I certainly don’t miss the smog of Seoul, or the yellow clouds blowing down from China.

Security is really an overblown concern, there are not many cities in Europe that are cutthroat. Cleanliness is a bigger difference, you do miss the squeaky clean metro and public places.

Convenience: I love kombinis as much as the next guy, but I also know what makes them possible is brutal hours and underpaid staff. Flashbacks of an elderly cashier at the supermarket next door in Tokyo, who had to stand all day and bow to each and every customer until her back was bent… I’m okay with not being able to buy a bento on a Sunday at 3 am if that means the store workers are not exploited and overworked.

What I miss, strangely, is population density. There’s a certain charm to rubbing elbows with thousands of strangers in lively streets at every time of night and day. But now that I have a family, living in a European city is hands-down better (work life balance, school system and child services…).

I travelled and lived abroad extensively before settling down, but when the time came, as much as I loved living in new places, I couldn’t escape the fact that my closest friends and family was back home, and nobody was getting any younger. I felt I had to go back to be with the people I love, because ultimately that was more important than “place”.

But not everyone is like that. My partner is from halfway across the world and, fortunately for us, she’s more than happy to be away from her folks and go there only on vacation. They’re not bad people, but she just loves her independence.

So ultimately my advice is: you know yourself better than we do, what truly makes you happy?

Dude, America’s former president is talking about crushing his political opponents like “vermin”, shooting shoplifters in the street and overriding elections. The stuff in France is just small beer. If Marine Le Pen was in America, she’d be center left.