same same

As much as things change they also stay the same. So the things that motivated me to leave England are starting to stare me down again. No place to run, no place to hide. I think it is time I face this and hopefully move on. I do love Japan and I think doing this here will work better for me. I need a PhD to move on with my career and 95% of the process is going to be learning about playing the game someone elses way, subordination. It isn't about right/wrong or clever or even the science most of the time. It is about people and convincing people, and until one gets the credentials one is little more than an apprentice. As a friend said: if an professor thinks he could get his graduate students to pick up his dry cleaning he would.
But the end is that a PhD or any advanced degree is about suffering through a process where one must lean to tolerate people you hate, make alliances with people you don't care for, play the game, be extremely tough on the inside, and realize that you're probably going to break down several times over the course of several years... The advisor holds the cards, he makes up the game and the rules, and he can change it if he wants. Learning to respect authority for the sake of authority. I am such a free spirit this will be interesting.