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

CNN —

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.

Related article ‘Never a boring moment:’ The couple who left Canada to live in former Soviet Central Asia

“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.