| Allow me to put this in the preface to make sure people know this: I don't care about money. The experience of experiencing another culture is greater to me than any amount of money. So here, after we've gotten past the preface and my silly "sob story" or whatever you'd call it that I've admitted to several times before. This is the meat of the topic: I live such an escapist lifestyle. I don't have to live in one specific place, but I'm tired of living where I come from. I want to enjoy a life outside and active and of proper variety, not rotten in escapism because I don't like living where I come from. Surely it's not unreasonable to be tired of living where you come from and want to move, a good portion of people don't live where they come from their entire lives. And I would like your help figuring out places to move and travel to and perhaps possible advice of how to live and get a job there. Where do you think would be a good place for my to live and travel to, given my personality and what you know about me? As you've heard from my sob story, my teenage dream was to go to Japan. And after going to Japan, it only made me want to go there more than ever before. If you want to encourage me here, it would make you an awesome person, however, I don't expect it. By the way, my preference, if living or traveling there, would overall be northern Japan. I think saying "my dream" several times explains things well enough, so I shouldn't have to go on more about this for dramatic effect. If I might add just one thing though, I don't care about how racist Japan is. The thing that led me to feeling so downtrodden about this is the feeling that the majority of the world would despite me a little bit for being a weeaboo and living in Japan. Being a minority in Japan and being racistly discriminated against wouldn't bother me that much. I always figured on a thing like that since I was a teenager and honestly I would sympathize a lot with people who would discriminate against me for being a foreigner and certainly not begrudge them for it. In a sick sort of way, I'm kind of happy that I'd be discriminated against in Japan for being a foreigner. And instead of my dream, here's some next best things. Other places that sound good to me as an alternative. South Korea Japanese is my most favourite language. But Korean isn't too bad to me, either. In fact, Korean culture is perhaps the most similar culture to Japanese in all of Asia. Of course, I don't like the language as much as Japanese, too many words end in 'g', but it's not bad. Would South Korea be a good alternative? The culture is similar enough to what I would like about going to Japan to go there instead, right? China A lot of people say things, when they're calling Japanophiles delusional, that China > Japan. And that too many people say nice things about South Korea and Japan, when they're "racist dystopias that nobody would be able to forgive once they know how bad they are". And that China, is not near as bad as people say it is, and is in fact, pretty darn awesome. Since I like Asian culture, obviously, or I wouldn't be interested in Japan so much, might this be an alternative? After reading, it does seem like I like Heilongjiang a lot. I read and watch about Harbin, and it seems very romantic. And northern and western Chinese cultures and places, too. A place with a lot of Uyghurs or Western culture or Altaic culture and people I think would make me feel more at home. I mean no offense or racism when I say this, but I'm scared of racism by the Han. And I get the feeling I'd be less likely to have racism against me by Western Chinese, since a lot of them look a lot more like me, a Westerner. And I'd be less likely to "look ridiculous" to people by living among them. Mongolia Doesn't seem like a normal suggestion. But I do like the culture, and if you think something like living there isn't a crazy idea, I'm all ears! (As you know, I've sort of become like a nut for supposed "Ural-Altaic" cultures.) Kazakhstan Perfect little Eastern and Western melting pot. They have a strong sense of being Eurasian, and I don't look any different than their typical ethnicity. So there's few people who would say I "look silly and delusional" by living there. And the opinions of the idiotic and racist world and the shame they push on people aside, not that avoiding racism is a big to me(honestly, everyone makes a big deal that much, but I don't mind being a minority and facing strife against a majority, such as Japanese or Koreans or Han Chinese. Despite how my earlier words may sounds, honestly, it matters not, I respect their majority privelege I don't request or need it), but it's mildly, mildly, trivially reassuring that I'm less likely to receieve racism there, because I look just like many of their citizens. And I get to enjoy Eastern culture, win win situation. Kyrgyzstan Pretty much the same reasoning as Kazakhstan. Any of these Turkic states are go for me. So mention any of those you think is a good place to life. Russia (Eastern/Siberia) Pretty much another good place to get a balance of the Eastern and Western cultures I like. Especially, to my understanding, Eastern Russia, with generally more Tatars and more Eastern Ethnic influence overall, than Western Russia. It might also be a good idea to live around the Tatarstan area. Russia is kind of one of those places that gets a lot of bad talk like China, but hey, if it's a good place to live, it's a good place to live. Finland During some of my most depressing days, Finland essentially become like my Crypto-weeaboo wonderland. I love Finland more and more the more I study it. I love their language, it's gorgeous and Uralic, and moreso certainly to me than Hungarian. Finnish is a just plain gorgeous language. It reminds me so much of what I like about Japanese. The vowels tend to sound the same, the way words form together is lovely, I mean words like Lumi and Inari and Kalevala and Ukonkivi. Absolutely gorgeous. This is quite possibly my second favourite language. I like it almost as much as Japanese. Also, it's northern! I was born in the wrong land for a variety of reasons. I hate the heat, and I love the cold. The only thing I like heat for is swimming, surfing, skateboarding, and relaxing. Cold climates clearly win out for me. That's why I like Sapporo much better than Okinawa. So to anyone reading, know that I generally would prefer to live in the North somewhere. But yeah, I love the language, the mythology, the northern climate. I like Finland from all I can tell. Norway You know, Norway might just be able to stick with me. Finland edges it out and normally Norway wouldn't have enough to stand out except one thing that brings it out into being exceting and near on the same level as every other country mentioned: the Saami. Not only do I like the north. Not only do I like heathenry. And the gorgeous temperate forests, and find the language to be one of the most beautiful Germanic ones. Norway has a huge Uralic population. I bet this sounds ridiculous, but deep down, I kind of fancy becoming a little bit Saami myself. If that's even possible and not utterly ridiculous. Sao Paulo - Brazil You know, this goes against everything I typically say. Liking Eurasian ethnic stuff, instead of post-colonial countries. South America indeed doesn't appeal to me and I hardly ever speak interested in it. Southeast Asia and South America tend to seem to be the very antithesis of what I like in a country. But you know, after researching, Sao Paulo itself pretty clearly has a lot of things I like and could be an alternative. Lots of both occidental and Eastern culture. Sao Paulo has a huge Japanese population and live among Westerners who just walk among each other. No sense of being a foreigner or anything. Seems like a great Crypto-weeaboo place to live. If Brazil could ever consider a person like me a "Brazilian", and I could enjoy just being who I am and enjoying the various cultures I like like it's normal, I'd be proud to consider myself a Brazilian and would love to integrate myself into the country. Hawa'ii - United States This is the first one mentioned that's from my own country. Also, is incredibly weird because I especially prefer the north and am sick of warmth I was never meant to live in. But it does have the few things I like about the warmth. Swim, sun, skate. And as a bonus, it has a lot of Eastern culture. I shouldn't have any hard time eating Kimchi or something there. I mean, what else is there to say, I like Sapporo much better than Okinawa, but Hawaii is still kind of like an Okinawa right in our own USA. Plus more skateboarding, surfing, and swimming. Sounds good to me. Ireland Eh, wouldn't satisfy any "Asiaphile" desires. On the other hand, one of the prettiest and most mystical places to be a Pagan ever. Gorgeous green hills, gorgeous Gaelic language, looks and sounds right out of a place in Lord of the Rings. Irish Gaelic is probably my third most favourite language. It's like, the language of the fairies or something. I want to learn the language of the fairies! Turkey Eh, I like Altaic languages, why wouldn't I like actual Turkey itself? And eh, that's about it for the places I'd probably go crazy with mania if I knew I had the chance to travel to right here right now. And yes, I get giddy about the mere chance of being in a foreign culture. It's like the greatest feeling of nervousness ever. This is often caused people to hate me and call me a weeaboo when they've picked up on it. Saying "it's just a country and they're just people". But people don't understand, this isn't just Japan for me, this is a giddiness I get at the possibility of being in many countries. It's an exhilerating feeling when one gets to actually be in another country among another people, it's a real luxury and a lot of reason to be excited. And if this makes me a ridiculous weeaboo, it makes me a ridiculous weeaboo for a lot of countries. That feeling of exhileration when having the privilege of being able to be in another country who's culture you respect, is to die for. Which sort of goes like this with me: You can call me the biggest, most fail weeaboo who ever lived and facepalm as hard as you like. I know it's been done before, but that's how I feel, deep down about visiting a lot of countries, and that is an aspect of my personality that will never change no matter what I experience. And this possibly makes me creepy whether it makes me a weeaboo or not, oh well.D: I can't help it, I've in this town a long time and starved for experiences of other cultures. It feels like quite the privilege. And yes, the "heritage" topic helped me think to make this topic. Aaaaaand... brace for people thinking I am incredibly stupid, racist, creepy, fetishizing, exotifying, traitoring, confused, delusional, and needing to continue to live where I come from. |
 Old avatar and sig retired for now. |
| I'm not a very well-travelled guy, so I doubt I'd help much. But if your dream is to move to Japan, I'd try to just shrug off whatever other people think and go there. Especially if money isn't an issue here. Failing that, Finland seems like it'd be next best. I'm afraid don't really know enough about these places to offer any advice on getting a job and living there, but good luck with it. |
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| South Korea = BEST INTERNET CONNECTION EVAR!!! 200 GB in 10 seconds flat! jk, I can't know for sure until I experienced it but I hear from my friends their internet is da shit. Russia would be interesting, I would visit the outskirts of Chernobyl and Pripyat just to have that ghost town feeling. It's 20% cooler than visiting most sites. |
| You need money to enjoy life, wherever you are. If you survive under a certain (very low) standard of living and aren't able to fulfill your basic needs, you will not be happy. Constant worries will cloud the things you want to enjoy. If you've had any serious or chronic health illness, you know what I'm talking about. Money for basic needs is important. However, the "comfort zone" is dangerous as well - where you can fulfill basic needs and therefore decide not to take any risks to reach your goals because you don't want to risk losing anything. I believe that dreams cannot really be compromised...at least while you have control over it. If you compromise (for instance if I decided to draw zombies for a living instead of the kawaii due to it being in more demand) I'd basically be giving up on my dream. It's like saying "I could do that" instead of "I want to do that." There's a big difference. Nobody can tell you what you want, though. Obviously it needs to be your decision. I've been to Japan 3 times. Twice to Kansai and once to Kanto. I like Tokyo the most, mainly Akiba, because it has everything I want. I can appreciate other things, but for my personal goals and my lifestyle I will want to spend most of my time near Tokyo. I want to ultimately live there, and having family there hopefully makes things a bit easier. There are certain restrictions for gaijin trying to attain permanent residence in Japan. I understand what you mean by Japan being a great experience. I think it was the most memorable experience of my life. I have a friend who shares the same feeling, and asks when we can go back, so I know that feel. Maybe not as much as you, since it's not a priority for me, but it is a goal. Worrying about whether or not I might hate it comes after I try it. There's no point in just X-ing out the option just because of what people tell you. Actually, many people don't even speak from actual experience, especially on the internet. It's good to have a plan. For me, skills/exp -> product/job -> move/residence. Pretty straightforward. http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/26094/How+Discovering+Japan+Changed+My+Life.html Don't ask me why I have this link. It was linked in a thread and I thought it might be relevant somehow. |
| Korea's not a bad place to live, and it's relatively easy to get a job if you are from an English-speaking country and have a bachelor's or higher. |
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| I can tell you right now that of all the places you listed, South Korea is the area where you would not feel like a tourist. The other places probably are not fitting for you to permanently settle in. |
| Afghanistan |
 I will live on no matter what... so I can meet you once again. |
| So you're a Hokkaido fan huh? When I saw this thread, I was going to recommend Kyushu, Sekoku or Okinawa. But the northern island is very nice. It doesn't get slammed by typhoons as hard as the southern half of the country. It's on about the same longitude as where I live in Chicago. So they get hot summers and cold winters. And there's a lot of peaceful, rural places to live. I feel like you can be on an episode of House Hunters International. Brazil and Turkey are both emerging markets, they're both expected to grow quite a lot, especially Brazil. Between the two I'd pick Brazil, mostly because the culture seems a lot more lively. S. Korea sounds great, it's the next place I'd go to, though I don't know a spec of the language. The night life in Seoul looks a lot like Tokyo so I'd feel quite at home. The only concern I have is there long-time friends to the north who might snap at any moment. Or Kim's dying words would be "fire the missiles!" As for China, it's an enormous powerhouse. I have concerns though with resources and space, and pollution. All those European countries except for Ireland are great. They're developed, and are doing fairly well. Ireland is developed too, and it has a beautiful landscape. But its financial situation is horrible, it makes me not want to go there. |
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Akamitsu said: So you're a Hokkaido fan huh? That I certainly am. By the way, thank you for all of the serious and thoughtful responses, everyone. There was a positivity I'm certainly not used to. It brightened up my day, even. Fui, it was really touching to find someone like you. I'm glad to know that someone relates to me. Sadly, I don't have much else I can think of to add to this post at the moment. But I didn't want people to think I abandoned the thread. And I do have things to say in response. I look forward to any future-coming posts, certainly! You've all really helped improve my day! |
Old avatar and sig retired for now. |
| Japan!!! |
| I don't think you'd have a problem with Chinese racism if you were to live there. I lived in Beijing for a summer and didn't sense much discrimination against foreigners. There were instances when I heard an occasional negative remark about Japanese or Africans though, so it's probably best not to advertize anything "weeaboo" too loudly. On the other had, there was a cosplay festival while I was there, so it's not like a Japan-positive community is nonexistant. And they do have Peace Corps to Mongolia and the former Soviet republics, so that would be a way to immerse yourself extensively in rarer local languages and cultures without having to worry about how to pay for it. |
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| Dude go back to finland in the winter time. Experience some AMAZING winter sports. I go to finland almost every year and would highly recommend it. Saunas in the winter.. MESMERIZING! Super Salmiakki?!! THE BEST! Ruiss Leipa?!?!! (Dark Rye bread) TO DIE FOR! |
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| Hmm, I'm itchin' to fly somewhere too... but limited to continental US |
| Click on this. I dare you. | MAL Fantasy Football League | Currently Watching List RWBY Club. RWBY is anime. Deal with it. |
| Just go travel the world for a year or something. |
 |
Shobster said: LOL....if only...South Korea = BEST INTERNET CONNECTION EVAR!!! 200 GB in 10 seconds flat! kotatsu-kun said: Japan!!! Woah....that's totally unexpected.... KyuuAL said: Hmm, I'm itchin' to fly somewhere too... but limited to continental US Why leave the U.S when there are so many great cites to visit? From NY to LA and everything in between.... Although if I really wanted to go somewhere, I would go to Spain or France. |
| Well I can only comment on Russia and former USSR republics you mentioned. Russia first: regarding Tatarstan, it is perhaps the most advanced region in Russia nowadays if we don't take Moscow region into account. But the problem is that this advancement is more of a modern kind, and many aspects of traditional culture are getting forgotten, like in most Russia actually. And with industrial and economic growth come the obvious downsides concerning the ecological environment. Basically, if you want to experience Eastern Russian culture, I'd suggest Buryatia instead. There you get Lake Baikal, buddhist temples, remnants of old shamanist cults, lots of region-specific sporting events like buryatian wrestling (similar to japanese sumo) and archery, and many other things. Still, getting a job would be a difficult task no matter where you go in Russia, especially for a foreigner. We don't have a "tradition" of random odd jobs, or part-time jobs or any kind of easily-obtainable jobs here. Most foreigners willing to live in Russia are either corporate managers, farmers or language teachers. So it could be a pain to live here for an extended period of time, but visiting for a few months or so should be a nice experience. Next, Kyrgyzstan: I used to know a girl that was born there and was visiting there every year, and she said that a few years ago it was a nice place to live. But after numerous revolutions in recent years, most of the country is in ruins (mostly figuratively speaking, but sometimes literally as well), so going there is not a good option now. Almost the same could be said about Uzbekistan, although it's a better option without a doubt. Can't comment on Kazakhstan much, never been there and don't have any friends from there either. Tajikistan could be an interesting option though, as a country with different culture (mostly derived from Persian instead of Turkic) than other "-stans". It's the poorest country among them all though, but at the same time, the one that managed to protect and maintain most of its traditions. |
| Honestly, most of that list screams "I'm a trendy hipster iphone using twat and want to go to some shithole thirdworld country instead of a real tourist destination because it's cool to be different". Just go to Japan if you want to. Don't fuck around with shitty countries, stick to the first world nations. I don't particularly like Japan myself, having been numerous times, but many people do, and if you're okay with the overpopulation and xenophobia, go for it. You may be able to do quite well for yourself there, though you have to take in to account long work hours and such most of the world isn't used to, if you intend to move there instead of just visiting on a travel visa. Anyway, home is where you make it. Live wherever you want. Travel is overrated, especially in the modern era where we're connected to the entire world in real time anyway. Save money and live a comfortable life in one spot instead of living like a hobo and travelling "for the experience" or whatever other hippy bullshit excuses people use. |
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