What do you enjoy about where you live and WHY?

[null1024]

-Public transport. If you do not have a car then you must be poor, right?

See, this is the worst part about living in most places in the States too.

Deerfield Beach, FL
+ Nice weather for the most part.
+ Low crime [where I live at least].
+ Apparently public transport here is pretty decent by US standards. I don't really use it though, this is still a place where having a car is king.
- Shit drivers [have you ever been on I-95 in the morning?]. I've been to some places with psychopathic driving like Trinidad, but over there you can kind-of predict what the other car's going to do. Here, you have sociopathic drivers who do things that make no sense whatsoever [oops, I'm missing my turn, lemme cut 4 lanes across without looking, oh hey, lemme sit in that guy's blindspot for 30 minutes, etc, etc], and you're not entirely sure how to handle it.
- It's Florida, so hurricanes.

there's more but I'm too lazy to think of them

[GaijinPunch]

Singapore
+Fair laws... as long as you aren't really extreme

Is this a joke?

[powersoul]

Singapore
+Fair laws... as long as you aren't really extreme

Is this a joke?

Even I don't know the answer. As far as the normal life goes, fine. If you are looking into drugs or politics, its simply grey.

[mesh control]

(secretly gathering data about places that interest me to visit or move or study at in the future.)

Carry on.

[Adderall]

Denmark:

I'll 2nd your Denmark.... I met some really nice people there. First time I kissed a girl was at Tivoli

[GaijinPunch]

If you are looking into drugs or politics, its simply grey.

Yes, b/c drugs are definitely worth executing people for.

I'm also a bit biased since a friend of mine too a whiskey bottle to the face, delivered by some guy w/ penis-envy (whom f course ran off). Cops basically gave him the whole, "Sorry, we wanna help you, but you're white...". Not singling out Singapore... I've just yet to hear of any Asian country that has a judicial system that's not a huge joke. Japan's not leader of the pack, but they're definitely up there.

I'll 2nd your Denmark.... I met some really nice people there. First time I kissed a girl was at Tivoli

Hot! She have a big dick?

[Adderall]

Hot! She have a big dick?

ha! I guess it's possible... I didn't get very far.. I was 13.

[kamiboy]

I'll 2nd your Denmark.... I met some really nice people there. First time I kissed a girl was at Tivoli

Danish girls are rather attractive, second only to Swedish girls as far as that part of the world is concerned. Alas they have an uncanny ability to neuter the men that they date.

[GaijinPunch]

I'll 2nd your Denmark.... I met some really nice people there. First time I kissed a girl was at Tivoli

Danish girls are rather attractive, second only to Swedish girls as far as that part of the world is concerned. Alas they have an uncanny ability to neuter the men that they date.

I think Japan has been exporting to Scandinavia in that case.

[Ed Oscuro]

Lots of water, lots of corn, also some companies that make useful foods are nearby. Somewhat close to Chicago and Detroit.
Lots of lake effect snow sometimes though.

- Shit drivers [have you ever been on I-95 in the morning?].

I-94 is bad enough sometimes.

"I'm looking at fighter jet over I-95! How the fuck did they get through?!"

[BPzeBanshee]

Darwin.

Bad:
Bad weather.

Good:
Not as bad as the rest of Australia, and actually consistent.

[kamiboy]

Danish girls are rather attractive, second only to Swedish girls as far as that part of the world is concerned. Alas they have an uncanny ability to neuter the men that they date.

I think Japan has been exporting to Scandinavia in that case.

Surely you jest. You mean to tell me that they are not all submissive waifus as portrayed in the animu?

They are attractive though, I'll give them that. But just like Danish beauties, theirs is ever only second to their neighbours', the Koreans.

[GaijinPunch]

Surely you jest. You mean to tell me that they are not all submissive waifus as portrayed in the animu?

Generally I don't like to use the broad sweeping brush to generalize, but the fact that Japan's in deep fucking shit b/c the birth rate is so low should tell you something. Not only is chivalry totally dead, but apparently fucking your wife after one kid (assuming you're one of the ones that gets married) is just not in the cards.

Google around. It's pretty scary once you read the extrapolations of the data

[kamiboy]

So what you are suggesting for foreigners in Japan is to date young and never get married.

Falling birth rate might have some far reaching social and economic ramifications but in the big picture of things I think it is a good thing for the human race. The world is overpopulated as it is. I really think the Asians are ahead of the curve on this whole birth rate thing. I think in the future all developed nations will have their birth rate slow and turn negative.

[neorichieb1971]

Bedford, UK

+

Lots of different kinds of people
Close to urban stuff, but close to rural stuff too
Its got a river, an embankment


-

Suffers from being too near to Milton Keynes, as Bedford is getting swallowed by it, and loses much of its business to it.
Most of the town centre is pound shops (like $ general stores)
There are no jobs to speak of
Immigrants love it here

[RealPlumpBox]

Well I live just south of Seattle, WA in the area known as SeaTac, WA
This list will be short since I just moved here from Connecticut. 2954 miles away.
Have been here since August 2012.

Pros:
+Weather does not bother me
+Lots of cool game shops around OTHER than Gamestop
+rent is pretty cheap
+lots to do if you are an outdoors person
+I work security in downtown Seattle. Thats fun.
+have a car but take the light rail 3 days a week to save on gas.
+MODS Pizza

Cons:
-Hipsters
-South of Seattle is kind of grimm, and ghetto
-Hipsters
-My GF and I are 2 of what I think is 6 white people in my Apt complex.
-Hipsters
-Everything I ever knew or loved is in CT (just moved here) No family here
-Hipsters
-No friends here. All in CT. Anybody in Seattle area want to hang out??? PM ME!!!
-Hipsters
-Everyone thinks they are so much better than you in Seattle. I think because my job I get look at like im trash.
-Hipsters
-People here are passive aggressive, and pretentious.

Thats it for now

[null1024]

Cons:
-Hipsters
-South of Seattle is kind of grimm, and ghetto
-Hipsters
-My GF and I are 2 of what I think is 6 white people in my Apt complex.
-Hipsters
-Everything I ever knew or loved is in CT (just moved here) No family here
-Hipsters
-No friends here. All in CT. Anybody in Seattle area want to hang out??? PM ME!!!
-Hipsters
-Everyone thinks they are so much better than you in Seattle. I think because my job I get look at like im trash.
-Hipsters
-People here are passive aggressive, and pretentious.

See, if I lived in a place full of hipsters, I'd be pretty happy -- that's a subculture I could look down on and feel good about it.
Or at least not feel bad about it, which is close enough.


although the no friends thing would be a bit disappointing

[jonny5]

Toronto Canada

+'s

-all the luxuries of living in a major US metropolis, without having to live in the US
-tons of cultural diversity
-can get pretty much anywhere on bike if you aren't lazy or going way out in the suburbs(Toronto is pretty spread out, since about 15 years ago Toronto 'proper' and most of the smaller municipalities/suburbs around it amalgamated)
-very active music scene
-pretty good weather(winters have been really tame the last few years with hardly any snow and summers often go 30+celcius)
-even right downtown, you can be off on the beach or on trails in 15 minutes by bike
-reasonably good public transit(better than most, but anybody who lives here knows how much of an aggravation it can be, which is where bikes come in )

-'s

-our mayor is an uneducated clown from the suburbs who openly hates on the 'commie-socialist-leftist-pinko's downtown' even though we account for the bulk of the population in the city and as such our voice is the majority, much to the chagrin of the suburbanites. Now if only we could get more of the downtown folk to vote.....
-traffic(not an issue for me as I don't drive and traffic congestion doesn't affect bikes quite the same way, but rush hour is heinous)


There are probably more negatives I can't think of off the top of my head, but overall, Toronto is an awesome place to live!!

[Vexorg]

Well I live just south of Seattle, WA in the area known as SeaTac, WA
This list will be short since I just moved here from Connecticut. 2954 miles away.
Have been here since August 2012.

Pros:
+Weather does not bother me
+Lots of cool game shops around OTHER than Gamestop
+rent is pretty cheap
+lots to do if you are an outdoors person
+I work security in downtown Seattle. Thats fun.
+have a car but take the light rail 3 days a week to save on gas.
+MODS Pizza

Cons:
-Hipsters
-South of Seattle is kind of grimm, and ghetto
-Hipsters
-My GF and I are 2 of what I think is 6 white people in my Apt complex.
-Hipsters
-Everything I ever knew or loved is in CT (just moved here) No family here
-Hipsters
-No friends here. All in CT. Anybody in Seattle area want to hang out??? PM ME!!!
-Hipsters
-Everyone thinks they are so much better than you in Seattle. I think because my job I get look at like im trash.
-Hipsters
-People here are passive aggressive, and pretentious.

Thats it for now

+1 on MOD Pizza. I don't get there too often these days (there isn't one close enough to where I work) but it's some seriously good pizza, and reasonably inexpensive too (for those unfamiliar with them, they're personal-sized pizzas with whatever toppings you want baked in a brick oven for a fixed price.)

Oh, and check out the Northwest STG group on Facebook to find some of the local Shmup fans. They do (usually) weekly meets on Tuesdays at Full Tilt Ice Cream up in Ballard.

As for the Hipsters, it could be worse. Head down to South Lake Union around Amazon to watch a bunch of people trying and failing to be hipsters...

[RealPlumpBox]

I heard about full tilt. its like 25 min away so i may check it out. Dont have face book to look at the NW TSG club page though.

[t0yrobo]

I'm not a big fan of Grand Rapids, but there's a whole bunch of good things about it regardless. If I wasn't dead broke all the time I'd probably really like it here.

+I live a few blocks from a great brewery, and there's a ton of good local beers in the area
-Kinda crummy bar scene, you can be surrounded by frat boys and sluts, or hipsters.
(hipster bars have better drink selection)

+Old, white, rich, religious conservatives invest a ton of money into the city
-Old, white, rich, religious conservatives run a lot of the city

+Most of the city is good for getting around on a bike
-Dumbasses zipping around at night on fixies with no lights or reflectors

-There's a ridiculous number of homeless people for some reason
+In general they really don't bother anybody, and the various shelters and churches seem really well organized to handle the large population

+Pretty solid selection of restaurants
-almost everything closes fairly early

+Fairly close to Chicago
+You could do far, far, worse in Michigan
+There's a surprising number of pinball machines in the area

[cools]

Earth.

Pros - plenty of light, food, water, and oxygen.
Cons - too many people competing for the above.

[GaijinPunch]

So what you are suggesting for foreigners in Japan is to date young and never get married.

Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm suggesting it... it is the norm already anyway.

Falling birth rate might have some far reaching social and economic ramifications but in the big picture of things I think it is a good thing for the human race.

If there's one thing Japan has taught us (and Japanese are REALLY quick to point out), it's that the rules don't apply to them. In this case, it's true. The falling birthrate is a tricky one here. First and foremost, b/c it's a long and hard road down to rock bottom, in which case a huge percentage of the population is going to suffer.

People always moan about how over crowded Japan is, but it's their own fault. All the jobs are Tokyo, so that's where people live. There is TONS of unused land all over the place. Not only that, it's cheap as shit once you leave the greater Tokyo area. The 2nd most populated city is Osaka, and it's much smaller by comparison. Depopulation has been the bane of society long before the demographic crisis. Coupled together, and they are a death sentence.

[opt2not]

Earth.

Pros - plenty of light, food, water, and oxygen.
Cons - too many people competing for the above.

That's deep.

[R79]

Long, fairly empty shoreline/beach, decent 24 hour supermarkets, and plenty of curvy simple minded girls who like a drink and a dance.
After that, I could pretty much live in any anonymous flat in England, as long as I've got a decent internet connection, couple of screens, and a shelf full of games

[Ed Oscuro]

+Old, white, rich, religious conservatives invest a ton of money into the city
-Old, white, rich, religious conservatives run a lot of the city

No names, but his initials are Dick DeVos, right? Yeah I've heard some complaints about that.

Nice city though, seems like a "real" big city but clean at the same time. Interesting place. Lots of neat things to do nearby - the Meijer sculpture garden has its points (shame about the sculptures though, on balance...) and I'm kind of fond of the Ford Presidential Museum actually. I don't know the city especially well, though.

[mesh control]

As if the term hipster wasn't vague enough already.

[greg]

+Fair laws... as long as you aren't really extreme

What about beating the shit out of a kid for spitting bubblegum onto the sidewalk? I never heard the word "caning" until Singapore made the news. I'm not going to pretend my farts don't stink or anything, but I never would have thought that Singapore has fair laws.

Anyhow, about me.

Fuji, Japan
+Beautiful view of Mt. Fuji nearly every morning (except during the summer)
+7-11 is easy walking distance from where I live
+I live within very short bicycle distance to both the train station and the shinkansen station...
+...yet I live in a very quiet neighborhood
+My apartment is bigger and cheaper than people in Tokyo can hope for
+I can hear the cute little frogs singing all summer long in the surrounding rice fields at night
+I live within easy car distance to several mega awesome nerd paradise stores like this one, full of video games, toys, model kits, manga, and DVDs
+An easy, cheap bus ride to Tokyo
+People are nicer and more amiable than people in Tokyo (although nobody's as nice as Kansai people in Japan, IMHO)
+The city is not too big, not too small
+My apartment is only four units, and it's very quiet
+I can hear the train go by since I live near the tracks
+Beautiful nature is within easy car distance (I'm gonna go hike the "suicide forest" more once it's spring)
+Shizuoka is the plastic model capital of the world, and the Shizuoka Hobby Show in May is the biggest model event in the world

-Even though there are train lines branching out from the main station, they don't go to many places
-Thus, everyone drives, so the roads get VERY congested easily (depending on which school I work at, riding my bike is faster)
-Smokestacks everywhere, so the town looks rather industrial
-Paper is a big industry in town, so some parts of town are very stinky. If the wind blows my way, my apartment's neighborhood can be kinda stinky too at times
-I still can't figure out where to get international foods, other than Kaldee Coffee (I want real Parmesan cheese, not the processed powdered stuff in cans you sprinkle on top of spaghetti)
-If the impending earthquake and tsumani doesn't kill us all, then the reactivated Mt. Fuji will erupt and wipe us all out (OMG, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE, etc)
-Everyday I have demons trying to possess me by entering through my belly button, so every night before bath time I have to pull them out. Sure, they are cleverly disguised as pieces of lint, but I know they're really demons from a parallel dimension and they're trying to turn me into a disco vampire

[rancor]

(I'm gonna go hike the "suicide forest" more once it's spring)

If you ever need a companion, please let me know - I am so down for doing this. One of the things I've been wanting to do while I'm here - along with visit one of those abandoned amusement parks.

-Everyday I have demons trying to possess me by entering through my belly button, so every night before bath time I have to pull them out. Sure, they are cleverly disguised as pieces of lint, but I know they're really demons from a parallel dimension and they're trying to turn me into a disco vampire

OMG - I hate this too. Totally with you on this one. Take your clothes to the laundromat every once in a while - It's good to pamper yourself now and then.

[CIT]

Berlin, Germany

Pros:

+ Low crime
+ Extremely low cost of living for a European capital
+ "Free" education and healthcare ("free" because you do pay higher taxes)
+ Clean, breathable air
+ Very international
+ Lots of asian food
+ Don't need a car, I can bike to work and 80% of the route goes through the park
+ Lots of beautiful lakes around the city, great in the summer
+ Every borrough has a unique feel/something different to offer
+ If you're into history: basically anything that had any impact on the 20th century left its mark on the city and can still be felt today
+ Always something to do (music, movies, art, museums, etc.)
+ Excellent nightlife/clubbing (especially if you're into electro), parties last basically the entire weekend long
+ Lots of places to go shopping at 4AM
+ Open minded people, you can do/think/be anything you want here
+ Easy to find women to hook up with


Cons:

- Winter is cold, long, dark and dreary
- Economic difference between East and West Berlin still large
- Generally poor economy, few jobs
- City is full of bums/hipsters with no jobs from all over Europe, who chose this city because of the party scene and cheap living
- Public transportation full of drunk/wasted bums and scenesters
- Lots of cynical, entitlement-seeking left-wing douchebags
- Architecture is a bizarre, incongruent mix of neoclassicism, Nazi and Stalinist triumphalism, glass and steel modernism and concrete-slab housing projects
- Lack of Bavarian-style beers
- The city's gov't keeps pushing new infrastructure projects and turns them into huge clusterfucks (airport that was supposed to open last summer will be delayed by 2-3 years and cost twice as much)
- A lot of places still have the communist East German approach to customer service... meaning none
- People generally not very polite
- No arcades, no non-mainstream videogame store


Overall I very much enjoy living here, and am even planning to buy property at the moment.