Life as it is... living in Japan

“You should go home to Australia, before you fall in love with a Japanese guy. That’s the best thing for you. International marriages are hard work. Go home and marry a nice Aussie boy and start a family.” 「日本人と恋に落ちる前に、オーストラリアに帰った方がいいよ。ジャッキーにとってそれが一番いいわ。国際結婚は難しいもん。帰って優しいオージーと結婚して、子供も産みなさい。」 This is what my Japanese grandmother told me about a year and a half ago, when I was debating whether I should stay for a fifth year or not. She made a valid point; international marriages can be a lot of work, especially if there is a language barrier. However, I had been single for almost four years by that stage and seriously liked my chances of staying single for one more year. This is Japan after all, the land of the single foreign women! 一年半前にもう一年宮崎に滞在するかどうか迷った時、ジャパニーズばあちゃんに言われた言葉。間違っていないと思う。国際結婚は難しいと思う。特に言語の壁がある場合。しかし、 4 年間ずっとお一人様だったから、まさか彼氏が出来るなんて思わなかった。ここはお一人様の外国女性の国だから。 It didn’t take me long after I began living in Japan to notice a trend. Many of the male ALTs around me