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South Korea (non-big city)

Firsthand Experience: Taught in South Korea for one year.

Cost of Living 8
Some stuff was absurdly cheap such as vegetables and rice. You can feed a large group of foreigners on a very small price. Plus, appetizers (kimchi, cucumbers etc) are generally free. Foreigner bars and western restaurants are quite costly though and dairy products are worth a pretty penny. However, I often ate off of about 8,000W/day with no problem. Electric bills were pretty cheap for my apartment. Probably about 30,000W. Internet around the same price on a monthly basis. Healthcare is also very cheap. Had a 5-night hospital stay and paid 300,000W (give or take $300).

Nightlife 4
Pretty awful in the small cities (population <1M). Drinking and karaoke gets boring fast. Got some expensive foreigner joints, but not a whole lot of live music outside of places like Seoul and Busan. Thankfully, SK is a small country and public transportation is cheap and efficient. So, making a trip to a big city is rarely a difficult task.

How Scary 9
I would often go on long walks in the middle of the night along poorly lit roads if I had trouble sleeping. People will stare and may make snide remarks in Korean, but it’s a lot of fluff. Most of them are pretty cool. Some people might get pissed if you have a Korean girlfriend, but if you got any muscle they’ll **** off. Police are lazy and really don’t give a **** unless it’s a major violent crime. Don’t get sick as Korean hospitals outside of cities are poorly kept and contain almost archaic medical practices.

Poker 1
Walker Hill in Seoul is the only places that provide poker and it’s normally 1 or 2 tables of NL Hold’em with an absurdly high rake. Outside of the big cities, you’ll have expat home games but they rarely play seriously and quite frankly downright retarded poker.

Easy to Get There 4
Used to be a cakewalk. Now the visa laws are tighter than a duck’s ass. Takes over 3 months to get the paperwork for an E2 visa and then you need to hope that a decent job comes along for it. Tourist visas are easy to obtain but making a living as a foreigner there is almost impossible unless you get a uni job, are bilingual or marry a Korean woman. It is impossible to get actual citizenship there if you are a foreigner. You can apply for a Permanent Resident visa and can get one based on passing a Korean test, having a stable job, having a wife, going through some social integration program and some other things. Gyopos (foreign born Koreans) can get a special visa as well.