She also expressed her feelings to him the next day. He heard her out and apologized. I see no reason to doubt the sincerity of his apology. His statement on the matter affirms that he took her words to heart.

We don’t really hear the stories of a single mom living in Seoul or a lesbian English professor living in Japan - but they matter.

Thank you for clarifying! I apologize and stand happily corrected! Please Jennifer write about the relationship part, because it’s really not explained and love is a powerful force for POC, and we need as much as we can get. If you can cover the romance aspects then blaxit is more appealing.

I’m already aware that beauty on this planet is abundant. The world is filled with, for the most part, good to great humanity. I would love to go to each of the spots that have been discussed in the Blaxit pieces, Anthony Bourdain style, eating and talking to people about life and learn all there is to learn and make…

I’m certain others were hoping that the parade of victims would not include ... her. It’s horrible for all of course and yet reading her story hits my own anger button harder. I’m glad she shared and know her strength is unassailable

Every one of these stories has its own chilling little details. Here we’ve got him aggressively trying to force her to drink vodka and diet soda, talking to her like one of his children, demanding a massage in his own home while his children are in the next room, trying to trick her by inviting her friends along to a…

I came over with Nova in 2003. Haven’t left, will not leave. Working in a junior high school (direct hire, so done with dispatching or eikaiwa). Currently married with a soon to be 1 year old and the thought of worrying about him getting killed-while-blacking is too much to bear. I also rather enjoy having access to…

Been here for 10 years in finance and can’t say I really have a desire to move back to America until I have kids. Raising them in the Japanese education system would be awful.

“Every time my students called me “Beyoncé-sensei”

I am a mixed male (Father White / Mother Black) and even then i could feel this description at work. Visiting japan for a few months and living there (having to pay rent, utilities, going to the grocery etc) are very different. I grew up there from Age 9 ~ 14 (military dependent) and was then stationed there for 7…

Actual wilderness suvivalists hate that book and that kid too because it romanticised what, as you’ve said, is objectively stupid behaviour (not knowing where you’re going, not preparing adequately for your terrain, etc.)

“a town the size of a peanut called Kudamatsu (population 55,000)“
That’d be a fairly large city where I come from. I suppose with so little landmass, Japan’s population must be much more concentrated. 

Okinawa for a year, can confirm typhoon parties every other weekend. God damn things always knew it was the weekend.

The way I’ve had it explained to me is that, for the most part, they don’t hate foreigner, or outsiders, or immigrants. They just see them as forever alien. No matter how well you adapt to or assimilate into their culture, you will never be one of them. Even if you were born there, you’ll always be on the outside…

Japan is one of the few modern societies where social class and outright discrimination is widely accepted.

There was a fantastic blog I followed years ago, just titled “I Am A Japanese School Teacher” about a large black man who moved there to teach English. The culture is famously rigid, but he was surprised by how readily people would break taboos and then just apologize for it, or how many weird eccentricities people…

This is the best thing I’ve ever read on The Root. Kudos.

Great article. I wish more Americans of all stripes spent some time living in a foreign country. It helps with perspective. Ego, too, which is something just about every one of our countrymen needs to step back a bit upon.

Im writing letter of intention right now to, hopefully, do JET in Japan. Been wanting to since I graduated college in ‘09 but never had the guts. With life just not what I thought it was going to be after school, I’m finally ready to just FUCK IT ALL.

Love this so much. I spent two months in Hong Kong, though it was a short time it definitely changed me in a lot of ways. I’ve actually been teaching ESL since my time in HK and have considered teaching in Japan. I don’t know when but I know it’ll be part of my journey. Thanks for this.