For all the long term residents here, how often do you go home?

[FrustratedDave]

I hesitate to say home b/c Japan is my home, but you get the picture. How often do you get back to see your relatives , friends and who ever else is important?

[orochi]

Twice in six years for me.

[Iron Chef]

9 years in Japan total, been home 3 times so far... last visit was 3.5 years ago. I think I am due for another visit soon.

[KirinMan]

3 times in roughly 25 years.

Oh I should say that home is where I am now, going back is to visit other family members.

[nanook]

Not been "home" at all since I came here 7 years ago or so. Hmm, home,,,I don't think, I have one any longer, not here and not "there". Feeling is more like being a global gaijin now.

[Glenski]

Actually, home is where I live now (Japan). Perhaps better wording would have been "homeland" or "home country". Anyway, I find it hard to return due to schedules and a spouse who is petrified of planes and boats. Prices of tickets don't help, either.

[Mike Cash]

The last time I was on an airplane was 1999.

[Dutch Baka]

I haven't been home since I came to Japan... that's just 2 years. I do want to go home every 2 years just to see my family and see how much Amsterdam has changed... (smoke a joint is not going to happen I think lol... however, I will be the tourist )

[Pachipro]

This may have nothing to do with this post, but when I lived in Japan I used go "home" at least once every three years just to see what has changed or not changed as DutchBaka mentioned.

As I, for the last 35 years consider Japan "home", my real home, and I am now in the US, I visit at least once a year and sometimes twice a year until the time comes when I will eventually move back there permanently and probably die there.

To be honest, I would be living in Japan today, but my brother died 4 years ago and I promised him I would care for his dog who was abused and tortured (and missing most of her front teeth, probably from being kicked in the face) and was set for death the day after my brother adopted her, that I cannot break my promise to him or give her to another family who may not care for her as well as we do as she truly is a wonderful companion. Call me weird or crazy, but as much as I want to move back to Japan, I cannot do it yet. I will stay until she leaves this plane of existance. It's the least I can do. After she passes I will return "home".

[FrustratedDave]

Thanks for the post guys. I haven't been back in over 6 years and I was starting to think that I was neglecting the relatives. I would like to go back maybe once every two years but work is just too busy.

[JimmySeal]

Wow, surprising responses. As of next month I will have been home 3 times in 3 years. With the parents on the other side of the globe, I couldn't imagine visiting any less than that.

[Mikawa Ossan]

For the past three years, I've been making an effort to visit my parents once a year.

I figure that they're not getting any younger, and I don't want to regret not taking the time to visit once they've gone. Besides, they're family. The only one I've got.

Unfortunately, it seems that I may have to visit a second time this year. That would be the first time I've done that.

[becki_kanou]

I consider Japan my home too, as I have a business and home here, but I still miss my family. I especially miss my two little nieces who are currently 3 and 5, so I go back once a year so I don't miss out on too much of their growing up.

[Revenant]

Before my son entered elementary school, we got back to Canada once a year, and we stayed there a month, but since he entered elementary school, we haven't been back to Canada. We did meet my family in Hawaii a year ago. Plane tickets are just so expensive during my son's vacations, that and we no longer live together, and my son's activities also take a lot of money at times.

[Dogen Z]

I had been going back about once a year for 4-5 days but this year the airfare surcharge is ridiculous, so I plan to stay put. Going home was kinda boring anyway. Maybe I'll go to Paris instead next year. :)

[Taiko666]

Business takes me to Finland or Denmark once or twice a year, so I always tag on a (practically free) trip to England to see folks and friends. And I normally make at least one 'official' trip 'home' each year too. With 10 nieces & nephews, and my elderly parents in failing health, I wouldn't be happy with fewer than two trips 'home' each year. In fact, I think I see my London-based family more now than when I lived in Stoke in northern England.

EDIT: damn, who am I kidding? When I first came to Japan I was perfectly happy, and indeed eager, to call it 'home' and England 'the place where I was born and raised'. But England will always be 'home'... I just happen to be living elsewhere, perhaps indefinitely. Not sure when the see change occurred. I guess I've never found out the answer to this question. (http://www.jref.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25764)

[美浜ちひろ]

Japan is my home. I have live in America for 5 months. I am attending the 8th grade here. I never go back yet. I hope to be able. I want to visit.

[mr.sumo.snr]

Just returned yesterday. Second time in two years. 2003 was the last time before that. Son's birth that year made visiting his UK grandparents a priority. They came here in 2005 and we all met up in Canada in 2006.

Expect to take a break (from the UK) in 2009 and visit again in 2010.

Crappy weather this year - but it's nice to be back with 4 days this week to recover. Last year landed at Nagoya 8.30 AM (after 11 hour flight), taught elementary school students in Nagano 4.00 PM same day!

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[Roboto-sama]

If by "here", you mean the place where I'm living right now, and by "home" you mean homeland, then, in the 6 years I've lived in the U.S. I've only been back to Mexico a few times the first year, I haven't been there for 5 years.
I call home the place where my family is. Which is here, the U.S. I wish I could go to Japan and live there, but that would mean going back to Mexico, getting my passport (which requires some things) and then taking a flight to Japan from there.

Not happening.
I'll just wait until I marry a U.S. citizen and become a citizen myself. In the meantime, I'll have to learn Japanese language.