{"id":8298,"date":"2015-10-28T11:00:38","date_gmt":"2015-10-28T15:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/?p=8298"},"modified":"2016-03-28T20:16:52","modified_gmt":"2016-03-29T00:16:52","slug":"please-try-to-look-beyond-the-screen-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/2015\/10\/28\/please-try-to-look-beyond-the-screen-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Please Try to Look Beyond the Screen, Too"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u00a0<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Hi,<\/span><\/p>\n

It is Jeff.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was having dinner with some close friends of mine in Tokyo last Friday night and I was told that<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cyou and Mizuki look so happy on those blog stories. When I read your blog, I forgot that you guys were almost breaking up last year.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Um, yep\u2026. <\/span><\/p>\n

We look like a very happily married couple but we actually had been though a lot of argument and fights. <\/span><\/p>\n

We almost broke up last year. <\/span><\/p>\n

I know that all of you must have been experiencing times when others perceive you as you were very happy but you actually have a lot of untold sad stories.<\/span><\/p>\n

I think the other side of this story definitely counts and it is equally important as the side you have been reading. <\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, I would like to share some with you today.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Before moving to Japan, I had a decent job as a sales representatives in Taiwan and I was ready to go all in to earn my way to the top. <\/span><\/p>\n

Suddenly the massive earthquake hit Japan and changed everything.<\/span><\/p>\n

Japan was seriously hurt. <\/span><\/p>\n

There was a power shortage and as a result, Mizuki was not able to get out of her apartment because she is unable to take stairs and elevator stopped. <\/span><\/p>\n

I was worrying about her so much that I could not help but quit my job and move to Japan 5 months after the earthquake.<\/span><\/p>\n

I moved to Japan with a passionate and loving heart and, of course, my whole saving in Taiwan. <\/span><\/p>\n

I brought about 300,000 JPY. <\/span><\/p>\n

It was a lot for me and I didn\u2019t know that is just a little more than an average monthly wage in Japan. <\/span><\/p>\n

I dreamed that I could quickly secure a stable finance source and get my feet on the ground. <\/span><\/p>\n

I was even planning to go to grad school even though I had no money at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

I had plans and dreams. Soon I got \u00a0crushed.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

1. Different Perspectives of Value<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
\n

I knew that things in Japan are expensive but I just didn\u2019t realize how much the impact\u00a0<\/span>would be for me.<\/span><\/p>\n

A bus ride in Tokyo is about 210 JPY but in Taiwan it is 45 JPY.<\/span><\/p>\n

A regular business lunch in Japan is about 1,000~1,500JPY. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, it is about 250 ~450 JPY in Taiwan and you can even take out some extra soup at some restaurants.<\/span><\/p>\n

The average daily expense in Japan is 3 times higher than the daily expenses in Taiwan.<\/p>\n

My 300,000 JPY drained very quickly in the few weeks I got here so Mizuki started cutting costs. <\/span><\/p>\n

She started limiting what food I could buy. <\/span><\/p>\n

One day she banned my from buying chocolate bread. <\/span><\/p>\n

I was so mad and we got into a really serious argument over chocolate bread. <\/span><\/p>\n

The chocolate bread costed only 98 JPY and it was good for 3 breakfasts, by the way.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was very mad because I quit my job and moved to Japan for her and she would not even let me buy a piece of chocolate bread with my own money.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Seeing the Different Sides of Mizuki for the First Time<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
\n

I thought I knew what type of person Mizuki is since we had dated for 4 years remotely at the time. (Oh boy, yeah. Remotely\u2026\u2026)<\/span><\/p>\n

I knew nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n

She is a very independent woman and sometimes is very demanding. <\/span><\/p>\n

She wants things to be done in her way. <\/span><\/p>\n

She had lower tolerance of ambiguity compared to me.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, she does not allow adding spice into miso soup. <\/span><\/p>\n

She said miso soup is one of important Japanese culture and you should respect it and enjoy it as the way it is. <\/span><\/p>\n

You should not put spice in your miso soup, she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

She was very angry when I added spice to my miso soup for the very first time. <\/span><\/p>\n

She stroke the table like I had cheated on her. I did not cheat on her. I just put some spice in my miso soup. (tears)<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Language Barrier<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I thought my entry level of Japanese proficiency would get me blended in very quickly. <\/span><\/p>\n

I was wrong. People do not change the speed they talk because I am a foreigner. <\/span><\/p>\n

People I worked with sometimes think repeating one sentence very very quickly would help me understand. <\/span><\/p>\n

Repetition does help but slowing down the talking speed would have helped a lot more.<\/span><\/p>\n

What was worse is that when Mizuki was mad she spoke Kyoto dialect, which is a language that is so different from regular Japanese and I can barely understand.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have experienced hundred difficult things in Japan. <\/span><\/p>\n

I can write on and on but let\u2019s take a break here.<\/span><\/p>\n

I will write about how I had overcome these barriers and got to where we are today.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stay tuned!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We look like a very happily married couple but we actually had been though a lot of argument and fights. We almost broke up last year. I know that all of you must have been experiencing times when others perceive you as you were very happy but you actually have a lot of untold sad stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[138],"tags":[86,87],"class_list":["post-8298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-our-love-story","tag-different-thinking","tag-international-relationship"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8303,"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8298\/revisions\/8303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonrider7.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}