Job Discussion Forums

[Nicedog777]

Well, I got the details I wanted from AEON, and have accepted a position in Yamaguchi city, Yamaguchi prefecture. Anyone been to the city itself? I looked on their website, and it seems very nice and all, it's called Little Kyoto, as I understand. It seems a good fit for me, as I am kinda small town, myself.

Still, I'd love to know anything from the wealth of experience that you all possess. What sort of social atmosphere shall I be spending a year of my life in, any good izakayas in the area, watering holes in general, good cinemas, etc.

Thanks in advance for any insight I may receive.

[durks]

Hello

Thought I would bump this back up in the hope of finding out ANY info on this area!

I am particularly interested in Ube City as this is where I have received an offer from. I realsie this area is fairly smalltown but how small town are we talking?

Also providing I do not what to go out all the time and travelling out of the city every weekend how much of my 260,000 wage can I save with a rent of 32,000?

Any info would be great

[canuck]

I have a friend that lived in Tokyuyama, Yamaguchi. Through his job, he had a car, taught 18 hours a week fron an eikaiwa, had a blast. Hiroshima wasn't more than a 90 minute drive or bus ride, could go to the beach fairly easily and rush hour didn't exist in his town. He made good friends and had the opportunity to study and use Japanese everyday...he had to. He knew all the foreigners in his town, and made many Japanese friends.

The rent was cheap, and he lived cheaply. He saved around $15,000+ Canadian in a year.

[ironopolis]

Yamaguchi City is a really nice place, but it is pretty sleepy too. In fact, although it's the prefectural capital, it's not the prefecture's biggest city. Shinmonoseki, the last place in Honshu before you cross over to Kyushu, has that honour. I'm a big fan of Yamaguchi Prefecture - it's not very densely populated and has a great mix of nice beaches, scenic mountains, attractive countryside with a few bits of historical interest thrown in. There's a very impressive cave (Akiyoshido), close to Yamaguchi City. At the same time, it has just enough in the way of livelier places and not too distant bigger cities for when you need them.

If you want to spend some time in a bigger place, the closest big city is actually Kitakyushu, not Hiroshima. On the shinkansen from Shin-Yamaguchi station, it's 20 minutes to Kokura, the downtown part of Kitakyushu. Hiroshima's not a lot further, about 35 minutes on the bullet train.

Ube is at the western end of Yamaguchi, and from there Kitakyushu is much closer than Hiroshima. In fact, from Ube, Fukuoka City is probably about the same distance as Hiroshima. Fukuoka is perhaps less interesting than Hiroshima from a tourist point of view, but if you want big city type facilities, it'll be much the better of the two.


Edit - oops, didn't see the date the OP typed that - still, hopefully useful to somebody.

[Khyron]

[ironopolis]