Readers in Council,
The Japan Times,
5-4, Shibaura 4-chome,
Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0023
I recently returned to Tokyo from my annual pilgrimage ‘home’ to Canada to refresh myself. I’ve lived here for a long, long time. More than long enough to become a naturalized citizen if I want. But I don’t want. I don’t see the point or the advantage, really. When I tell strangers in Canada how long I’ve lived here - more than a quarter century - and about my family and work I hear things like “You must love it there,” and other similar and annoying pap, to which I reply, “Love and hate,” which coincidentally is similar to how I feel about Canada.
Coming back to my apartment by taxi from the Airport Limousine stop I chatted with the driver about familiar things (taxi drivers are great people to chat with): my admiration for Japanese culture, my affinity with Japanese manners and values, plus the familiar sound of the Japanese language that I like. And then it donned on me that those are my reasons. It took me this long to recognize them. Other long-term foreign residents might share these, or have their own list.
I don’t care much for this summer time weather, though. I’m an autumn person.