Job Discussion Forums

[heathergray]

Hey TEFLers. I have an interview for JET coming up and need to justify why I'd like to request being placed in Hokkaido (I want to be out in the boonies and have farms around, that's it really, and the name sounds cool, as you can see I have a very complex process for choosing things like this).

If you live or have lived in Hokkaido or have traveled there, tell me what you like, don't like, so on and so forth.

Thank you very much!

[Glenski]

Been in Hokkaido for the past 8 years. Your question is pretty general, so it might be best if you PM me with specific questions. Gets pretty cold up here for some people, and lots of snow falls in some places (6 meters a year in some lowlands).

[AndyH]

I lived there for a year, and loved it.

[Angelfish]

- It's cold. Very cold. If you're British, it's exceptionally cold.
+ The summers aren't so humid and sweaty.
- There's not a huge amount in the way of "traditional" culture.
+ Nature. Lot's of it.
- Bloody expensive or time consuming if you want to travel anywhere outside of Hokkaido.
+ The people are friendly.
- If you don't want to learn Japanese, you may have a harder time than, say, Tokyo or Osaka.
+ If you want to learn Japanese, you'll hopefully not get spoken to as much in English.
+ If you're into skiing or snowboarding this is definitely an area you want to be in.
+ Onsens. Some really good ones here.

[Yawarakaijin]

Such much of it is going to depend on your personality and what kind of activities you enjoy. I loved Hokkaido. I used to live in Kushiro which I believe is the biggest city on the eastern half of the island. The food was amazing and not very expensive. Numerous ski resorts to chose from as well as national parks and lakes. You will surely need a car/motorbike to truly enjoy the Hokkaido experience.
Most Japanese I know find it hard to believe that I actually enjoyed living in Hokkaido so much. "Oh it's a wonderful place to visit but why would you want to actually live there"!?
The only thing that could make me happier with the way my life is going now is if my company's main office were in Hokkaido rather than Tokyo.
I found the people in Hokkaido (and I hit most of the cities on the island) to be really wonderful. They seem really interested in getting to know new people and for some reason they don't appear to have as many preconceptions,in regards to gaijin, as Tokyo people seem to have.
I say go for it. I loved Hokkaido

[sethness]

AngelFish has a good handle on what Hokkaido has to offer, though I'd like to add a bit to what he/she is saying:

Hokkaido is definitely the most rural setting, and has the longest winter-sports season, but does not have a monopoly on either. The mountainous Nagano region, for example, was the site of a recent winter Olympics, and is both rural and well-known for its winter sports.

In general, think of Hokkaido as an American thinks of Alaska: very rural, but bitterly cold in winter.

Many regions are quite rural yet not as frighteningly cold as Hokkaido-- Shimane prefecture, or the Asakita Ku section of Hiroshima prefecture, for example... or Mie prefecture, or outside the main cities in Kyushu and Shikoku prefectures, Yamaguchi prefecture...
hey, if you like ocean sports, strongly consider living on one of the small islands in Kyushu prefecture, strung between mainland Japan and the Okinawan islands.

[Glenski]

I wish people would stop using adjectives to describe temperature. Bitterly cold means nothing except when you compare it to a number or to where you are from (as Angelfish did).

Why?

I'm from northern Minnesota and have found Hokkaido winters to be very mild. I'm used to -40 degrees for long stretches of time. You don't see that in Hokkaido except for some rare regions. The southern half and most of the coasts are much warmer. I think you will find that the typical lows in much of winter are more like -10 to -15 degrees C and that daily highs in winter can be a few degrees on either side of the freezing point.

[Dipso]

When I was at my JET orientation I met a guy who had requested placement in Hokkaido, largely on the grounds that he loved winter sports. However, when he received his placement details he discovered that he had been placed on one of the smaller southern Okinawan islands - he couldn't have been any further from Hokkaido if he tried!

[Angelfish]

Yep, I am British, and to me, though the weather we're currently experiencing in Hokkaido is positively mild (compared to last year, or so I'm told), being a Brit, I find anything below the 0 degree C mark to be bloody cold. We just had a couple of inches of snow and our country ground to a halt.

Just expanding on a few things.
If you do like surfing and other oceanic watersports, you might want to consider somewhere else. From what I've seen and heard (and I haven't seen or heard everything) the beaches in Hokkaido, especially the ones close to public transportation, tend to be regulated concrete eyesores. There are nice ones, they're just harder to find. And the sea's cold (see earlier point about being a soft Brit).

If you've got an interest in Ainu culture, there's a lot of it here.

The food. How could I forget the food? The food is good and generally cheaper here. What would cost you 2,000 Yen in Hokkaido (shellfish or fruit or whatever), will cost you maybe 3,000 or 4,000 in Tokyo and some other areas. Plus, there are lots of local delicacies. Sea urchin, crab, sushi (Otaru), Genghis Khan (lamb, but don't eat the candy - it's disgusting), Sapporo Classic (Hokkaido only beer). And a lot of the beer is made here.