Of course, friends, familly, whatnot… But other than that?
Japanese kitchens don’t have ovens - real ovens. I would really kill for anything oven-roasted. Lasagna, cannelloni, shepheard’s pie, lamb roast, home-made cake.
Almost anything Jewish; wishing people happy new year twice a year, bagels, kosher section in university cafeterias…
Cheap Vietnamese food.
Eating out for breakfast.
I grew up in a place where it is customary to express your opinion by stating the opposite. That usually doesn’t fly too well around here. I miss sarcasm.
People who view mass culture in a critical fashion.
Food/beverage things: cheesteaks, bagels, corned beef specials, fountain drinks, ice cubes in drinks, coffee bars, cereal that isn’t sugar-coated, US meat and poultry, cheesecake, mediocre bar food (Fridays, Hoolihans, etc), American Chinese food, vegetarian options
Being able to get/buy: books in English, rent movies, go to foreign films, browse in the magazine section, kids books in English, TV (even though when I’m in the States there seems to never be anything on)
Other things: Non-smoking areas in restaurants, non-smoking in public buildings (the head of the community center smokes right outside the indoor playroom), poopless sidewalks, playgroups and playdates, 24-hr convenience stores, banks being open on Mondays, all stores open on Sundays, more organized line forming in public offices
Good cheese is very hard to come by. I miss it badly.
Also bagels. What I wouldn’t give for a poppy-seed bagel smothered in cream cheese. Can get philly cream-cheese no problem… just no bagels to put it on.
Also real Doritos. They have nacho-cheese doritos here but they aren’t anywhere near the same flavour/consistency etc.
Libraries, second-hand bookshops (there is a good one here but it’s the only one and not particularly cheap)
All food is fine here so problems there. Sometimes I miss bacon sandwiches - you can buy bacon here but somehow it always feels “unclean” to me (all sectioned off in “pork products” in non-Muslim area of supermarkets)
Real trees and plants and animals and stuff, it’s irrigated desert here
Not being able to wear a sundress on weekends without feeling like a whore (still wear them though!)
After two years in Japan and eight and a half in Korea, I certainly agree about the oven. I want cornbread. Sometimes, I want meatloaf. Other comestibles I miss include Mexican food (or Tex-Mex, or Cal-Mex), and yeah, western-style restaurant breakfasts.
I miss space. I grew up in a small town in Texas, and while there wasn’t much there, there was a heck of a lot of space. And big skies. I don’t remember the last time I saw a star.
Sometimes I miss anonymity. It gets tiresome sticking out all the time, ignoring stares. Sometimes it feels like I’m a minor celebrity; usually it feels like I’m an unwanted outsider.
And yeah, sarcasm. It’s one of my favorite forms of communication, and it just doesn’t work here, at least not in direct translation. I’m sure Korea has its own form of sarcasm, but most of my smartass remarks, clever though they are, are wasted here.
MrO and jovan…
Want to know what I miss about Japan?
The onsen, o-sembei, my neighborhood meat and veg shop, the kindness of strangers, o-bento delivered to your door, ofuro, shrine sales, Yoyogi-koen, every matsuri, o-hanami…the list goes on and on!
I think if I ever leave Japan, the list of things I’ll miss is likely to be longer than the first one I gave. Which is why I’m not leaving.
Cheese… I can get good cheese (for a price) in Osaka. I used to live there, but now it’s a bit of a stretch, so I guess real, smelly, stinky, walking cheese should be added to the list.
You know, although Japan lacked many of the things that Korea lacks, it had other things that I do miss. In some ways, I miss Japan more than I miss my native country.
Kaki-no tane! That’s one thing I miss about Japan. My favorite restaurant in the world, tiny, crowded, smoky, dark Antigua, in Tokyo’s Nakano-ku, is another. The izakaya near my school. Kaiten-zushi.
And yeah, the kindness of strangers. It exists in Korea too, sure, but it’s harder to come by. (No offense to Korean people, of course. As my Korean wife agrees, people here tend not to hide emotions–they are generally easier to read than Japanese people, but it’s a less peaceful place.)
From US (suburban Boston), now in my eighth year in Japan. I’m happy here and have no immediate plans to leave, but…
I miss really good subs. It seemed like my hometown had a little Italian pizza/sub shop on every corner. Subway just doesn’t cut it.
I miss having a wide variety of fruit any time of year. Especially seedless grapes (found some at a specialty grocery store, but they were expensive as hell, even for Japanese fruit).
I miss being able to see stars, but I guess that’s more of a big city thing than an expat thing.
And jovan: Yeah, right, I can totally sympathize with you :rolleyes:. You poor little thing, you just have it soooo hard, don’t you?
There, did that help your nostalgia for sarcasm any? I’m kinda out of practice, being in the same boat as you.
It’s kind of funny how it changes by country. In Germany I really missed good customer service and just friendliness. In Thailand I missed good technical expertise. In Switzerland, I missed being able to get a meal at lunch (outside of our heavily subsidized work cafeteria) for under $10.
But as jovan wisely pointed out, the list of things I miss here (back in the USA) is much longer: good cheap red wines and views of Mont Blanc (in CH), delicious draft beers and practically no speed limits(DE), warm, pleasant winter days and incredible friendly smiles (TH).
I lived in Japan in the late 80s/early 90s and I missed American food more than anything else. Of course I made pilgramages to Mejiya in the center of Nagoya to buy (American) pickles and taco sauce, but it was never the same.
Two brief stories to share:
When I cooked my first meal of tacos for my then girlfriend/now wife, I tried to keep the main course a secret. I tried to warm up the shells in my teeny tiny excuse for an oven (which was heated by a direct gas flame, and the shells caught fire. When I discovered flames shooting out of the oven, I screamed and she came running into the kitchen. End of surprise. End of taco dinner.
As a displaced Philadelphian, I missed cheesesteaks more than anything else. When my parents visited Japan, I took them all around the country, including a stop in Kamakura, a very old beach town near Tokyo, that, among other things, is home to a Diabutsu, a very large sitting Buddah statue. Nearing lunchtime, we turned down a side street, where I discovered Bob’s Cheesesteaks. Bob was another ex-pat who opened a restaurant to give Japanese folks a taste of the food I missed so much. My parents refused to eat there, saying that they hadn’t traveled thousands of miles to eat cheesesteaks, so I was left on my own. Bob served chopped steak on a roll with cheese. No fried onions, no hot peppers, and no yummy Philly rolls, but it was certainly a taste of home.
I’ve since moved back to the US, and while I can get most of the Japanese things that I miss, there are a few things that I can’t get. Strangely, all are also food-related: no shiso for my sashimi (though we started to grow that), and no Japanese soft drinks (Aquarius and Pocari Sweat) are two that come to mind.
Most everything is covered above: food, IT, infrastructure, service, etc.
But the main thing I miss? My friends. I only get to see them about once a year when I go back to Colorado. I have friends here, but nothing compared to my gang back in Colorado…
It seems that a lot of what people are missing (besides friends and family) are food related.
Having been in England now for nearly 3 years, there are lots of foods I miss - maple essence, enchilada sauce (Mexican food makings in general), tinned pumpkin, squash (yellow especially), beef (very rarely eat it here), Cool Whip… just to name a few.
I miss camping - just not the same here. Miss wild animals (deer, moose, bears, cougars, etc*)… Come on I grew up hunting in Oregon! Zoos are not an option. Miss the Redwoods, the Grand Tetons, Crater Lake…
Even though these things are missed, they are always things to see and experience on trips back home. Places to show the hubby. All that good stuff. I love the UK and there are plenty of things to experience and see here.
Annie, do you ever read David Sedaris? He is an expat in France too, and he wrote an essay on the differences between the US and France. His barber is a big fan of Jodie Foster, and saw a picture of her in a magazine engaging in an unfamiliar activity. He asked David Sedaris what she could possibly be doing. He answered, “Well, it looks like she’s picking up dog shit.” The barber absolutely refused to believe him. Jodie Foster picking up dog shit! How absurd!
Um, I’m not an expatriate. When I was, I missed Mexican food. OH how I missed Mexican food. When my aunt picked me up at the airport in LA, she brought me two burritos. Then she took me out for Mexican food for lunch, too.
Kyla, I love that book! “Me Talk Pretty One Day”* is the title I believe. A lot of it rings true, though, those guys were leading a pretty charmed life compared to us.
Washte- My parents recently moved to England and you mention some of the very same things they miss. Every time they come visit here in the states I think they eat nothing but steak the whole time they’re here (as if they’re stocking up), and since pumpkin pie is my dad’s traditional birthday (Nov. 8th) treat, the last time he was here for business my mom had him buy canned pumpkin and bring (sneak? I’m unclear on tinned pumpkin importation laws :)) it back to the UK. My mom apparently found some tinned pumpkin at the store there, but it was £10!
I don’t miss the food as it’s pretty similar in NZ and Australia. Well, not as much. I do miss NZ fish and chips. I don’t miss muttonbirds ::shudder::. Smoked mussels, some cheeses.
I miss the places. Queensland just is not as beautiful as the South Island of NZ. Q is a lovely place but I was living where a lot of the FOTR was shot. I could see those mountains from my windows. I miss those mountains.
I miss seasons. Here we are hot and not so hot. You can’t grow good roses and cottage gardens are hopeless. I miss the variety of plants I could grow in NZ. All the subtle little plants like primroses and primulas. Lavender. Catmint – my boys miss catmint.
I’m only a junior in highschool but I really want to live in Japan someday. The one thing I fear most, though, is the food. From what you guys are saying I’m really getting scared. Can you by American food in the grocery stores or at restaurants? Can’t you have it imported? I don’t wanna eat raw fish and I can’t use chopsticks.
If they don’t use sarcasm in Japan, then what kind of stuff do they say to be funny? Do the people there like or dislike Americans? Are women treated inferior? I heard if you wear Levi pants there people will think you’re rich or something. Can you get deodorant there? Cecil said Asians’ armpits don’t stink.
Anyway, I think what I would miss most about America is good breakfast(do they have pancakes and french toast?), not having to study to do well in school, my favorite tv shows, having everyone crowd around me when I whip out a bottle of ramune like it’s the coolest thing they ever laid eyes on, and cars on the right side of the street. Sounds dorky but I really do think I wound miss seeing cars on the right side of the street.
There, did that help your nostalgia for sarcasm any? I’m kinda out of practice, being in the same boat as you.