I'm building a website that seeks to answer this question and similar questions through user self-reporting of slow travel and expat experiences.

http://www.istorical.com

A post by a Brit who moved to Prague:

http://www.istorical.com/countries/czech-republic/experience...

An American's experiences moving to Germany:

http://www.istorical.com/cities/berlin/experiences/138

A couple of interesting posts about life in Japan:

http://www.istorical.com/countries/japan/experiences/49

http://www.istorical.com/countries/japan/experiences/78

There are only ~150 or so posts so far but I think there's already a lot of interesting insight and stories to read!