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Master Shake
Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 1202 Location: Colorado, USA
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 1:53 am Post subject: +1 |
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Black_Beer_Man, and most of the other posters, echo my experience living in Tokyo. The workaholic mentality was just too much of a downer, so I left.
I moved back to Colorado, USA a year ago. Funny thing is, it's Sunday at 8pm and I've been studying most of the day and I've still got lessons to plan tonight for 4th graders tomorrow. But I don't feel overworked. I know why I'm doing this and how it will help my students and me in the future.
Working those long hours in Japan felt pretty pointless in comparison. You just go through the motions because everyone else does.
And when you do go out in Tokyo to enjoy your free time, it's depressing because everyone you meet is working crazy hours and is unhappy. |
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mitsui
Joined: 10 Jun 2007 Posts: 1562 Location: Kawasaki
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 3:11 am Post subject: |
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Once my vacation ends in a week it gets harder to see people since work becomes the focus. More for other people than for me. I think some people are not as busy as they appear but the culture demands people are busy.
I think some people keep themselves busy so they don't get depressed.
Big city is a lonely place. |
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Black_Beer_Man
Joined: 26 Mar 2013 Posts: 453 Location: Yokohama
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 3:13 pm Post subject: Re: +1 |
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Master Shake wrote: |
Black_Beer_Man, and most of the other posters, echo my experience living in Tokyo. The workaholic mentality was just too much of a downer, so I left.
I moved back to Colorado, USA a year ago. Funny thing is, it's Sunday at 8pm and I've been studying most of the day and I've still got lessons to plan tonight for 4th graders tomorrow. But I don't feel overworked. I know why I'm doing this and how it will help my students and me in the future.
Working those long hours in Japan felt pretty pointless in comparison. You just go through the motions because everyone else does.
And when you do go out in Tokyo to enjoy your free time, it's depressing because everyone you meet is working crazy hours and is unhappy. |
I remember life back in my home country as being less stressful and my having much more free time.
In Tokyo / Yokohama, I blame the long train rides. I usually work a 9 hour shift and have an hour commute each way to the workplace and back home. At the end of an 11 hour day, I have just enough energy to cook a simple dinner, watch a bit of YouTube and go to bed.
Riding the trains is so uncomfortable in the Kanto area. At rush hours, I have maybe a 10% chance of getting a seat. So, I usually have to stand the whole way.
I try to use the time by reading a book, but sometimes the trains get so crowded that I can't because I am getting the book pressed into my face by someone standing in front of me.
So, I recon it is the commutes into the city that make living here so grueling. If you're fortunate enough to live near your workplace, maybe Tokyo living is not so tough.
For the majority of us, working in Tokyo is a dog's life. When I visited Osaka earlier this year, I noticed that their trains and subways were a lot less crowded even at rush hours. |
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kzjohn
Joined: 30 Apr 2014 Posts: 277
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 10:15 pm Post subject: |
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Fall terms (後期) are always easy. Five classes/week this year, starting on the 26th--three on Mon, one on Tue, one on Thurs. (Last fall was unusual, only four/week.)
Work is 8km 15-20 min each way (20-25 during morning rush), and I sometimes come home for lunch. Driving or pedaling, no trains here. |
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TokyoLiz
Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1548 Location: Tokyo, Japan
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Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2016 3:38 am Post subject: |
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This is my third year at a private high school where I built the curriculum I teach. Most of the bumps have been worked out, and Term 2 is a lot less hectic than Term 1. The schedule until midterms looks like a doily - lots of holes for events and holidays.
The commute is 10 minutes on foot, 10 minutes on the train, and another 10 minutes on a bicycle or on the bus. The train ride goes in the opposite direction of the rush hour.
Teaching here is less stressful and much less hectic than my old teaching job in Canada. There, I prepped without pay for an hour or two before each working day, taught for 3 hours with a 15 minute break, 45 for lunch (during which I prepped), repeat in the afternoon. I had an evening and weekend job teaching immigrants. Vacations weren't on my calendar. I was living paycheck to paycheck.
Here, I teach 2-4 lesson hours a day (I'm assigned 15-17 lesson hours a week). I don't work weekends because I have a decent salary.
I used to work in Tokyo proper, but gradually found work closer to where I live in Chiba 'burbs.
Last edited by TokyoLiz on Thu Sep 15, 2016 10:20 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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mitsui
Joined: 10 Jun 2007 Posts: 1562 Location: Kawasaki
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Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 11:59 am Post subject: |
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Commutes tend to be 60-90 minutes around Tokyo.
If your commute is short, you are lucky.
If you can live closer, good, but most of us are forced to live in a suburb or even farther out. |
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Black_Beer_Man
Joined: 26 Mar 2013 Posts: 453 Location: Yokohama
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Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 3:26 pm Post subject: |
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mitsui wrote: |
Commutes tend to be 60-90 minutes around Tokyo.
If your commute is short, you are lucky.
If you can live closer, good, but most of us are forced to live in a suburb or even farther out. |
It's a colossal waste of time.
But the train companies love it! Profit.
I spoke to a man last week that comes into town from Ibaraki 2 hours each way. Sometimes he works on Saturdays, so that's 20 - 24 hours a week of his life that he spends on trains. |
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TokyoLiz
Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1548 Location: Tokyo, Japan
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Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 10:18 pm Post subject: |
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One job I did required a 2 hour commute each way. I was doing grad studies at the time, so I looked at it as 20 hours of study time, done before I got home.
The first five years here, I had long commutes because of the neighbourhood I chose to live in.
Networking can get you invitations to work. That's how I got job offers closer to home. |
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Maitoshi
Joined: 04 May 2014 Posts: 718 Location: 何処でも
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Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2016 12:02 am Post subject: |
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Commuting can really suck. Sometimes taking a longer route is better than the shorter one if it means getting a seat. It's hard to study when standing and crammed between others. |
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ssjup81
Joined: 15 Jun 2009 Posts: 664 Location: Adachi-ku, Tokyo, Japan
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Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2016 12:41 am Post subject: |
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Maitoshi wrote: |
Commuting can really suck. Sometimes taking a longer route is better than the shorter one if it means getting a seat. It's hard to study when standing and crammed between others. |
To avoid that, I leave super early.
Last year, withthe other job, I took a 30 - 40 minute bus ride to Ikebukuro. After that, I'd takd the train to Shinjuku (1 stop) andthen to Nakano (1 stop).
I only did that so I wouldn't have to suffer as long. lol
Unfortunately, since I was coming from a different place in the evenings, I would go up the line and switch so I could hopefully get a seat. It all depended on the day.
The other days, I'd take two to three buses to get home. |
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Black_Beer_Man
Joined: 26 Mar 2013 Posts: 453 Location: Yokohama
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Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 4:33 am Post subject: |
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I was just remembering a conversation I had last year with a new Japanese colleague originally from Osaka.
She had been in the Tokyo / Yokohama area for only a few months, but remarked "Tokyo and Yokohama people look angry generally."
It's especially interesting when someone else, out of the blue, shares an observation that you have also had.
From her comment, I take it that other parts of Japan are happier places to live in. |
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mitsui
Joined: 10 Jun 2007 Posts: 1562 Location: Kawasaki
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Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 7:26 am Post subject: |
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Of course.
Go to Nagano. They have manners there.
Osaka people could make jokes, or talk to people they don't know.
Not here. No, people would rather just stare at their phone all the time or just avoid people or avoid any interaction, except at work where they have to be a group member, and pretend they like each other.
Go to Naha. You don't see the otaku nerds like you do here. Naha is so relaxing. Too bad the pay is low there.
If I could find decent work in western Japan I think I could actually stay longer in this country. But even my Japanese wife prefers America to the Tokyo area. |
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Black_Beer_Man
Joined: 26 Mar 2013 Posts: 453 Location: Yokohama
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Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 12:23 pm Post subject: |
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mitsui, do you know about Osaka people's attitude toward foreigners? Do they have any desire to befriend and know about foreigners?
Or is their friendliness just surface friendliness?
In the Kanto, it is very hard to make sincere, nice Japanese friends (especially with Japanese males). Almost all the ones I have made turned out to have purely selfish motives. They couldn't give a rat's ass about me. |
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victory7
Joined: 22 Mar 2016 Posts: 68
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Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 3:59 pm Post subject: |
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Black_Beer_Man wrote: |
I was just remembering a conversation I had last year with a new Japanese colleague originally from Osaka.
She had been in the Tokyo / Yokohama area for only a few months, but remarked "Tokyo and Yokohama people look angry generally."
It's especially interesting when someone else, out of the blue, shares an observation that you have also had.
From her comment, I take it that other parts of Japan are happier places to live in. |
While I have direct experience of how different Kansai people are from Kanto people (Osaka people rock!), I think it's too easy to generalise if you haven't also lived in other prefectures. Not all western Japan is so friendly - I spent time in Kochi - and the island of Shikoku generally is more conservative. Your neighbors are not particularly friendly there and have the typical smaller city Japanese mentality of 'enduring' 'bothersome gaijin'.
Travelling in other parts of Shikoku, I found Takamatsu to have more people than some other places with an unfriendly attitude, especially at the railway station there. You'd think I and others were speaking in English and demanding they reply in English when we were actually speaking Japanese and making an effort to be understood.
This is not to say that Shikoku is generally unfriendly to foreigners - I am just stating that when you live in neighbourhoods and when you travel, you can get an idea of how the locals think generally about foreigners.
Nearer Kanto, people I know who lived in Shizuoka talked about unfriendly railway staff at key tourist points like Mishima where some tourists stay before going off to Mt Fuji. I've actually seen the rudeness of male ralway staff there when Japanese-speaking foreigners were confused about the gates as you sometimes have to put two tickets in the entry gate at the same time. Shizuoka City seems better but of course it's bigger.
My theory on Tokyo and Yokohama's perceived special unfriendliness is that they have more people and therefore high population density. The negative attitude that some of the Japanese population have towards foreigners is more noticeable as the population is higher. In lower density areas and small cities/towns, it won't be experienced as much because of less people.
And sorry to anyone here who embraces the 'Japan is changing' theory. I don't. I think if foreigners take their cultural blinkers off, they will see that the Japanese are becoming more, not less, resentful of foreigners. I think the majority really do not want to engage with people who look different and have different cultural backgrounds.
A few Japanese people I teach have said to me that Europeans and other westerns are racist because they don't accept refugees/immigrants but I remind them that the German example is of more than a million people from a very different culture coming in suddenly and having to be taken care of completely at short notice.
That is together with all the disruptions of having to find housing, give medical care including dental, free food, etc, and adjust to many men suddenly being around on the streets and not understanding gender equality and western women's clothing.Our societies have their shortcomings but they also give millions and millions of people from very different cultures free cradle to the grave care in many cases.
The majority of Japanese on the other hand seem to find it difficult to accept that taxpaying, working foreigners including ones who are married here are around to stay for some time if not for the rest of their lives. I have personally witnessed a number of incidents in Tokyo where foreign women were spoken to rudely or pushed by Japanese despite doing nothing to deserve it. Tokyo and Yokohama are simply more populated and the resentment of foreigners is expressed more.
I expect this to become more pronounced in the next few years and I think the foreigners who are not married to Japanese and who have said to me that they want to live in Japan forever because it is so safe and peaceful, are deluded to some extent. Especially as the population will soon be nearly one third of people over 60 years old.
This kind of demographic reality means less openness and more negative attitudes to non Japanese if people want to accept reality rather than have wishful thinking. Regardless of the fact that foreigners are also paying their nenkin and other taxes, not just Japanese people. |
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mitsui
Joined: 10 Jun 2007 Posts: 1562 Location: Kawasaki
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Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 11:53 pm Post subject: |
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Not sure. Osaka can be a busy place too and work takes priority.
It is not easy to make friends but you have got to get better at Japanese because most people here only want to speak Japanese.
Sometimes even knowing Japanese is not enough, in order to be accepted.
You have to act like the majority act, which is hard for people who come from a country which emphasizes the individual.
I think some foreigners have an ignorance is bliss attitude. With a Japanese spouse you get deeper into the culture.
I think some people are not thinking about the future. With fewer young people, there will be fewer teachers and schools. It will get harder to make money. |
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