Job Discussion Forums

Halapo · Joined: 05 Sep 2009 Posts: 140 Location: Jiangsu, China

I am wondering how other foreigners have found life outside the mainstream cities? I have been out and about in the world a fair bit. I am a fairly self-sufficient person. By choice I live a fairly spartan lifestyle ( for western cultures ).

I have lived in places where I was the first "non-local" the locals have ever seen in their lives, and I had to do all my interactions with them in their language. I am not to worried about the isolation if I find a city that feels out of the way.

I know Kyoto is well known. I am just guessing that since it is inland, it will be less industrialized then most of the larger-seaport cities. Plus it sounds like it has a reputation for education, so possibly more jobs.

Otsu sounds like my old home town, since its on a tourist lake. The WWW claims people swim in it, I have my doubts about any body of water surrounded by cities...

Can anybody share some info about the less known cities in Japan? Why you like them? Strange local behavior?

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Kyoto is a thoroughly modern city. I don't know why you think a city has to be a seaport to be modern. Oddly enough, there aren't as many teaching jobs for foreigners there as there are in Osaka and Tokyo, so I'm told by people living in that area.

I've lived in Tokyo, Sapporo, and a smaller city.
8 million (more counting the suburbs)
2 million
170,000 people

Liked them all, but found that Tokyo was (obviously) more crowded and bustling.

Are you looking for disadvantages of smaller cities?
Sometimes far from big ones, so some of the amenities of shopping are missing.
Sometimes lacking in as good public transportation (airport near me is on the verge of closing, buses are horribly infrequent).
Fewer foreigners around (this can also be an advantage depending how you look at it).

If you want to live in a rural area, look seriously at the JET program.

Mr_Monkey · Joined: 11 Mar 2009 Posts: 661 Location: Kyuuuuuushuuuuuuu

I've lived in Kitakyushu (~1,000,000) and Fukuoka (~1,400,000).

There were far more teaching opportunities in Fukuoka, and it's generally a much nicer place than Kitakyushu, in my opinion. In fact, I loved living in Fukuoka, and will look into moving back there with my family when I go back to Japan.

Halapo · Joined: 05 Sep 2009 Posts: 140 Location: Jiangsu, China

I am not counting on Jet, I will be 31 by then. I hear they bumped up the age limit, but they also shrunk the number of jobs. Something tells me they still try to fill their quota with younger folk.

I dont consider the smaller towns to be a disadvantage, it's what I prefer. I am hoping to avoid most of the "teach to party" crowd.

I grew up on water you can swim in. I find most modern seaport cities have ruined most of the near by shoreline. It just makes me sad, so why live where you are going to be sad? Silly, I know.

Part of how I search for places is to use Google Maps and switch over to satellite view. That way I can see how much is green, how far the urban sprawl is around a place.

Not that its the best or only way I search, but I have taken a few jobs in the past where I wish I had checked things out. I would have been able to see that "modern urban city" might not be on any major transit lines, or downwind of a growing desert. It pays to check everything, that way hardships may come, but at least they are not unexpected.

I was going to try for a place with less then 2million souls. Around .5million say?

Actually Glenski, Sapporo looks like a nice green place from the sky. I didnt look into the north eastern parts of Japan. I had the impression it was the "wilderness" but I guess its nothing like the north western parts of China. Being Canadian, I might feel more at home there. Summer here in China kills me, even in early may...

Lyrajean · Joined: 19 Jul 2006 Posts: 109 Location: going to Okinawa

That's not true about the JET age limit. I was 32 when I applied the first time and got in the second at 33. I know several JETs in their 30s. Especially if you can sell them on something like teaching experience or Japanese ability, its worth it.

As for small cities, Sendai looked appealing to me but I've never lived there and don't know about job opportunities. I just visited once and was real impressed by the city. Also almost no one speaks Japanese.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Actually, the upper age limit for JET was recently raised a little. The page on eligibility now states:
In principle, be forty (40) years of age or less (as of April 1st, 2010).
http://jetprogramme.org/e/aspiring/eligibility.html

That upper limit can (and has been) bent on occasion.

Does JET primarily hire only those younger than 31? Let's see what G Cthulhu says.

Halapo · Joined: 05 Sep 2009 Posts: 140 Location: Jiangsu, China

Part of the idea for JET was getting recently graduated foreign students to teach Japanese students. Young bonding and cultural understanding and the like. That also explains why the JET program has all those extra Japanese cultural class's.

JET was also thought up to go along with the "working tourist visa" that is available to citizens of japanese friendly countries. The age limit on that visa is 30. SO back then, the idea of who was eligible for JET was under 30, just like they tended to pick/picture white faces, blond hair, blue eyes. Not so much rules as... tendencies? Unofficial preferences?

But you are both right, even before the "official age increase" some JET's we over 30. I plan on applying to it ( soon, since it takes a bit longer ) but I am not counting on it. And even if the age is raised, fewer JET positions each yeah are given out.

I am just trying to be pre-paired for the "What part of Japan are you interested in?" question.

*Edit*
For age, its says "In principal be 40 years of age".

Last year, there was about 4500 JETs. I am not sure if that is up or down. When I looked 3 years ago I thought it said 3000 jobs a year.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

If you look at the JET pamphlet, you can see numbers of ALTs over the past few years, and even a breakdown per country in that regard. The numbers have gone down from a peak of 6200 in 2002. About half that number are re-hires.

I don't know what you mean by a "working tourist visa", perhaps the working holiday visa scheme? JET was around before the WHV was even in place for some of those countries, and the USA has never even been a part of the WHV plan (yet it has always had the largest number of participants). The initial 4 countries were the USA, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Besides, JET participants don't use the WHV.

One of the primary reasons for JET was to "internationalize" the Japanese, not necessarily to teach them English.
http://www.jetprogramme.org/e/introduction/history.html

InTheKnow · Joined: 13 Jan 2010 Posts: 20 Location: greater Japan

raykaiwa · Joined: 19 Jun 2010 Posts: 6 Location: Hawaiii

gwynnie86 · Joined: 27 Apr 2009 Posts: 159

I'm in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture. You don't get noticed as a foreigner, because there are a lot of Westerners teaching here, as well as a large Brazilian and Peruvian population. It's modern - good shopping, good restaurants (various cuisine), pretty good nightlife (especially on a Saturday), only 2 hours from Tokyo, 40 mins from Nagoya (on shinkansen), friendly people... have a look! It's definitely not very well known but it's famous for Yamaha, music and unagi(eel)!

natsume · Joined: 24 Apr 2006 Posts: 409 Location: Chongqing, China

I spent a couple tourist days in Fukuoka, and was quite taken with the place. It has a unique vibrancy and the locals were very friendly. I felt a bit similar on my one short trip to Sapporo.

I live in Hamamatsu, and you will be noticed as a foreigner, your foreignness is just not an "event" here. I look pretty Irish/German (I'm American), and have been mistaken for Brazilian many times, even by Brazilians. Not a big surprise, since there are 20,000 Brazilians here, of about 50,000 in the prefecture. I think there are less than 200 registered Americans in Hamamatsu.

OneJoelFifty · Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 463

I live in Mito and I love it.

It's population is around 250,000 and there's a fairly small contingent of foreigners, some of whom live in Mito and others in the surrounding parts of Ibaraki. I've found that forgeigners are still somewhat of a curiosity without being viewed with any suspicion, which means people are generally friendly on the street and you're easily forgiven for making any cultural mistakes. And the fact that it's not overrun with foreign people is great as there's more incentive to learn Japanese and a better environment to learn it in.

In the centre of town there's Kairakuen Park and Senba Lake, the park being officially the third best in Japan. There are plenty of shops and entertainments, and the public transport is good. Saying that, you can ride from one end of the city to the other on a bicycle in just over an hour I reckon. Maybe longer if you go east-west.

The city is about 20 minutes on the train from the nearest beach in Oarai, and an hour on the express train from Tokyo. There's also a coach that goes to Tokyo, a return trip costs a reasonable 3,500 Yen and takes 2 hours. The surrounding areas are really nice, ricefields leading up into the hills that lead into the mountains, from what I've seen so far.

So it's a good location that's close to Tokyo, some nice Japanese countryside and offers a smaller-scale mix of the two within the city itself.

Mr_Monkey · Joined: 11 Mar 2009 Posts: 661 Location: Kyuuuuuushuuuuuuu

robertokun · Joined: 27 May 2008 Posts: 199

Well, like you said, take away the major seaport cities and you're probably going to be happy. I don't have the numbers, but I wouldn't be surprised if 80 percent of the population live in and around the 10 largest cities in Japan. Anywhere outside of those and you're probably going to be happy. Apply for JET like they said already and you're not going to have to worry much. If you're going to go private, it all depends on what you like to do (ie. snowboarding, surfing, etc.) I'm going to venture a wild guess and say that you'd like the Tohoku region (Northeast Japan.)