When Laura Pepper and her husband decided to leave Japan last year, the experience proved just as maddening as it is for every other repatriating expat. Frustrated by the fragmentary and often out-of-date information available online, she created a comprehensive guidebook of her own for other people going through the same process themselves.
"The Stress-Free Guide to Leaving Japan" is a 75-page e-book that covers everything from tax procedures and "sodai gomi" (large-size items to be disposed of) to coping with reverse culture shock. The information is arranged in checklists that gradually count down to your departure date, and supplemented with Japanese text and web links. If parting is such sweet sorrow, it just got a little sweeter.
500 yen. Available via http://sayonarajapan.com
© Metropolis magazine (www.metropolis.co.jp)
23 Comments
Login to comment
papigiulio
even though im not planning to leave, sounds like an interesting read.
Seriously though, the font for the title.... its painful :
cwhite
something that should be free on the web and continually updated
taj
I agree, whole-heartedly, Papiquilio. Great art. Painful font.
Does look like a good read, that unfortunately will be out of date within a number of months.
larguero
Good idea. Moving out after 7 years in Japan wa very stressful. I was so busy dealing with so many things that I could not enjoy my last weeks in that great country. This book could have helped me...
WordStar
Somebody needs to write a book about avoiding stress while away from Japan. It's really hard to go cold turkey, deprived of the latest fishing news and flower exhibition pieces on NHK evening news, or programs featuring 48 minutes of nasalized enka of the 1950s, or Sazae-san, Mito Komon and Doraemon.
papigiulio
@wordstar: get movieplus might be a good suggestion?
Agree with cwhite, this should be good info for on the web :)
tokyokawasaki
Now all we need is a guide on how to live here 'stress free'...
obaachan
I would pay hard cash for a book that would teach me how to stop longing to return to Japan for the rest of my life.
Sarge
obaachan - Save your hard cash - just remember these two words: key money.
kyoken
Same with me, though I am glad to have left after 10 years of madness.
TheBigRiceBowl
I tried leaving. Nothing "back home" was as I remembered it, nor could it stand up to all of the advances I have experienced here. I couldn't do it.
GW
cwhite, gee yr certainly a cheapo!
GW
maybe I will buy this book & dream about moving..............aaahhh
mrskit
i tried leaving 3 times, and came back again i fortunately have a Japanese hubby, so i can leave the paperwork to him but the reverse culture shock needs time to get over, once that is achieved, then i think the move back home is easier
lrodriguezsosa
And why anyone would want to leave Japan? I need a book telling me how to reincarnate my next life in Japan! Seriously, even hardcore Japan bashers living there doesn't want to leave. Sad duality!
WA4TKG
" Stress Free Guide to LEAVING Japan " ?; pick up, PACK up, and LEAVE...I did it. No, it ISN'T EASY, but why do you need a BOOK to tell you to DUMP stuff you don't want. Pack up and MAIL stuff you DO want...etc ? This is a waste of ¥500, that you could use to MAIL stuff to wherever you're going home to. Gimmie' a BREAK...oh, but YES; now that I've been GONE for twelve years, I wanna' come BACK now! Need to find a new wife, the old one LEFT, and is BACK there already, without even DIVORCING me.
papasmurfinjapan
I'm waiting for someone to publish a "Stress free guide to STAYING in Japan".
I like my life here, but the ineptitude of politicians is so frustrating. I feel like I'm on a sinking ship with a captain who has no idea what to do.
WilliB
iroquezsosa:
LOL, so true!
mrsynik
Chapter 1 should be "Dealing with the idiot's on the trains"
Gramie
I left Japan after seven years, and definitely feel it was the right move. The sense of ennui and hopelessness, emanating from jr. high students to the elderly, was painful. Maybe it was a combination of where I was (Osaka) and what I was doing (working in a Japanese software company) and who I was with (soon-to-be-ex-wife), but I saw so little joy, and so much frustrated longing, that leaving was a great relief.
There certainly are things I miss about Japan, and one-on-one the people are wonderful, but for my children and me living in Canada is vastly superior to Japan. Also, the future for Japan has very few positives. Population aging, infrastructure crumbling, politics sclerotic, economy hollowing, environment degraded almost beyond repair.
hokkaidoguy
LOL. Sounds like Canada.
ironchef
agree with cwhite. this kind of information should be free and posted on a website for others.
bobbafett
The Stress-Free Guide to Leaving Japan
I am leaving Sunday. Very unstressed. I have simple booked a ticket and packed a suitcase.