Expat Life in Japan with Robert Norris
In this episode, Robert Norris gives us so many insights into life as an expat, life in Japan – from the day-to-day to the bureaucracy involved in moving there – so much great information and much of it accompanied by interesting anecdotes.
Today he explains:
- his early envy of those who spoke more than one language
- a six-mat room and a three-mat room
- local public baths
- living his dream
- why you should immerse yourself instead of speed-visiting
- Kanji lettering and the Japanese language
- tidbits of cultural history and current changes
- earthquakes
I enjoyed the moment when Bob was telling us about earthquakes and had the Japanese word but had to think about the English word! That’s immersion!
Listen below.
Agnes - in conversation with Robert Norris
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About the guest: Robert Norris
Robert W. Norris was born and raised in Humboldt County, California. In 1969, he entered the Air Force, subsequently became a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, and served time in a military prison for refusing to fight in the war. In his twenties, he roamed across the United States, went to Europe twice, and made one journey around the world. In 1983, he landed in Japan, where he eventually became a professor at a private university, spent two years as the dean of students, and retired in 2016 as a professor emeritus.
Norris is the author of Looking for the Summer, a novel about a former Vietnam War conscientious objector’s adventures and search for identity in Europe, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and India in 1977; Toraware, a novel about the obsessive relationship of three misfits from different cultural backgrounds in 1980s Kobe, Japan; Autumn Shadows in August, an hallucinogenic mid-life crisis/adventure, and homage to Malcolm Lowry and Hermann Hesse; The Many Roads to Japan, a novella used as an English textbook in Japanese universities; and The Good Lord Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise: Pentimento Memories of Mom and Me, a memoir and tribute to his mother. He has also written several articles on teaching English as a foreign language.
He and his wife live near Fukuoka, Japan.
Robert’s book: The Good Lord Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise: Pentimento Memories of Mom and Me
Robert mentions: https://www.retirejapan.com/
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