I have been giving my transition back to the U.S. much thought recently. After living in Japan for 16 years, I often joke that I have suffered from reverse culture shock. Having left the comforts of small town rural America at 17 years old, I found myself in some of the most interesting and hard driving locations around the world. Not once did I regret leaving home and embracing the globe as my home.

As I got older and settled down with marriage followed by children, little things began to nag at me. I was living in Tokyo a massive metropolis of concrete, steel and of course cell phones. I had a good job, a nice apartment but something was missing. I realized that what I wanted for my new born daughter was not to bring her into a world surrounded by millions of people like schools of fish going on all directions.

The term Quality of Life had become my battle cry. I would say that as a D.I.N.K. couple Tokyo was a pretty awesome place to live. With children, memories of my own childhood began to dominate my wishes for my own children growing up. The decision was made to move back to the U.S..

Unfortunately, we jumped from the frying pan right into the fire relocating to New York City. Initially things were much better. Language was no longer an issue and you could actually drive 45 minutes and see actual trees and forests. Unlike Tokyo where a 2 hour trip gets you to the fringes of Tokyo by car and getting back can take upwards of 5 hours on the weekend.

Quality of life had improved, but something was still missing. We were in an apartment again. I wanted a house with a Yard. That meant another move. This time to New Jersey, West Orange to be exact. We found a nice house with a large yard. We had arrived. For the next 2 years, this house became our home. Sure there were nagging little issues like the commute into New York for work every day.

Personally, I was content. I had a nice home that I could relax in on the weekends and forget about life in the city. What was pointed out to me was that there was no real sense of community in West Orange. There was no real "Main Street" as the real Main Street was shared with Orange just off of Newark which is to say quite urban.

This was odd because to the north slightly was Montclair, NJ and to the south was South Orange. Two communities that were very "Village centric." West Orange was just spread out. At the same time, my Son was born. With two children now, the desire began to grow around raising them in a nice community. A year later, the decision was made to go smaller still and sell our home in West Orange and move to Ridgewood, NJ.

I believe we have now arrived. Ridgewood is a quaint township in Northern New Jersey. It has a wonderful town center with several shopping streets, Diners, Coffee Shops and many community parks. The YMCA is huge and has a plethora of activities for adults and children alike. Anything you need is within a 5 to 10 minute drive or better yet, you can walk.

So as you can see, over the last 3 years, my world has become progressively smaller. The true value is that my families quality of life has improved as the world around us has gotten smaller. The trick is going to be staying in contact with the rest of the world as our focus narrows.

They say the grass is always greener on the other side of the tracks and I am sure others out there in rural areas would die to live in Tokyo or New York. What I can tell you, is that it gets old. Sometimes, you need to be in a place that caters to your state of mental health, family and general escape from the grind. For now, I am going to enjoy my own personal Mayberry.