Nocturnaliss at PillowFort asked;
What is the one thing you'll miss most?
How easy it is.
Firstly;
Every nation has this (old and racist) idea that in order to get an "authentic" experience in something you need to have someone from a certain place, culture, or ethnicity doing it. ie- Black men are the only authentic rappers. Japanese men are the only authentic sushi chefs. And in East Asia it's white men are the only authentic English teachers.
It's absolute nonsense.
Being born in Canada does not make someone a natural born English teacher, but no English program here... from the for-profit places to the English departments at a university... will be willing to go without having a white person in front of the classroom. This is because white (and increasingly more often brown-skinned people) are part of the marketing. And that marketing is "Look at how authentic we are! We got a foreigner!"
And really, being born in a specific place is the only job requirement you need to meet.
Soft shoe into the room, "I'm white! Ta-dah! Gimmie a job!"
A lot of expats do become cynical and bitter when they realize they're little more than an imported dancing poodle. Or they try to get into a more prestigious job like an international school or university so they can lie to themselves that they're not prancing around to keep bums in seats. And some embrace it and get on TV to clown for a huge payday.
My view is that it was a job that I was good at and so I was happy to keep doing it.
Woof. Woof.
Secondly, and this is the most true in South Korea;
The recent idea of the Fifteen Minute City is the day to day reality of most places here. Right now, if I needed to visit a doctor, a dentist, buy some new glasses, eat healthy meal, eat an unhealthy meal, buy a hat, buy some headphones, buy some groceries, do some dry-cleaning, buy some stationery, mail off a package, go to a school for some reason, get a coffee, buy a new phone, buy fresh fruit, or buy a new computer, I can walk one block and do that.
Even large cities like Seoul and Taichung are extremely walkable and convenient.
I admit Japan is less so and more akin to the suburbs and cities of North America. But even then it meant a fifteen minute bike ride instead of a fifteen minute walk. Nothing that I ever needed to do in this part of the world required arranging a twenty minute car ride to an industrial park outside of town just to have to arrange a different trip to another industrial park on the other side of town to complete my shopping list. I can see why people now shop by app.
Though cities doing their planning around this model and then whining about their downtown dying? What were those idiots expecting to happen?
That's it for today. I can't guarantee that the rest of the answers will be this lengthy, but I hope it was at least interesting.
Keep the questions coming, all. I'll try to post an answer daily.
Photo: Kids at a Halloween event put on by my company in Kumamoto, Japan. 2010. Canon Kiss X4.
ETA: The "read more" fold isn't working on my end so sorry if I broke anyone's feed.
