This man left the US for what he thought would be a six-month trip to Japan. 32 years later, he’s still there

When he traveled to Japan for a “short term” work assignment back in 1992, Dave Prucha, from California, would never have predicted that he’d still be there 32 years later.

The former university professor, who had never visited the East Asian country before then, says he thought he’d stay for six months or a year at the most.

“I didn’t know anything about Japan,” Prucha tells CNN Travel via Zoom. “I looked at this being a stint for me to take some time off and earn some money at the same time.”

Life-changing decision
However, Prucha has gone on to build a home, get married, have three children, and launch an American craft beer company in the more than three decades since then.

“Even after 32 years, I still feel like, ‘Wow, I really like living here,’” he says. “It’s so much fun.”

Prucha’s interest in Japan began when he studied International Business at San Francisco State University (SFSU) during the early nineties and learned more about the destination.

“Japan was a major rival economy of the US at the time, and I knew little about it,” he says. “I wanted to find out more about the country and people. “

After a chance meeting with a teacher based in Japan while he was working at a hotel, Prucha was offered a temporary role at a high school in Tokyo in December 1991, and jumped at the opportunity.

He left San Francisco and set off for Japan the following year, bringing very little with him.

“I really didn’t have too much of anything,” says Prucha, who was 28 at the time. “I wasn’t attached to many materialistic things.

“So I came to Japan pretty much with no baggage, and that was helpful. But I had an open mind, and I think I was young enough.”

Reflecting on his first impressions of the country, Prucha says he was immediately struck by how “cohesive” the society was and the amount of “attention to detail,” particularly in Tokyo.

“The society was focused on harmony and cohesiveness, and everybody seemed to know exactly what to do,” he says. “Waiting for trains, they knew where to stand in line.

“They had very similar mannerisms and were very well mannered and polite. The streets were super clean. People seem to know their jobs.

“I couldn’t stop observing just how amazing and different it was when I first got here.”

Prucha says he loved Japan “from the get-go,” and felt that the country “would be a good fit” for him.

“I’ve always admired that level of synchronicity and harmony in any society,” he adds. “People coming together, working together as a group to kind of get things done.”