Job Discussion Forums

[moot point]

This topic seems to come up a lot with new teachers seeking jobs. Especially those who are looking at jobs outside of the big centres (i.e. rural Japan).

I read about people worrying about a social life, being able to make friends, etc.

In my personal experience, I think you'll actually find there are more opportunities available for a "Japanese lifestyle" in the country. Where I'm living now, I actually find it tiring to the extent that there is just so much to do. Judo lessons are offered twice a week at the local high school and karate lessons are held three times. You can also take Hawaiian dance lessons, yoga, flower arrangement, bird-watching, etc. if you'd like (all for free).

Meanwhile, there are so many events throughout the year such as the upcoming eki-den races and triatholon where we can all get a free dinner even if we're not a contestant.

I mentioned that these opportunities and events are tiring in that I tend to think of them as my job since most of my students would be attending them.

All of this activity is also hard to make time for my real passions of surfing and mountain-biking, but it is an opportunity that just didn't arise when I was living in an urban area.

[abufletcher]

I'm not so sure "urban" vs. "rural" is an accurate why to divide up the Japan pie. One might make a useful distinction between "big city" and "everyplace else" but so many of the places characterized in job posts as "rural" are about as modern a place to live as any in Japan. The fact that there are rice fields between the homes hardly makes a place rural. And I doubt that a typical family in a "rural" area like Kagawa lives very much different than a typical family in some suburb of a larger town.

Granted there are still some truly rural places in Japan. But here in supposedly "rural" Zentsuji (Kagawa) I'd have to be driving some distance to get to them. In the end the only thing that the terms "rural" vs. "urban" really index are "less" vs. "more" shopping and commercial entertainment possibilities.

[denise]

Moot point--

I completely agree. I spent two years in a non-urban/semi-rural/rice farming small town (30,000, but with towns and cities of 100,000 and 500,000 close by), and there was plenty to do. I had possibly one of the wackiest experiences of my life getting involved in a kanjiki (bambo snow shoe) race in a neighboring small town. I don`t know if such a thing would have been possible in Tokyo. (Duh, no snow in Tokyo...) There was never a dull moment in my wee little town!

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[JaredW]

I lived in Amakusa for six months which is an island group connected by bridges to the mainland by Kumamoto. The island itself had less than 50,000. I saw 3 other white people (1 was a catholic bishop who was freaking awesome) and there was never any shortage of awesome things to do. Also, in these "rural" places the people are really patriotic towards their town and so they'll tell you all about it.

[Vince]

My travels to the more rural areas convinced me they were the place to be. Fujieda, Hakata, Kishiwada, and even Hanno in Saitama were all great. There's more shopping and encapsulated culture where I was in Tokyo, but you can always take the shinkansen into Tokyo for a day. The more wholesome experience is, for me at least, in the rural areas. I'd like to check out more of eastern Japan, particularly Akita. Unfortunately, my wife is a Tokyoite who considers living anywhere else a disgrace.

[abufletcher]

I've always thought that the geography of of Japan should be described as "Tokyo and everyplace else" since that seems to be how the Japanese see things. People in Osaka (or another other large cities) are just Tokyo wannabes.

[abufletcher]

Oh and if you have kids (or want to) by all means get out of the city. I can't even imagine how our life with our three children would have been in a large city vs. in "rural" Zentsuji. I doubt we would have stayed in Japan as long as we have (did).

[Vince]

[Gordon]

I never would have come to Japan in the first place, if my job had been in Tokyo. My visit there earlier this year, confirmed my expectations. With a family, Tokyo would be a very expensive place to live.

[Brooks]

Abufletcher, you are quite ignorant if you think all people outside Tokyo wish they lived there.
My wife is from Osaka,　and she detests Tokyo.
Her nephew is from Tokushima and can`t stand living in Tokyo.
He is going to move back to Tokushima city in March.

Yes, there are people from Kochi probably who dream of Shibuya but many are proud of where they live. I find Japanese people to be like Germans, in that they are very regional.

[abufletcher]

I just meant that there is a very strong sense of centralization in Japan at many levels. Also I didn't mean to imply that Tokyo was seen as "better" than "everywhere else" just that people thought of life there differently. For example, they may hate it. Your right about regional pride of course.

[Brooks]

there are people that flock to Tokyo, mostly to work.
Tokyo is like Paris and London in that everything is there: jobs, the government, company headquarters, etc.

I find Osaka people to be the most proud of their furusato.
They are the least likely to speak Kanto ben in Tokyo of all Japanese people.
I find that people in Kanto and Tohoku have an easier time of assimilating in Tokyo.

Osaka and west of it is like a different culture, like Ireland is different from southern England. The culture and dialects are different.

People in western Japan have a harder time in Tokyo. Western Japan seems like southern France to me, and Osaka is like Marseille: a place that has been derided for its crime and a city that wants to rival the capital Paris.
Of people that don`t like Tokyo I hear how cold and stuck up they think Tokyo jin are.

[johanne]

I live in Yokohama with my 4 year old daughter and actually I feel a bit differently than other posters in that I can't imagine raising her in a rural setting in Japan. There are so many things to do here in terms of science museums, kids' activities and other things. I imagine the same is true in rural areas, but here the choice is almost unlimited. Also, we've met a lot of other bi-racial kids living nearby and she doesn't stand out very much from other kids. She's had a chance to make Japanese friends as well as English-speaking ones. I feel, for Japan, the atmosphere here is quite international and has been an easy adjustment for her. For example the hoikuen where she'll be starting soon is used to kids who don't speak Japanese as a first language as every year they have a handful. Also, at the local elementary school where she'll be going in a couple of years there are about a dozen mixed kids enrolled, some who speak Japanese as their mother tongue and some who don't, like my daughter. Nobody here really seems to care or notice us speaking English together on the bus, unlike when we went on a trip to Hakone where several people started talking about us. I was a bit surprised at that considering what a tourist destination Hakone is, so it made me think rural life might be a bit uncomfortable in terms of blending in and leading a normal life. Of course, I am biased in that I grew up in a city, Montreal, and my husband grew up in Yokohama, and while we both enjoying the countryside for visiting and relaxing, we are a city family at heart. Anyway, I just wanted to put out a different view. I think it's very much a personal decision which is best for you, with or without a family.

[Gordon]

Johanne,
What about if you want to go downtown with your daughter? How do you do it? Can you push a stroller down the crowded narrow streets or on a busy subway? Having been to Shinjuku, I couldn't imagine bringing my children there. Perhaps there are places to avoid, it is just that where I live, I can go anywhere and they can run around without any worries.

You made a good point about things to do. There are not many exciting things to do where we live, perhaps that is our biggest problem, but it is not that bad really.

[Brooks]

Yokohama is quite large and not crowded like Tokyo is.

But I don`t really consider Yokohama liberal, although for Japan, I guess it is.
Kanagawa is fairly conservative.