I lived in Hanoi Vietnam for just over a year, but that was 15 years ago. It was incredible. It's a lovely place with lovely people and amazing food. It's not without it's problems (no freedom of press/speach, relatively poor air quality, etc.), but overall it was a nice place to live.
this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2025
13 points (93.3% liked)
Casual Conversation
613 readers
380 users here now
Share a story, ask a question, or start a conversation about (almost) anything you desire. Maybe you'll make some friends in the process.
RULES
- Be respectful: no harassment, hate speech, bigotry, and/or trolling.
- Encourage conversation in your OP. This means including heavily implicative subject matter when you can and also engaging in your thread when possible.
- Avoid controversial topics (e.g. politics or societal debates).
- Stay calm: Don’t post angry or to vent or complain. We are a place where everyone can forget about their everyday or not so everyday worries for a moment. Venting, complaining, or posting from a place of anger or resentment doesn't fit the atmosphere we try to foster at all. Feel free to post those on [email protected]
- Keep it clean and SFW
- No solicitation such as ads, promotional content, spam, surveys etc.
Casual conversation communities:
Related discussion-focused communities
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Did you ever work there?
I worked there, yes.
Seems nice, would you ever recommend it over places like Egypt turkey or South Africa?
I've never been to Turkey or South Africa, and I've only ever been to an airport in Egypt so that's not a fair assessment.
I can say, however, that my overall worldview makes those places unappealing to me compared to Southeast Asia.
I live in rural northern Japan and spent the prior 8+ years in Tokyo. I plan to live the rest of my life here barring something crazy happening. It's not perfect, but nowhere is. If you have specific questions, I can try to answer
How much is the difference between life in rural Japan Vs urban Japan (specifically Tokyo)?
Jobs are scarce here in the countryside. There aren't a lot of us who work for companies that allow fully remote work, so I'm lucky there (which allows me to run a vegetable farm business as well). There's a lot more space. People are generally nicer and a bit more open, though racists are everywhere in the world. Small-town bullshit exists everywhere as well and, especially if one looks different, everyone will know their business. For families, there are often many daycare spots open which is a HUGE problem in Tokyo. We need cars almost everywhere out here to do much of anything. Our train line, elevated after the 2011 tsunamis, can be shut down with high winds so people who do work in the cities need to drive fully on those days. Rural is cheaper and slower as well, though that price difference isn't as big as it used to be with nationwide inflation and price increases that were put off for literal decades in some cases all hitting at once with wages not keeping pace.
Lived in Hiroshima for a year as a student. I lived in a filing cabinet of a dorm, but even that had a tub big enough for both my knees and shoulders to be underwater. I dated a few women, some of which were worse for me than others. Public transportation was great. I learned Argentine Tango from a Chilean woman whose husband was a fake priest for weddings. I took classes just to pick up vocabulary. I learned to love Okonomiyaki.
It also made me realize everywhere that its own issues. I became disenchanted with it. By the end of the year, I knew I wouldn't be looking to try and live there permanently.
I was also depressed and didn't realize it. So that sucked a lot of joy out of it and I drank a bunch.
Seems about right, what about the costs? If I wanted to travel there, could I get away with only 1k dollars spent for 3 people for a week?
No idea, my stay was ~20 years ago.