Can't decide between China, Japan & US

[MarkKol]

i'd like to start this post by briefly explaining my situation and desires: 

• One of my strongest values of all is: Multiculturalism, essentially what being multicultural means to me is: i like exploring foreign and diverse cultures, i like learning new languages and i also like living life on the edge, which living in a foreign country brings me exactly that.
• my favorite types of people seem to be the fun, restless and the irony of liking countercultural types of people (something like steve jobs, rebellious, one might call it)
• i'm currently living in my native country: Croatia (a country in Europe right next to Italy) as for the reasons i don't want to live here anymore: Too cramped, too "static" and as diverse as the solid color gray. 
• Always been 100% confident since day 1 that i would live in US but recently that changed because 2 new candidates have joined the party: Japan and China

Since i've spent a shit ton of time on this forum i also have a life purpose(s) and passions which i'm still dwelling over which one i should choose or possibly choose both:
1. Music (Mumble, geeky, extremely happy sounding music)
2. Fashion (Dapper, colorful, maybe even something as unusual as anime inspired clothes)
i must say that these two would go great together and are compatible with each other unlike my "where should i live" situation

Pro's and Cons of each country: (add your own if you know some) BOLD Cons are extra bad 

      United states 

• Violence and crime rate (CON) i like walking at night, how am i supposed to do that there, my town's population is somewhere around 1k-1.5k people. In 2018 15,498 people we're killed in United States. I don't remember the documentary, but i was watching one on Youtube last month and i remember the exact quote the women said about the reason her son was killed "It was a drive by shooting, they thought he was someone else" that sentence really changed my perception of US, HOW THE FUCK DO YOU KILL SOMEONE... THINKING HE WAS SOMEONE ELSE?
• Extremely Diverse (PRO) 
• Expensive (CON)
• Social (PRO)
• I have family over there, giving my an edge with VISAS/Green Card (PRO)
• i already know a bit of the language as you can see, even tho i am Croatian i nailed the American accent perfectly in my humble opinion, so much so that i'm actually confident singing English songs, without any obvious "not native english" disadvantages and since i want to be a English Musician living in the US will probably allow me to learn more advanced and complex words.

     Japan

• Literally the fashion Capital of the world (PRO)
• Japanese citizens seem really shy to me (CON/Personal Opinion) i like social people 
• Lowest crime rates in the world (PRO) unlike US
• Discrimination towards foreigners (CON) people treat foreigners differently, restaurants sometimes have "NO FOREIGNERS" signs.. etc
• Anime is a big part of their culture (PRO)
• They seem to be very manner oriented, which is why they don't like foreigners if you were wondering (i'm not sure how to look at this manners thing, on one hand i could look at is as something i should already have, and on the other hand i could look at this as clinging to their culture like a dog on a leash, you can be a rebel in America but not in Japan! Because Japan is like 98% native Japanese while US is extremely diverse which allows people's differences to be "overlooked", and yes i know i'm talking about the most racist country on planet earth, but i'm talking about behavior differences not skin color.
• CHEAP TO LIVE ! (PRO)

     China

• To my surprise China is not Discrimintive, and from what I've gathered they like foreigners, in a video titled "What's it like being a foreigner in China" one guy said "People are more likely to approach you and try to talk to you" if you're a foreigner that is... their reason being is that foreigners are there to help boost the economy. (PRO) bonus: this is only the case in China's large cities where they are used to foreigners, but to people living on the country side you are a mythical creature, in a positive way like they want to take pictures with you and shit. at the end of the day these people have probably never seen anything besides asian people
• also to my surprise China is cheap af, i knew China was poor but you would think that a global superpower country with 1.4 Billion people would be expensive, at least the biggest cities like Shanghai or Beijing.

personal side note about language: I currently don't know any Chinese or Japanese, but even if i move to the US, i'm still going to study either Chinese or Japanese on the daily. 
my options right now are either move permanently to one of those countries or Maybe switch between them constantly which i don't think is a good idea
I could live in United States and go to china every year for maybe 1-3-4 months, maybe because there are a lot of Asians in China i could keep up with the language learning while i'm there.

[Wyeth]

if you go to even a half decent city/town in the US the crime and violence won't be a problem. Don't let the documentary scare you.

Edited July 2, 2021 by Wyeth

[MarkKol]

3 minutes ago, Wyeth said:

if you go to even a half decent city/town in the US the crime and violence won't be a problem. Don't let the documentary scare you.

Half decent like? i would imagine low salaries contribute to more violence.

[Opo]

4 hours ago, MarkKol said:

To my surprise China is not Discrimintive

If you're white. 

[Harlen Kelly]

1 hour ago, Opo said:

If you're white. 

Bingo.

[Chew211]

Yo I've been living in Japan for the last 3 years. 

Learn the language and the culture, and there's way less discrimination towards you. You will get different treatment for being a foreigner, but I see it as a plus. You don't have harsh expectations Japanese ppl hold each other too. 

Also, not all Japanese people are shy. You there are outgoing ppl here, just like everywhere else. 

Cheap to live in the countryside, more expensive in the city. 

It's not the most racist country on Earth. I'm not white for the record. I'm of Indian descent. Being from the US is somewhat of a plus though, but ultimately, most Japanese ppl haven't really met a foreigner, so you can shape their perspective (of you at least). 

[erik8lrl]

I would go to Shanghai. Good music and fashion there, and a lot of foreigners from around the world to meet. Super safe and high tech, great infrastructures and transportation. Lots of opportunities, always exciting. It's also a hub for Geeks, lots of anime/game conventions.  

Also, China actually has a very diverse culture within itself. Every province (23 provinces) has its own history and culture (different food, fashion, environment, or even language). You can experience the international modern megacities one day and then go to more culturally rich cities the next. High-speed rail covers the entire country, so you can travel between cities really fast.   

China and Japan are really close, so you can travel between them pretty easily. Japan is really nice too. 

I think the biggest challenge for you will be the language, Chinese is really hard, but once you learn it, you can learn Japanese faster (and vise versa) because they share many similarities. 

Culturally China will probably be the most different from your culture. Japan is similar in some ways and different in other aspects (to China). The US and China are culturally the opposite of each other. So if you want to experience something totally different, then China or Japan is a good place to do so.

 

Edited July 2, 2021 by erik8lrl

[UDT]

@erik8lrl  Shanghai is boring af, have you been? suuuper boring.