Why I Hate Living in Japan

Many years of life in Japan have thoroughly soured American expatriate Tim Rogers on the country, despite his long personal history of “tolerating the hell out of some world cultures.” Herewith, some reasons:

• Animé sucks. Used to be fine, but now “it’s inbred trailer-trash in entertainment form … a bunch of shit pandering to perverts and pedophiles.”
• There’s meat in everything. Bad news for a vegetarian, sure, but what’s more irksome is how Japanese go out of their way to add meat to, say, white bread.

• Everybody smokes. Even in restaurants, Rogers notes for Kotaku. “I don’t want cigarette smoke near my organic vegetables! Hel-lo? That makes them pretty much not organic anymore! You might as well just be buying them from a hobo, at that point.”
• Mandatory company parties. “The Japanese are so serious about work that even work-related parties are mandatory,” he growls. “If you don’t go to a company party, you’re not part of the team. If you’re not part of the team, it’s possible you’re not actually working at the company.”

For many, many more reasons, and why it all has to do with videogames, click here.
(More Japan stories.)