Last week I had dinner with a buddy who left ANA for an airline in his home country (in Europe). His take home pay is cut by half but his sanity is up 10x. He is happy, dare I say glowing, about where he's at in life. For him the Asian gig, and all it's games played in the name of "culture", just didn't work.
Funny that you wrote that.... there have been more than a few pilots that left to go back to europe just to be back after a few years...., go figure!