>>2925539The lack of pointless conversation is one of the things I loved about living in Japan. I never found my coworkers to be cold or avoidant, but you didn't talk unless you had something worth saying. Americans often feel the need to fill any silence with words, which is not appreciated in Japan.
Also, I taught English for a little while and hated it. It's a low-status job with no security and an unstable schedule. Most of the teachers are lazy, worthless burnouts who moved to Japan because they were failures in their home countries. Worst of all, teaching at an eikaiwa is basically being a professional small talk partner, and I hate small talk as much as the average Japanese person. Putting two introverts together and telling them to chat about whatever is basically a recipe for awkwardness.
On the other hand, working for a Japanese company was pretty good. People took their jobs seriously and worked hard. The company cared about us personally and everyone helped each other out even outside of work. The boss would take us out for dinner and drinks several times a week. We had company holidays to go hiking or skiing or whatever. Overall it was more like a family than the strict separation of work and personal life that Americans expect, but I liked it.
