Why do I like the US?

I have stayed in the US for six years and I want to stay here indefinitely. I want to get an academic position in the US someday. This is my dream.

Many people ask me “Why do you like the US?” or “What is better in the US than in Japan?”
These are hard questions for me. Actually, I do not know the exact answers. I just feel more comfortable in the US. But I will try to answer those questions here.

One reason is that academic research environment is better in the US. In the US, government give more money for academic research. Furthermore, in Japan, we are very busy because we have to do many other things besides our research. In other words, in the US, we can concentrate more on our research and make more progress.

The Second reason is about the people. Americans are very friendly. Even though I am Japanese, they talk to me casually. Also we feel more free to talk with teachers or superiors in the US.
From another point, Americans respect the individual personality of each person. In Japan, it is important to go along with other people. “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.” I do not want to care how other people think about me. I want to be myself.

The third reason is that I like the rich nature in the US, though it might be only the place I live. I do not like crowded cities in Japan.

I think I have other reasons. Of course, I have pros and cons for living in the US. If I have another opportunity, I want to talk about the disadvantages, too.

I am coming close to my dream of living in the US!?

I finally started applying for permanent residency in the US, this is called a green card. I have stayed in the US more than six years and I have come to like here, so I want to stay here indefinitely. To fulfill this dream, I have to get a green card. But it is not so easy. I have to claim that I am a valuable person to live in the US as a prominent researcher. To prove this, I have to prepare a lot of documents and letters, and write two essays. That is hard and time consuming. I hired an attorney. It is costly. Even so, I am not sure if my application will be approved. It is not fun. It is stressful... Sigh,I am still far from my dream...

Volunteer at a Bird Center

I think volunteer work is more common in the US than Japan. There are many opportunities and people are willing to work as volunteers here, in the US. That is great! 


So I also started volunteer. Since I like wildlife, I work at a bird center as a volunteer. At the center, we take care of wild birds that are injured or orphaned. I go to the center every week and I feed baby birds and clean cages. We have to feed them every 30 minutes! They are noisy but so cute. They are waiting for food with their mouths open. There are many kinds of birds including sparrows, finches, doves, blue jays, robins and geese. All those birds are brought by kind people who found a bird that cannot survive in the wild. There are about 100 birds at the center at a time, and a few hundreds birds during a entire summer season. After we take care of the birds and they become big and healthy, they are released into the wild again. That is happy and sad moment.

I like this work.

Hello my friends!

This is my first post.

I am Japanese. I came to the US for my research about 6 years ago. At that time, I was thinking it was just experience to study abroad, and I was planing to go back home in a few year.  Actuary, it was not fun. I could not communicate with other people because of my terrible English skill (even though I still found it difficult! lol), I faced many culture differences, and those things made me feel depressed. But I could learn many things by my experiences. And finally, even though I am still struggle with language and culture, I enjoy my life with those problems. I love the US!

I decided to start my blog because I would be grad if I can share my experiences and opinion about culture differences with other people. But I am not the specialist, so do not take them seriously! just enjoy my funny/dramatic/happy/sad stories.

Thanks for reading. I hope to talk with you soon :)