

Two years of life as an expat coder in middle-of-no-where Japan - bemmu
http://www.bemmu.com/two-years-of-candy

======
acabal
Hey, I know that feeling. That was me just a few months ago. I went to Germany
to live for a year and change with my girlfriend. We lived in a small town.
While the town itself was beautiful, after a few months there was little to do
and it was difficult to make friends. (I didn't speak the language, and while
I was taking language classes there, my heart wasn't in them.)

I eventually fell in to a similar funk: without friends to chat with, and as a
sole business owner, I'd find myself working through the day on my laptop,
going to sleep, then waking up and working more. It turned in to a grind and I
realized I wasn't enjoying myself anymore. So when my visa ran out I decided
to return home and see what happens next. While I greatly prefer the German
(and European in general) lifestyle, and things like health care are much less
stressful over there, in the end I realized I need people to connect with on a
day-to-day basis for me to be happy.

I've spent much of the last 5 or so years traveling the world and I don't
regret a minute of it. But eventually I think you need some kind of familiar
stability, an anchor, to feel more at peace.

~~~
kaybe
Have you tried a city with a US army base? They usually have and attract a
substantial English speaking crowd, and there's culture events as well (not
just from the base).

~~~
mjn
Alternately a "cosmopolitan" city like Berlin and Copenhagen could work. Most
of the locals speak English, and there are so many foreigners that English is
heard pretty regularly in bars and on the street. (Some of the foreigners are
swaps between the two: lots of Danes in Berlin and Germans in Copenhagen.)

In Copenhagen a number of the cultural events are also in English, e.g.
<http://www.scienceandcocktails.org/about.html> and
<http://english.dadiu.dk/invitation-spilbar-14-0-surprise> to pick two random
science/tech ones.

~~~
w1ntermute
Especially in Copenhagen, getting around shouldn't be an issue. The Danes are
pretty good at English.

------
civilian
Sweet sweet python stacktrace:

Traceback (most recent call last): File
"/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/webapp/_webapp25.py",
line 714, in __call__ handler.get( _groups) File
"/base/data/home/apps/s~combemmu-hrd/1.366712374553545399/main.py", line 432,
in get if self.blog(self.request.path[1:]): File
"/base/data/home/apps/s~combemmu-hrd/1.366712374553545399/main.py", line 230,
in blog posts = [BlogPost.get_by_key_name('p' + slug)] File
"/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/db/__init__.py",
line 1275, in get_by_key_name return get(keys[0],_ _kwargs) File
"/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/db/__init__.py",
line 1533, in get return get_async(keys,_ *kwargs).get_result() File
"/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/api/apiproxy_stub_map.py",
line 604, in get_result return self.__get_result_hook(self) File
"/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/datastore/datastore_rpc.py",
line 1450, in __get_hook self.check_rpc_success(rpc) File
"/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/datastore/datastore_rpc.py",
line 1222, in check_rpc_success rpc.check_success() File
"/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/api/apiproxy_stub_map.py",
line 570, in check_success self.__rpc.CheckSuccess() File
"/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/api/apiproxy_rpc.py",
line 133, in CheckSuccess raise self.exception OverQuotaError: The API call
datastore_v3.Get() required more quota than is available.

~~~
fchollet
A GAE app without a credit card attached + debug = True in the settings ^^

~~~
bemmu
Yep, Google App Engine ran out of quota while I was asleep.

I have many GAE apps and when you enable billing, each app puts I think a $2
weekly charge on your card. To avoid spamming my books with dozens of tiny
charges I turned off the billing for less popular ones like my blog. D'oh.

Additionally I had commented out memcache in the blog for some reason. Free
quota would have been enough if it wasn't for that mistake.

~~~
philsnow
Bemmu, Google recently removed the $2/month minimum charge when you have
billing enabled.

Have a look at [http://googleappengine.blogspot.com/2013/04/app-
engine-177-r...](http://googleappengine.blogspot.com/2013/04/app-
engine-177-released.html)

Thanks for telling us a bit about yourself, it felt very personal :)

------
lgbr
Your problem is two-fold: You're not only in a lonely place physically, but
you do your work alone as well. Despite being exclusively a remote worker, I
still socialize constantly throughout the day. My projects are always done in
at least pairs, if not entire teams. There are constantly people giving me
feedback about my code, and we're always bouncing ideas off of each other.

And outside of work, I have a routine of playing games with friends nearly
every night over Skype. This means an hour long session to BS about life and
make dirty jokes every day. So even when I don't see another human for a few
days, I'm definitely not lonely.

Working remotely, and even from strange places doesn't have to be lonely.
There's little value to the face-to-face side of things. Focus on your online
networks of friends and this helps the situation a huge amount.

~~~
bemmu
Which games are you playing?

~~~
lgbr
Anything multiplayer, cooperative, and new. When games like Borderlands 2
comes out, my evenings get a lot brighter because we really have something to
work together on. Multiplayer RTSes like Starcraft 2 also make for good times
because there is a lot of strategy to discuss and coordination to be had.

Most shooters don't work as well, such as if we play Counter-Strike, since we
don't end up having as much to talk about.

~~~
thoughtpalette
If you play CS:GO in competitive mode or find scrims, their is definitely a
lot of communication and teamwork involved.

Lot's of fun :}

------
RyanZAG
The author talks about missed opportunities a third of the way down - then
puts one incredible picture of a grassy hill and windmill, and then talks
about how it isn't that awesome to wake up and start on his to-do list. Hey!
You're missing a really big opportunity! Wake up an hour earlier and go
outside and enjoy that amazing scenery. The incredible benefits of being in
the middle of no where Japan/Norway/etc is that incredible landscape you can
walk out of your door and visit within 5 minutes. Stop living like you're in a
city, and start living.

~~~
obviouslygreen
When you've been living with the same amazing scenery for two years, it just
stops being quite as amazing.

You definitely make a good point, though, in that there's probably something
out there that he could be doing. Problem being it probably won't involve many
other people, as there just aren't any nearby (particularly any that share his
interests), which seems to be his most significant problem.

~~~
bemmu
It keeps being amazing still, and going to those scenic places is our main
weekend activity.

I volunteered as an english conversation partner for a while, so that was a
way to get a bit plugged in. I ended up meeting some of those people later, so
there was some success there. Teaching English is not something I'm interested
in doing all that much though.

~~~
obviouslygreen
Well, I'm glad to be wrong in this case. ;)

------
trumbitta2
Bemmu, you should really volunteer as a Computer Programming teacher for some
local school. And, in time, be remembered fondly as that guy who managed to
start that coder community he sensed the lack of.

~~~
ced
Have you done that? I'm curious about how it goes. I feel like it would take a
while to get things going.

~~~
trumbitta2
Well, I haven't done exactly the same I suggested to the OP. BTW, I teached
the basics of "websites" to a class of teenagers coming from "difficult"
families.

I mean, sons of pushers, thiefs, and all the rest...

Plus, there was this lad, who was - how do you say that in english? -
"mentally impaired"?

It has been a heavy, slow, frustrating, sometimes dangerous, series of days
which culminated in one of the happiest days of my life: my boys and girls
passed the final exam. Even that one who was "less smart than the average
guy".

Best of the best?

My boys and girls, all except one of them, CAME TO THE EXAM, willing to prove
themselves and me that they learned something from that experience.

------
spatten
Here's a Google Cache link:

[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Awww.b...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Awww.bemmu.com%2Ftwo-
years-of-candy&aq=f&oq=cache%3Awww.bemmu.com%2Ftwo-years-of-
candy&aqs=chrome.0.57j58.1234j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8)

~~~
gcb0
"2 years of my life in japan and all I got was this python stacktrace"

~~~
angersock
I was actually kind of hoping that that was the moral of the story. :)

------
tlear
Not sure it has anything to do with being expat, just living in a very remote
area. I have no idea where exactly Tokushima is but perhaps you can join a
club of some sort? I knew expats in Nagano prefecture who randomly became avid
mountaineers/climbers just because it is the thing to do there if you want to
build a huge local network. It can also be running, cycling, surfing whatever.
Even living in a huge city in NA I find it very fun to be part of a club
completely unrelated to programming/dev work. I also run just for myself that
is kindof a mind defrag for me.

Judging from pictures I would love to just run there, that is one gorgeous
place.

------
greggman
Two years is not enough

I have not yet read the post as the site is down but this is a common story.

1\. excitement about being in a new country

2\. isolation being an outsider

3\. connection, friends

4\. Torn between 2 places

I've seen that repeated in many blogs from expats. Lots of them go back home
at step 2. I'm at step 4. I left the country I had been in for 7 years to go
back home. I know longer feel like either is really my home and miss both for
various reasons. I still have way more friends in the foreign country than I
do at home. But those first few years were pretty lonely.

~~~
Gmo
I'm just about to make the same jump. I will leave behind some dear friends,
but there was definitely a lonely start.

And I really feel like I need to leave the country I'm in right now. But I go
to a place I've never been before, so there will be some loneliness there too,
for sure.

------
virtualwhys
First of all, if you're an introvert you'll have little problem spending most
of your time alone; add in interesting geographic locations and, really, it's
not so bad ;-)

I've been an expat coder for nearly 10 years -- have seen way more of this
planet than I would have had I taken a 2 week vacation once a year from full-
time fixed location gig.

Obviously, not for everyone but for some it's a really good fit. I have no
regrets (except for making huge amounts of cash, some of the hourly rates
thrown around here are absurd, would love to make $120/hour AND travel).

------
obviouslygreen
It's definitely too bad you ended up so far out in the inaka. My girlfriend
studied at Kumamoto and the time I spent there with her was absolutely a
blast... the furthest I've been out was somewhere in Gunma that you could only
get to via diesel trolley, and I can't imagine actually living there, despite
being only an hour from a large group of people.

I did smile -- well, grin like an idiot -- when I saw "Candy Japan." That's
you? Congratulations! That's a very cool service, and the first time I read
about it I was both impressed and very jealous.

~~~
verisimilidude
I lived in both Tokyo and middle-of-nowhere Gunma. While I love Tokyo, middle-
of-nowhere Gunma was even more enjoyable.

In particular, the bonds I formed with other foreigners out in Gunma were
notable. When you see another foreigner in Tokyo, it's barely worth turing
your head. But it's a special occasion out in Gunma—that almost begs for
interaction. "What the hell are you doing out here?" And so on.

All the incredible wilderness, all the great hot springs, all the weird
people, and you're still just 45 minutes away from Takasaki, and a few more
from Tokyo. Here in SV, it takes me 45 minutes just to cross the stupid
Dumbarton Bridge to get from _Fremont_ to Stanford. There's a lot to miss in
Gunma by comparison.

~~~
philsnow
_Here in SV, it takes me 45 minutes just to cross the stupid Dumbarton Bridge
to get from Fremont to Stanford. There's a lot to miss in Gunma by
comparison._

The lack of good public transit is probably going to be the reason I
eventually leave California. I've spent 27 years of my life here, and most of
that in the bay area, but I don't love it here.

------
dpapathanasiou
I can relate: I lived in Aioi, Hyogo-ken while working at Riken's Spring-8
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPring-8>).

The only saving grace was that Aioi was a Shinkansen stop, and I could make it
out to Kobe and Osaka on the weekends.

------
macarthy12
As a freelancer in Thailand I know how you feel.

Also laughed at this : > Free worldwide shipping, even to Thailand.

If you visit thailand again, hit me up.

~~~
asiekierka
I second the worldwide shipping thing, neat idea and made me smile!

"Free worldwide shipping, even to Poland."

I wonder what happens if someone from the ISS looks at your site? Or Sealand?
Do they get free shipping too?

~~~
bemmu
It would certainly be a PR opportunity for SpaceX, so perhaps they could
cooperate with me to see it through.

~~~
raldi
You might want to put a s/United/the United/ wrapper around your geolocation
function -- currently it says you ship "even to United States".

BTW, I still remember the time you set up a webcam and let visitors from
around the world make your computer talk. Was that while you were in Japan?

~~~
bemmu
That was in Finland. I think the next iteration of that would be to add a cat
with a web mouse-controllable laser pointer.

------
dualogy
Sounds like the only reason you're in that place is your wife. Is this the
only possible location in the whole world (or country) for her to be
reasonably happy? If not, start working together to find a better place, no?

~~~
bemmu
This was a great job opportunity for her. It might be possible to relocate
later, but I do like Japan and would like to continue living here. Perhaps
back to Tokyo some day.

~~~
ttrreeww
Relocate to somewhere less remote...

------
bluedino
I understand the importance of face-to-face human contact, but there are lot
of avenues of seeing what other developers are up to, and showing off your
stuff. StackExchange (chat and Q&A), Freenode IRC, a hundred random
messageboards...

The author mentions YouTube so I'm assuming he has a decent internet
connection.

~~~
bemmu
Yes, I try to help people on StackOverflow whenever I can. But it's not the
same feeling of trying to make meaningful progress so that you won't be
ashamed to have nothing to show the next weekend you meet your hacker friend
for a gaming session.

I'm on #startups

------
scottlilly
It sounds like we need to start a club.

I moved to Paraguay a couple years ago and have been going through some of the
same types of stresses and emotions. I spend my mornings working alone, in my
apartment, on a personal project that will (hopefully) earn me some income.
The afternoons, I do a bit of contract programming for a local company, but am
the only person on the project, so I don't interact much with the other
programmers. When I come home, it's back to my personal project.

I keep telling myself, once I earn enough semi-automated income to pays my
bills, I'll get out more. But it often feels like my life is "on hold".

------
uni3rn
Hi Bemmu Sepponen. I feel exactly like you here in afghanistan :D

------
stevenveltema
bemmu, I love the candy service. I think there is a lot more you could do with
it with a bit more love.

A bit of advice from an expat coder of 20 years in Japan, 13 of that in Oita,
Kyushyu.

1) Build the community that you want to participate in. Find a nearby area
with a bit of population gravity and start a group, watch it wither away,
start another, repeat, repeat, repeat. A more formless drinks in an open
office with coders/designers/local businesses/artists/makers can be a lot of
fun and there are generally more of these people nearby that you might think.
I'm currently working on starting up a hackerspace/fablab downtown.

2) Get involved in any kind of quasi-local information systems group/NPO etc,
even if only related tangentially and work their connections for 1). If your
good, give out lots of free advice to local businesses and use the group to
raise your profile locally as the goto guy to again attract talent for 1).
City and prefectural offices can give you leads. Also you might try a regional
bank as local banks in the countryside are always getting asked by small
businesses about IT and usually have advisors/connections.

3) Regularly travel to where the interesting action is. It's the price for not
living in a rabbit hutch in a major city and 3 hours is doable if it helps
your long term sanity. You are close enough for overnights to Kobe and Osaka
which both have lively developer communities. Once a month can do wonders.

These are all things that helped me when I joined an inaka startup (which is a
long, dark, and interesting story itself) and now starting my own company just
this week.

Anyway, in the countryside it can be hard to maintain your sanity. I have
found at various times martial arts, running, motorcycles, hiking, zazen,
pizza, and just doing things like drinks with the father's group from my kid's
elementary school to be very helpful.

good luck

------
segmondy
It's 2013. If you find yourself. Use the internet to connect. You don't ever
need to be face to face. You could be in mars all by yourself and connect with
others so long as you have internet. There are tons of python projects out
there. Volunteer.

~~~
650REDHAIR
It's not the same as going out for a drink, dinner, museum, etc with people
who have similar interests.

------
Ecio78
Thank you Bemmu for writing about your experience, I'm going to relocate from
Italy to Luxembourg within a couple of months (I'll join my wife that is
working there) and I still don't know what I'll do. My initial thoughts were
working remotely for my current employer but recently the sh __hit the fan and
it's closing so I'll be soon unemployed, expat and with almost non-existant
knowledge of the local language (i've just started studying french from the
very basis)

I'm still deciding what to do: start looking for a job, do a startup project,
or maybe just come back to studying something (in university or by myself)
while learning french..

------
lovemenot
I have some friends in Takamatsu, near the airport. They run workshops - some
commercial and some just for fun - from their home which is an old farmhouse.
3-581-2, Yasuharashimo, Kagawa-ken, Japan 761-1504. If you wanted to run your
own workshop, or join one of theirs I am sure Kazu or Masa would be pleased to
know you. They are interested in web design amongst many other things. Anyway,
theirs is the kind of place you can just turn up and talk to whoever is around
at the time. You'd be welcome to drop in whenever in the area. I will probably
be staying there for a week or two myself this summer. Maybe we could meet up?
\- henchan

------
jimbokun
"The closest community is a 3 hour bus ride away. In my work I mostly use
Python, AS3, Objective-C and Javascript. The 3 hour bus ride away -communities
mostly use Perl, Ruby, PHP (WordPress). I feel some temptation to change my
language, just so I could participate in these rare events and perhaps find a
useful sparring partner again."

Might be worth trying Ruby Motion, just as a conversation starter with the
Ruby developers.

<http://www.rubymotion.com/>

(I'm assuming you mention Objective-C because you are doing iOS development.)

------
realdlee
I lived in Akita prefecture for just a year while doing the JET program many
years ago.

It may be true that it's hard to have face-to-face meetings with coders where
you're at, but I would suggest getting involved with the community in whatever
way is possible. One great way is to teach an English Conversation (eikaiwa)
class for adults. Everyone wants to learn English in Japan and some of my best
relationships were from my eikaiwa class. You may not get the coding aspect,
but at least you'll form stronger bonds with the local community.

------
vickytnz
Slightly OT: but I've always loved how Finns are so direct in their writing
and speech (yet also able to be really funny at the same time). I suspect that
it might have something to do with their famously small alphabet, but it
always comes across pretty cool in English :) [EDIT: just realised that the
writer of the article is here in the forum. Hi, Bemmu!]

~~~
Van_av_Ordning
I don't get it. The Finnish alphabet has more characters than the English.

------
billpaetzke
Some solutions to foreign-land isolation that have worked for me:

* living in multi-bedroom apartments with other expats/remote workers

* working in co-working spaces (inherently with other freelancers/small biz owners--locals and non-locals)

In both cases, you'll see the same people often, can identify well with them,
and develop camaraderie.

------
xedarius
I didn't think anyone else programmed AMOS apart from me. I wish I still had
all the discs full of my code and Deluxe Paint art.

~~~
ZenoArrow
AMOS was very popular, was even used in some commercial games. You may find
this forum thread of interest: <http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=13117>

------
cocoasamurai
Its interesting he is considering going back to Tokyo. To be honest I am not
even sure how I'd get started in Tokyo. I don't exactly have the money to just
get there, and not have a clue what I'd do there or where I'd stay. Apparently
if you don't already have a Japanese girlfriend/wife its hard to figure out
how to get started there.

~~~
tsotha
Isn't that true in pretty much any foreign country? Contacts wherever you go
are invaluable.

I've never been there, but my Japanese friends tell me Tokyo is getting more
cosmopolitan all the time, with foreigners everywhere.

------
epynonymous
bemmu, i lived in the middle of everywhere in japan (tokyo) and it was the
time of my life, but alas now i'm in shanghai (which is not a bad city
either). let me know if you're interested in seeking opportunities here.

------
savrajsingh
appengine sucks at notifying you of quota violations. ;)

~~~
bemmu
I would have really appreciated them dispatching someone to my door to wake me
up.

------
jebblue
>> OverQuotaError: The API call datastore_v3.Get() required more quota than is
available.

That's why $20 on Linode is an amazing deal.

~~~
threeseed
There's nothing amazing about Linode's pricing and absolutely not worth the
security risk and lack of transparency.

------
dmak
Interesting insight. You taught me to be more grateful in my working
environment!

