I don't have any advice, but I will wish you good luck. I hope you'll let the rest of us know how it goes. I'm under the impression that Japan is one of the hardest 'first world' countries to acclimate to and become accepted in, but maybe I'm wrong. I used to be real gung-ho about Japan, but after hearing some personal experiences from friends and coworkers it certainly doesn't sound like a very welcoming place to live. These weren't people who were dragged to Japan kicking and screaming; they were more than willing to give it a real try and then found the schooling tedious, the work environment stressful, and the prevailing culture to be surprisingly closed to those who don't look and act Japanese. Conformity and discrimination are not the sort of things that are easily understood and accepted by folks who lived most of their lives being taught to go their own way and accept all others as equals.