Gaijin: What do/will you miss most from your home country?
 

Just curious.

For me, it'll be the food. I've never been a big fan of Sushi, except Octopus(And even then its iffy). I could just cook home food most of the time, but I'm sure there will be plenty of instances where I'll have to force down Sushi rolls in an effort to be polite.

Why do you seem to have such an over-generalized idea about sushi in Japan? You make it sound like we eat it everyday. Most of us usually eat it only once or twice a month. Some people eat it even much less frequently.

I eat a lot more sushi in America than I did when I lived in Japan. It isn't exactly a staple dish. That's like saying "I worry about going to America because I am sure I'll be forced to eat barbequed spare ribs all the time."

That is such an over-generalization. There's food to eat aside from sushi in Japan. I know that, and I've never even been there. It's like someone saying they don't want to go to the US because of the hamburgers or something.

Anyway, I think I would miss my family most if I moved to Japan to live or any other country for that matter.Hmm, sounds like me. I eat sushi, maybe once or twice a month, so if I were to move to Japan, I should fit right in. lolOnly in the south. :p

I was not implying that in Japan you eat Sushi 3 meals a day, merely that there will be occasions where I will have to eat it. For example, going out with some friends. If they decide on a Sushi place, I'm not gonna say "Well, lets not, because I don't like Sushi." I'm more the submissive type, so I'd just go along and eat the best looking thing on the menu. I'm not sure whats available at a Sushi shop, but I'm guessing it's mainly Sushi. :p Though I've tried to get out of this habit, I'm very picky, and I only actually enjoy a dozen or so food items. Sure, I could order McDonalds(Really? Delivery service? I don't mean to enforce another American stereotype, but sign me up!) or KFC or something, but thats hardly healthy. The healthy things I can stomach are very hard to find at resturants and I often cook them for myself anyways.

I am in love with the Shrimp Fried Rice we serve at the Japanese resturant I work at, but it's hardly acceptable to compare what we serve at our second-rate store to actual Japanese cuisine. To be honest, I'm not sure what to expect, but I'm horrible at trying new foods and probably won't be eating anything new unless I have to anyways. I discovered I half-like Octopus purely by accident. :p

First, you definitely should speak up if a bunch of friends want to go someplace where you know you'll have little that you want to eat. At least chime in with "Hey, how about this other place instead, I'm really in the mood for donburi instead..."

Next, there are tons of Chinese restaurants in Japan, so you'll have no trouble finding fried rice. And if you like chow mein too, try the Japanese version called yakisoba.

I'm not a fan of sushi myself, and I was able to live there 2 years and only ate it on a very few occassions. There are just so many other choices, many of which are FAR more common than sushi (such as ramen or donburi), you won't have any problem finding other things to eat.

And be sure to try some new things when you get a chance... you won't like everything you try (I didn't, nobody does), but you may find some incredible new restaurant to eat at, or some great new food you'd never heard of before, and that will be more than worth the times you didn't care for something, in the long run.

For instance, I was telling a Japanese friend one very cold winter's day that I missed my mom's homemade chicken soup on a day like that. He said he knew of a place nearby that made great Kashiwa zosui, a kind of chicken and rice soup. It was only about 3 or 4 block from my apartment, but I'd never stopped in there because there was no sign out front, no red lanterns, no plastic food, nothing. (I guess they got all their business by word of mouth?) All the signs were in Japanese, but my friend explained that this place specialized in zosui, and had 24 different kinds, everything from shimp to chicken to mountain vegetable etc. So I ordered the chicken style. They make each batch fresh, in a small iron pot, adding the fresh meat, veggies, etc, bring it to a boil, and then bring the iron pot from the stove to your table! You dish it out into your bowl and eat. It was incredibly good, not very expensive at all ($6-7 for an iron pot, which is enough for about 2 bowls. 2 people can eat a light meal, or 1 person can eat it all if they are really hungry). I went back there many times after that, especially on cold days. I wonder if they are still in business? Just 1 old man and his wife ran the place...

If the rare occasion pops up where friends want to go to a sushi place (Which is pretty rare in reality, as the type of sushi place you`d go to with friends is often fairly expensive) just say "I don`t really like sushi."

It`s not impolite. Chances are, if the friends are Japanese, 9 times out of 10, they`re going to assume you don`t like / can`t eat sushi anyway. Believe me, you`ll be asked "Do you like sushi?" about 1500 times, so chances are they`ll already know by the time you are close enough to head out to eat together.

Sushi may be the current most famous Japanese food - but it`s not all that common in daily life... Unless you want it to be. No one is going to force you to eat something you don`t like.

ETA; Back on the actual topic... After having lived in Japan for 10 years, I can say there is only really one thing I miss. The price of things in the US. That is it. I would love to just have the ability to continue living here but somehow shop in the US. Or rather, at US prices.
Seriously, you guys in the US complain about gas prices? At $3.50 to $3.75 a gallon? HAHAHAHAHA I filled my car up today at about $6/gallon. And it`s still expected to go up more and more. *sigh*

The truth is, you won't know what you'll miss until you get there. One of the frustrations was thinking "I really want a bowl of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese right now, and I have no power to have it." I felt the same way about bagels and cream cheese, which I ate occasionally in the US, but once I found a bagel store in Osaka, I would sometimes travel all the way there (Door to door about 30 minutes) just to buy a couple bagels with cream cheese.

I don't think I'd miss anything... I've moved countries a few times so far, and I've gotten so used to not always being around family... As for friends, I love to make new friends, so that usually helps me when I'm missing my close friends... I'm living in Paris now, and the only thing I miss, is my mum's food and family reunions that I can't attend :( My brothers are scattared on all four corners of the globe, so for all of us to meet at the same time is very rare!!