I found this a really funny thread of answers to read. Maybe Japan should start making historical claims like China does. Japan could claim much of Asia, create a new historical narrative that the atrocities were manufactured fake news and that the oppressed peoples of Taiwan, Korea, Nanjing, South East Asia, and Oceania were illegally forced to leave the Japanese Empire due to propaganda and illegal militantism where the victors then created a fake narrative of Japanese war crimes. Maybe Japan should tear up the peacenik constitution that was forced on it by Nuclear USA and written by a woman from Kansas and turn the SDF back into the Japanese War Machine - revive industries, begin to reclaim territories for essential resources, and once again move towards the creation of a glorious co-prosperity sphere. The US seems to be reviving the NAZI war machine and is only steps away from adopting swastika as a positive symbol, so why not Japan bring back the old flag and mentality too? - I know this is ridiculous. So are most of these comments.
I'm an American who bought a house in Hokkaido and have been living there for 18 months. Hokkaido is wonderful and Chitose is close to Sapporro (more like a suburb), has an international airport (direct flights to Seoul, Taipei, Shanghai, etc) and the bullet train will be completed by 2030 from Tokyo to Sapporro. The nature and food are unrivaled in Hokkaido and in terms of the people and culture - until about the 1880s it was primarily an Ainu place but then large immigration from all parts of Japan which has created a unique culture in Hokkiado with aspects of culture from all of Japan's regions. What has been missing is industry. Resource extraction has been one industry in decline (fishing, timber, coal). Banking and finance have mostly been centred in Tokyo. A high tech chip industry in Hokkaido, in particular if Taiwan is merged with PRC might be exactly the thing for Hokkaido to boom - in particular since it is less prone to natural disasters and climate change may be warming things up.
How much did you pay for the house? How much rennovation did it need? Are you working remotely there? How did you acquire a house in an area that's less accommodating to English than Tokyo? Did you need/use a real estate agent?
I just passed through immigration and they punched a hole in my residence card, so now it's official. Still my home, but not a Japanese resident any longer. Such a strange world that can exist this way...On the one hand, it's a bit of a bummer that I couldn't find a way that works with my lifestyle to keep my residency but on the other, being a tourist comes with some privileges. I can now get a JR pass when I return in a month, I can buy things tax free (at least for a while until new changes take effect). So, it's not all sadness on my part.
I said twitter because it already hosts things like @whitehouse and @potus - so in a certain sense it is already fulfilling the function - but any public short message platform would suffice if they held those types of accounts
G+ was glorious in the beginning days. With no qualms it was the best social network I've experienced yet. IMO, what killed it was Google requiring the real names - which I still believe was a good idea - but then the death knell was when they waffled on that. If they would have stood firm on the real names policy, I'm convinced they would still be here today and there is a very good chance they would have surpassed both Facebook and Twitter.
