Aonghas Crowe

Sayonara Aonghas Crowe

You can never go home again, or so the saying goes. I am reminded of that whenever I return to Portland, Oregon. After twenty-five-plus years in Japan, I am now a stranger in my own "hometown". And, having changed as much as I have, I sometimes wonder if I possess the ability to re-acclimate to a country and lifestyle I traveled half-way around the world to escape. But you can go home. If you really need to. You can, if you have a plan. Shortly after I first arrived in Japan in the early '90s, I met a long-time expat who told me that he himself had come to this country when Nixon was president. I couldn't help but laugh. So long? Now, people laugh at me when I tell them Pappy Bush was president when I stepped off of the airplane at FUK Airport. That was a lifetime ago. March 25, 1992 to be precise. During the past quarter century, I have seen many of my fellow gaijin come and go. My closest friends in that first year all left after only eleven or so months. Other friends didn't last long, either. It wasn't until I had been in Japan for about five years that I started meeting more people who, like me, were making Japan their home. As many of them married, had kids, bought mansion or built homes, and so on, I came to take for granted that they would always be here, fixtures of a growing expat community in my adopted home of Fukuoka. But then something happened. Granted, it wasn't unimaginable, but it hadn't really been expected, either: people I thought were "Lifers" started leaving. In one ten-month period alone, I saw four good friends, pull up stakes and hit the trail. For some of them, Japan had been their home for a decade or more. What was happening?Just like anyone who his naturally restless, I never stop wondering if life somewhere else-not in Portland, mind you, but somewhere else-might be better, more fulfilling, more exciting and fun. But, I've got kids in school now, something resembling a career, and millions of yen paid into the pension scheme. Relocating just isn't a viable option. Or is it?Many of those friends who left were in similar situations and yet they still were able to make the move. It was then that I started wondering what Life After Japan was like. Over the next year and a half, I surveyed of a number of ex-expats. What I learned was insightful and inspiring.