Pretty interesting, I like this guy's videos. It brings up something that I think has been changing worldwide for a while. Used to be, if you were an immigrant (this applies to anywhere), there was heavy pressure to adopt and conform to the culture of the place you moved to. Assimilation. In the last few decades, the philosophy of immigration has changed - many people believe you shouldn't have to conform to the place, the place has to accommodate you and your culture. It's the melting pot vs. salad bowl analogy. I am for sure a melting pot guy - if you move somewhere go native as much and as fast as you can, which sometimes puts me at odds with some immigration activists I know.
Somehow I suspect this also applies a little bit to mainland transplants in Hawaii, which I wouldn't mind being one of some day.
My daughter just got out of a two week quarantine in Japan and just arrived at Joetsu City on the left coast across from Tokyo, she's there for at least one year probably two as an English instructor in Japanese public grade schools. They have surfing there and also a ski mountain nearby (it's actually where an Austrian taught the first Japanese to ski in 1912 or so). Although it involves teaching it's not really a teaching job or a job that's a stepping stone to become a teacher - it's a cultural exchange program run by the Japanese government although she's paid by the local school district.
I'm an assimilation / when in Rome do as the Romans do kind of guy and my wife who grew up in the Philippines is that kind of girl and so is my daughter but also everything she's read about the "Jet" (Japanese Exchange something) program she's in and how to get along in Japan is assimilation based. She made sure not wear a sleeveless shirt on the plane and bought (OK I bought) a black suit (without a dress slit at all since she wasn't sure) because in Japan everyone shows up for work in a black suit the first day (no, navy blue not acceptable). She's also taught herself how to speak, read and write Japanese and studied their customs extensively, which was fun because she wanted to explain it all to us as she learned.
My wife is very happy that my daughter had to do a ton of paperwork and applications and interviews (they accept about 1 out of 4 applicants) just to be able to go and work in Japan and that my daughter now has a Japanese Alien card (no, not an immigrant card or a foreign worker card - it says Alien) so that my daughter can learn that our existing American immigration laws are not cruel and unusual but are just the way the world works. Also the Japanese government is taking automatic payroll deduction out of her salary by law for her health care insurance so no, that's not free either elsewhere.
My wife has a friend she grew up with in Manila who has lived and worked in Japan for 40 years and does as the Japanese do. She was actually just taking about another Filipino who just arrived in Japan to work recently. He was saying to her he wanted to do things at work the Filipino way because the Japanese way was dumb. She said to him "I left that sh*t in the Philippines 40 years ago. You can't do it the Filipino way in Japan. If you want to do it the Filipino way you can go back to the Philippines and do it there. But you won't make any money".
Anyway - we're pretty psyched to go to Japan to visit my daughter, do some surfing there and also finally meet this Japanese Hamboard skateboarder who's a dentist and surfs, skates and seems to drink champagne an awful lot in restaurants in Tokyo who we know from Hamboards on Instagram. As soon as travel to Japan opens up again that is