Six-Year Long Distance Love leads to Happy End

"Yuichiro and I met 1999 in San Francisco," says Alexi PIWON, a native of Frankfurt, Germany. "We were both university students and studied English there for a year. Back in Germany, my friends told me not to fall in love with an American guy because America is so far away from Germany ... Instead of that, I fell in love with a Japanese man."

"There were many international students and we got to know many interesting and nice people," Alexi recalls. "Yuichiro and I became cheer friends and we spent a lot of time together. Whenever we were sad or homesick, we would listen to each other, help each other and cheer each other up. We felt a strong bond between us and we were inseparable during that year."

After the language program was over, the pair decided to spend Christmas and the Millennium together in New York. "It was our last time together before going back to our countries," Alexi says. "After that we have had a long distance relationship for almost six years!!! We would call each other almost every day and visit each other during university vacation/holidays, etc."

"The long distance relationship has definitely been a challenge for us. It was often very difficult to communicate only on the phone. There were many misunderstandings, sleepless nights, the fear that our relationship may break because of the distance, etc. Fortunately we have both very understandable and helpful families. Our parents were supporting us from the beginning. This made things easier for us and we could focus on our goal: to stay together."

There was just one obstacle left: deciding where to live. "I had my life, my family, and my friends back in Frankfurt, Germany," Alexi says. "Yuichiro had his life in Ikoma, Japan. Even though I felt a strong passion and affection for Japan and its culture, it was very difficult for me to imagine living in Japan. I grew up in Germany, in Frankfurt. Frankfurt is very international and I was always very independent there."

In Japan, Alexi says she would have to change her way of life and would be dependent on her fianc·because she can't speak Japanese. "Yuichiro will maybe become a president of his father's company, so it was unlikely that he could move to Germany. Last year, I made up my mind to move to Japan, find a job here and put an end to the long distance relationship and start a 'normal' relationship together! It has been our goal and finally we could start to live together like all those many couples which we have always envied."

"Living together in Japan has been a second big challenge for us, because it brought our relationship to a new, different stage," Alexi says. "Japan isn't a multicultural society, so somehow I always stand out. I felt very lonely and lost at the beginning. The feeling of being different, an outsider, just because I am European was a huge challenge for me here in Japan. But I am very happy and lucky because I'm together with Yuichiro and I made some good friends in Japan. I found a good job and I can be more and more independent, like in Germany. Yesterday we had our anniversary (seven years) and we could finally celebrate it together, not on the phone."

The couple has now started to make wedding plans, but they have one more difficulty to overcome: to decide whether to have the wedding party in Germany or in Japan. - "I am sure we can rule that out too," emphasizes Alexi.