.

I suspect the answer lies in how I adapted to my life on Japan. Only if I could remember how I did it.

remember you want your country to love you as much as you love it

Jake, that's what everyone goes through and to give you a long answer, it's going to take me years.

The short answer is to contact a group of people in similar situations. The city hall might know. Or most Japanese office workers in California experience the same things, so contact them. The Japanese Embassy might be able to give you contact numbers.

Just a tip from someone born in Tokyo, raised in southern California, moved back to Tokyo, moved to Nagoya, then back to Tokyo against parents will to have me go to Europe, and then long story short, now living in Yokohama.

Oh, I have a shorter answer. "You can't have everything." and "It would've been easier if you never knew."

Uco

I realize this is common for many people, and it may sound trite but at times ignorance is bliss. An example from my experience is how I viewed Tokyo when I was younger. It always felt like it was a city of adventure, but once you live there long enough your Japanese gets better, you start to get familiar with how to get around the city, and without your knowing the adventure disappears. It�fs sad, but this, I think is the natural state of things.

With that said, one of the main reasons I wrote this question was to show the interesting similarities between Yokohama/Tokyo and Southern California in a humorous way.

I hope I was successful in my attempt.