thinking i might head off to japan for 6-12 months to teach english.

anyone done this?

any experiences of japan would be welcomed…… cheers

A friend’s younger brother did it a while ago now and ended up staying there for about 3 years in Tokyo TEFL.

I have only been once and didn’t get beyond Tokyo. I found it very oppressive even though I had lived in NYC for a number of years.

Would love one day to go back and see a lot more of the country though but Tokyo is very claustophobic IMO

oppresive? how so?

tell no-one that you are there teaching english, or they will hate you

don’t try and take any vics sinex over with you

those chicken skewer mini kebabs are actually the knuckles not tasty little bits of chicken

trains don’t run late

that weird noise is not air conditioners but strange moths things called “Semi”, they live underground for years as beetles then crawl up onto trees and hatch out and make bizzare noises everywhere!

typhoon season ROCKS!!

don’t be alarmed if a suit wearing man throws up over himself then declares “breakankneeshaw” and then falls to the ground, he’s just drunk.

chuck money in the baskets at the toll roads, its automatic and deals in random handfuls of change

shopping for rare vinyl & CD’s at 4am is good fun, especially when fueled by vending machine supplied booze

you can buy nice meat & sauce things from the supermarkets, get used to eating a lot of rice

saki gets you drunk quick but then you sober up almost as soon as you leave the bar, kinda ruins pans for drunken ambling, stick to beer! whiskey is over priced

take whiskey with you, it is highly regarded

you will get given gifts when you visit people, don’t unwrap it there and then!

invite them to your house, then repay the favor with a gift (this is where lots of whiskey, shortcake, biscuits and other whatnottery comes in handy!)

tell me when you’re going , I need some more tatami flip flops!!

what were you doing there mrnutt?

😆 i LOOOOOOVE japan 🙂

spend about 7 week travelling there. the people are really nice, once you’ve broken the initial barrier – few will make eye contact with you, and unless you look in real trouble, i found few will approach you in the street to help – the ones who helped me always seemed to have lived in the US or australia for a bit.
it seems a little unfriendly, but its not that, its just their culture i guess, very private people, until you get to know them.
if you ask someone to help you though, very few will refuse, and they will try their utmost to help – someone missed their train home helping me… if they refuse it is either because they are shy (esp, ime, younger women) or because they do not have the confidence in english, i guess.

tokyo is just another world, but things get slightly more ‘normal’ once you’re out of there, its still totally different, but i found sapporo (and hokkaido as a whole) a really pleasant place to be.

the trains are incredible. the little local trains (max 60kph, stop at every stop) are a great way to see the country and watch ‘normal’ people.

they really appreciate it when you attempt to speak japanese – make an effort to learn some before you go, and at least try – the are a lot more willing to help once you’ve put the effort in, the general standard of english, i found, to be relatively low, compared to other well developed countries. this isn’t some sort of post-colonialist dig at them, i gather many of them speak korean etc.

the countryside ifs beautiful, worth trying to get out for some hiking or mtbing etc.
try and find as many of the wacky things there are to do as possible, cos otherwise you’ll not have the chance again 🙂

I have been on holiday there for a couple of weeks. Did most of the tourist places so no experience of living there.

Thoughts were that it was an amazing country, great people, culture, food, buildings, history etc.

Love to go back. Have friends who’ve done the teaching bit and raved about how good it was. You should go!

The only issue would be prices. It was about comparable to England when we were there in 2006 at 200yen to the pound. Now we’re at 140 it will be expensive, hence the biking bits price hike.

i’m curretnly in germany so pretty used to the people ‘appearing’ rude, despite the fact that many of them are rude.

i have met a few japanese in the past and all seem to be pretty cool people.

alpin – Member
oppresive? how so?

Alpin,

I have no experience of Japan in general but Tokyo has to be one of the most **** ugly cities in the world. As you would expect it is a sprawling, very densily populated metropolis but alas it is also pretty much all the same – ulgy and characterless.

Whereas both Manhatten and London have distict areas each with their own identity and character then Tokyo has non of these. In New York you can pretty much walk from the bottom to the top in a couple of hours and you will see so many different sides of the city in terms of race, culture, wealth and all in all it all gets along just fine. Do this in Tokyo and you will just feel lost as if you have been walking around in circles.

I am not even sure if there is a single park in the city!

Maybe its hard as a westerner to understand and observe the differences as the culture is so different – but I also felt disappointed as it just felt like any other crap big city – but just uglier and where everyone was Japanese

Probably many on here who would disagree with me though ….

trying to delicately sidestep a marriage proposal!

Tokyo has many, many parks and nice they are too.

I was there for a couple of days in November on the way to NZ and met up with a colleague (Japanese speaker) who gave us a wee tour. Emperor’s Palace gardens, a very open park where tons of locals were playing sports, picnicing, etc. and another (densely-wooded) park with a huge shrine. Can’t remember names, sorry. Lots of interesting shrines and small gardens to check out.

I found Tokyo to be much less mad than I expected (after seeing movies and TV show), and the folk were friendly, even if you did just point at things on menus and indicate the quantity! Some simple phrases (please, thanks, hello) go a long way. Subway was easy to use (altho there apparently still some stations with no English signage) and 99% of road signs had English+Japanese on them.

I’m keen to go back…and see more of the country.

I can understand that mentality. Hard to describe but in someway opposite to the consumer-American way?
Ps. I need the Mad Capsules Markets 91-97 CD if anyone is going out there soon? No one sells it here (only the later best of) and even Hong Kong etc didnt sell it.

Tokyo is very different in different areas! It is a sprawling huge city though. Loved it as a place to visit, I would never live there though. Just so many people makes london look empty.

Tokyo is a fantastic city, only briefly been to a few other places so can’t really comment on them but I lurve Tokyo.
Really nice distinct areas, wander around neon lights and then old temples, you could happily spend weeks exploring.
The transport is gloriously efficient and the people are very friendly, eat everything you can as it’s all good, had some glorious food and overall can’t wait to go back.

I lived in Japan for 4 years teaching English. Very interesting place to live as many of the above people have said. The only downside is that teaching English is the most soul destoying job in the world, it’ll be fine if you only plan to do it for a year or so, but don’t think of making a career out of it.
And bear in mind that since Nova, the biggest English school in Japan went bust in 2007, it has become more competitive in the job front with lots of people chasing less jobs. Factor in the slump in the world economy and its effect on Japan, the state of the jobs market may get worse. The salary for a standard English teaching job has not increased since the 1980s and if anything has recently started to decrease.

Only been there for a short visit but I found it fascinating, so much to see that is unfamiliar it’s hard to take it all in. Even the motorway service stations are a treat….vended everything or fresh cooked. Some amazing scenery on the drive from Osaka to Hiroshima. The Ring of Fire Aquarium in Osaka is worth a visit if you are in that area. I’d love to go again for longer.

ah, interesting.

i’ve got CELTA qualification. was thinking of buggering off for 6 months or so whilst the GF wraps up her diploma.

you say “soul destroying”… why so?

how did you about getting a job? it seemed lots of adverts request uni degree, is this always the case?

cheers.