That's right Nyororin and to be honest I will also appreciate some family help now and again. My wife and I (and daughter) recently went back to Aus to finalise the purchase of the house we will be moving to and we got to spend a whole day together whilst grandma got to look after our daughter. It was one of the first days we had together without our daughter in nearly 2 years. It was great! Having family around to help with things will be really, really nice.
I am keeping some business interests going in Japan so I will be heading back on a reasonably frequent basis and can claim each trip as a business expense!
And we are moving to a beautiful little country town on the coast. We are only about a 5 minute walk to a surf beach and there's also an inlet that will be great for my kayaking. So it won't be all that hard to adjust to. Trading in a snow lifestyle for a beach one. Life is just so hard... :p

surely gonative loves the snow filled mountains. i was under the impression that australia was a land of opportunity. house prices have rocketed i believe.


fires can be a constant battle. as britain sent loads of child migrants out there--- maybe they thought it would be good place to live. personally i could not live in the heat but britain sent sent its convicts out there originally

certainly their wildlife is unique. any australians i have met have been really friendly and outgoing

yes family backup makes a big difference. we didn't have any for our own children but we love helping out with our gr children.

dogsbody Australia is a huge country. I think the UK could fit into Victoria which is the smallest of our mainland states. The whole of Europe could nearly fit into just the state of Western Australia. There is also huge differences in climate, it's not all blisteringly hot deserts. We do have quite a few ski resorts in Australia you know! Where I will be living down on the southern coast in Victoria the summers aren't any hotter than what we have up here in Hokkaido but the winters are defintiely not as cold or snowy. The Australian economy is currently booming fuelled by our abundance of natural resources and China's almost insatiable need for them. Australia is a very expensive place to live now though, far more expensive than here in Hokkaido which I'm not exactly looking forward to but the quality of life in a little coastal town will be pretty nice. The population is only a little over 4,000 which is quite a bit smaller than here in Kutchan which has a population of 15,000. I like small towns.

I really thought I don't wanna live in Japan today. Earthquake scared me real bad

I am watching the live cast now. This is incredible.

as you are watching on TV, government assumes that after shock will continue for a month. I guess I won't be able to sleep well for a while.

I couldn't sleep that well in Japan anyway.

Well these people dying is very sobering.

thanks gonative. i almost migrated there when there was the ten pound trip offer from the uk. then i heard that in perth it was really hot and about scary animals-- lol-- so chickened out.


it does seem to be a great country though. i guess it depends where one lives. i would love to visit.

Damn, that IS scary. I'm glad stuff like that doesn't happen around here.
I hope everyone who's lost family will be OK. I know what they're going through since I lost family in the tsunami back in 2004 (not saying I know what the people in Japan are going throught, though).