Job Discussion Forums

[kimo]

About 14 years or so ago while sitting in a restaurant not very far from Tokyo Disneyland, a guy in a clown suit came up to me and said, "Hi, if you're ever in Osaka, please give me a call. There is almost no one I can talk to." It seems reading this board, the days of complete isolation are dead and done.

I've been in China a few years now and people tell the same type of stories. Beijing is crawling with us vermin now. Is there anybody here from those times gone by who misses them?

[guest of Japan]

I'm afraid I wasn't here that long ago. However, in my little country town I don't know any foreigners and I've lived here for 10 months. Sometimes I'm ready to explode.

[Sherri]

I remember them, but I don't miss them! I like the (slightly) more international environment. Now kids do not say hello to me, people don't stare point and say "gaijin da". People will sit next to me on the train without a second glance. Most people speak to me in Japanese and just assume that I can understand. I don't get people trying to practice English with me anymore. Life is easier and things are cheaper.
Sherri

[Brooks]

I wasn`t here but I heard stories about when the yen was below 100 (back in 1994 or 1995 I think) and how much money people made, especially with privates.
Things have changed.

[Sherri]

Oh yes we made tons of money. Privates were at least 5,000 an hour but usually more like 10,000. No one I knew would consider teaching for anything LESS than 5,000 an hour. Our school had so much money, there were big parties held at hotels for the teachers every 6 months when the new term began. We had a big Christmas party (not for the students, for us!) But I still don't miss it, it was another era.

[TokyoLiz]

Sherri,

Yep, thank goodness for overexposure to gaijin folk. I've been really impressed by the reception (or blind eye) I get in Tokyo. People serve me in clothing stores like a normal person most of the time. Out in Ehime-ken, I was treated like uchuujin when I went jeans shopping.

And lots of people speak to me in Japanese. I've learned though that it's better to fake a halting, stuttering Japanese so that they don't treat me like a native speaker. I've slowed right down, and now I get forgiven my lapses in vocabulary or lengthy circumlocutions when I don't know how to express myself.

The bubble popped before I got here. You bubble boys and girls exposed the average Jlander to the world beyond the shores of this clutter of islands. Thank you!

[Wolf]

I lived in Nagoya from 1999-2003. Then I moved to a teeny tiny university suburb in rural China.

You can have it.

It's not so much that I must have lots of foreigners around (not that I avoid/dislike any one group of people, it's just not a big deal for me, personally.) It's that a larger expat population will dilute the interest of everyone in little old me. The more foreigners that are around, the less of a novelty I am.

The less of a novelty I am, the more of a human being I become in the eyes of others.

Call me a one trick pony (one trick Wolf?) but that's a factor that's worth considering when choosing a place to live.

As Achilles once said, I'd rather be a rank-and-file, langauge mill TEFLer in Tokyo than a high ranking DoS in rural Jiangxi. Okay, he didn't say that, but a bit of artistic liscence never hurt anyone.

[fat_chris]

[Lynn]

I was an exchange student in 1994-94. Loose socks were IN! And I wore them, too (hee-hee)

I lived in Hokkaido, and every Wednesday, all the gaijin would me at Mister Donuts in the center of town. It was so much fun. Everyone was so friendly and excited about living in Japan. I could never stay very long because my dormitory had a 10pm curfew, and most people were Eng. teachers, so they finished at 9pm.

I also picked up a few part-time jobs doing private conversation lessons. I got 2000Yen an hour, which was very big bucks for me.

[Speed]

From the late 60's to the early 70's rarely saw any gaijins except for on the military bases. Although in Tokyo a few hairy ones were to be seen.
*Mood was optimistic/giddy (especially before the oil crisis of '73) with Japan coming into its own:
-Tokyo '64 and Sapporo Olympics '72, economy skyrocketing, Osaka World Expo '70
-The birth of: Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Speed Racer, Gacha Man (G-Force), the Panda Boom etc.
*Exchange rate 360 yen = $1 usd

Late 70's felt Japan to be in pretty optimistic mood. Pink Ladies and YMCA was blaring out every sound system while everyone played Space Invaders. Sometimes 3 to 5 floors of a building was dedicated for "Invada".
*Still very few gaijins to be seen. Gaijins, especially Americans were seen in a more positive light, so it seems.
*Most gaijins that I saw were either military or older types (late 20's/30's) working for international companies, or worldly type travelers (long sideburns) teaching in a lucrative small budding English Conversation school market.
*Exchange rate somewhere in the high 200 something yen = $1


The mid-early 90's seemed to have more 'booms' that came on strong then dissappeared than they do now ie.
-Dance Clubs (Tokyo Julianna's type) and accompanying Euro/Techno sound ala early Amuro Namie/Super Monkeys
-The chappatsu boom (still going strong) if you look at video clips -'94
everyone had black hair - '96 everyone chappatsu
-Loose Socks, Print Club, Tamagotchi, Rise of The Machines (cell phones) etc.
*Huge proliferation of English conversation schools
*A LOT more gaijins
*A lot more "young fresh out of college, stay for 1 year, then go home types".

The mood in Japan since the mid-early 90's appears to be flat-line static. Definitely not upbeat but neither really bummed out. It's been kind of like, "Things aren't going that well for Japan but 'sho ga nai', things could be worse." kind of feeling.

Hopefully the 'good times' come back.

[guest of Japan]

Were you really in Japan that long? If you were then I bow down in reverence because you are problably the most patient person in the world.

[Speed]

Well I've come and gone from Japan, Mr. Guest of Japan.

The late 60's early 70's was when I was kidster here.

No need for reverence. Just a free beer will do.