It’s Tough Being an Expat in Japan

Being an expat in another country involves making certain compromises you’d never consider at home. In Japan, it means giving up familiar things like good American peanut butter for the triple-sweet stuff they sell here, or drinking at a bar where the most exotic beer on the menu is Budweiser, or knowing that the box of Kellogg’s “Corn Frosty” you just bought wil be gone in two mornings, since it’s so tiny. Then there’s ignoring the fact that the nachos you were so excited to find came with a packet of tomato sauce instead of salsa, or trying to smile while eating s’mores with your daughter’s Girl Scout Troop made with Saltines instead of Graham crackers, since they don’t have any Graham crackers in Japan. When I got here in 1991, the world was a very different place, and foreigners here really couldn’t be choosey about anything: there was one decent English book store in the entire country, and if you wanted to buy some books, you took the train to Shinjuku and visited the sixth floor of Kinokuniya Book Store. Similiarly, if you wanted to watch some TV in English, you tuned in to Beverly Hills 90210, since there was nothing else on. All-in-all, things have improved immensely, thanks mostly to the Internet but also thanks to various American companies entering the Japanese marketplace and forcing many outdated, dinosaur-esque Japanese companies to change.

This is Takashimaya Times Square and Kinokunia (to the left) in Shinjuku’s South Side. It’s one of the nicer areas of Tokyo. There’s a Krispy Kreme nearby too, but I haven’t wanted to wait in the 2+ hour long line just to buy doughnuts. Do you like the replica of the Empire State Building?