Job Discussion Forums

[sethness]

I've lived in mainland Japan for about 6 years now, working mostly as an English teacher.
Although I enjoy English teaching, I miss the Tropics and being able to SCUBA every weekend. A 2-week trip to Ishigaki and Naha convinced me that Okinawa's got what I need (except for that damnable US military presence. )

I've visited Okinawa and would love to live there, but I rarely see ads for eikaiwa jobs down there. Almost all the eikaiwa jobs (at Daveseslcafe, ohayosensei, gaijinpot) seem to focus on mainland Japan locations.

Is there a separate system that Okinawans use to find eikaiwa teachers, or are there just not many jobs teaching English in Okinawa?

Thanks in advance for your advice and opinions.

[JimDunlop2]

[sethness]

Thanks for the input, JimDunlop2....
I would have thought that the military spouses and families would scoop up all the jobs on *Naha* (the main island of Okinawa, where there's a US military base), but how could they also scoop up the jobs on all the other Okinawan islands--the ones that DON'T have a US military base?

As for a SCUBA instructor job, I'm actually already a SCUBA instructor-- was a full-time pro for about a decade--, but I imagine that there are zero-to-no SCUBA-related jobs in Japan that'd grant a foreigner a visa. They also tend to pay very little ($10~13 an hour) compared to a Japanese Eikaiwa ($20~50 / hour).

Last time I checked, there *is/was* a foreign-run SCUBA shop in Naha, but I believe that their owner/foreigner is married to a Japanese person-- no visa worries for that fellah. Also, it was only a one-man shop, and he didn't seem overworked--despite being a stone's-throw from a big U.S. military base.

I don't believe there's much of a calling for a foreign SCUBA instructor on any of the other Okinawan islands....is there?

As for Izu... there might be palm trees, but Izu has a winter. I just can't take Japanese winters any more-- trying to stay half-warm under a kotatsu, or half-baked next to a kerosene heater, is such a waste of half the year. The same would apply probably to Mie, Shikoku, and other mainland Japanese areas-- their winters are just too harsh.

This year, I've promised myself year-round warmth and SCUBA.

*sigh*... might have to look outside Japan.

Thanks for your insight, though. It's much appreciated.

[JimDunlop2]

Again, comes down to population density. What is the population of the other Okinawan islands? And how many of those do you think are in the need of an English instructor? My guess is, probably not a whole lot -- although I could be wrong.

Working as a SCUBA instructor? Well, visa aside, like you said -- if the dive shop in Naha wasn't too busy, you can't imagine that the other islands would be much more so. In fact, I wonder how many dive shops there actually are on the other islands...

As an aside, my wife and I are taking off to go to Thailand at the end of March. We're heading out to Koh Tao to do our OW. I have a friend who goes out to Izu all the time so I'd actually like to start to go diving with him. Can't wait! BTW, do you hang out on scubaboard.com at all?

[sethness]

I hadn't heard of ScubaBoard.com 'til you mentioned it.
I've got my own SCUBA website, but it's mostly devoted to teh US territories in the pacific: scubaonthe.net

You'll also see a number of my scuba-site reviews at shorediving.com

Haven't been to Thailand yet. A phriend in Phuket is constantly trying to talk me into moving down there-- there are tons of English-teaching jobs there-- but the income's abysmal: $600~800 a month. It's fine for the cost of living in Thailand, but it's rubbish if you ever plan to leave Thailand.

Have you tried diving in Viet Nam, yet? I'd like to know how that compares to places I've been.

[Glenski]

[sethness]

2,500 yen an hour is what I used to get teaching 25-or-less contact hours per week. My employer didn't require me to hang around the office when I wasn't working, so I didn't include the "office hours" that are commonplace in so many other eikaiwa positions.

As for the 5,000 yen per hour figure-- that's if you're teaching on your own, outside an eikaiwa. It's trivially easy to have (say) 3, 4 or 5 students in group-lessons paying 5,000~8,000 yen per month, meeting once a week. Subtract a few dollars for the shuukaisho or kouminkan that rents you the room, a little more for the tea and cookies for adult students, and you're still gettin' rich.

[Smooth Operator]

Well, you could try Kyushu. I don't know about Hiroshima, but the winter here has been very mild this year. I even got sunburnt a few times playing sports this winter.

[JimDunlop2]

[Smooth Operator]

True enough but I was sunbathing on my balcony yesterday...