dream to live in Japan

[seskoad]

Guys, I am still student,the end of next year I will graduate (Bachelor degree of civil engineering) from swinburne university Australia and Indonesian citizen. Any idea how to live in Japan either work or study? well i'd prefer work,hate study study and study. Language, well this one I will start next year, wont be problem since indonesian tongue easy to pronounce any word. :>

[Kimpatsu]

Join the JET programme for two or three years. It's kind of cushy, and they pay your airfare both ways. You assist English teaching in a school in Japan. All you need is a BA or BSc in something. Contact the Japanese embassy for details.
HTH.

[Troll Basher]

In some ways I disagree with Tony’s idea of becoming a JET or any sort of language teacher.
The reason being it’s a crappy job, and you will most likely get bored very with it very quickly.
On the up side you will get to see a nice microcosm of Japanese office politics, how totally childish the Japanese can be, get a nice exposure to the fallacy of the “great” education system here, and get a fair salary for being a human tape recorder-cog and doing basically “F”-all.

[Jody Holeton]

There is also the Earlham Program. Most JETs I have known really have either HATED their jobs OR have really gotten involved in a Japanese hobby.

I know lots of horror stories!


It is a mixed bag of living here in Japan. You take the good with the bad..... Bad things CAN really outshine the GOOD here. I keep on thinking about the pay, the pay is good and I can goto Tokyo!

I would recommend that anyone who thinks about going to Japan do 3 things:

1. Get your finances in ORDER before you come (Japanese banks suck and you should have $2000 in cash in pocket)

2. Get the basics of the language

3. Live in or NEAR a big city (Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto)

[rebelfilms]

What is the Earlham programme? Is it like the Jet programme (i ask because i was also thinking of getting on the Jet programme when i finish my BA - do somthing different for a year.....

[Jody Holeton]

Earlham is just like the JET program.

I am quitting soon so you can have my JOB!!

Check them out. Same pay, same sh!t etc.

PM for more details!

Good luck, get out while you are young and ignorant!

[Kobe]

the best advice, do not come to Japan. The world is very big, plenty of marvellous countries where you will not feel any discrimination for being indonesian(as you will face for sure in Japan).
good luck,


R.G.Rodriguez

[Vapour]

From my experience, people who enjoyed staying in Japan did something which is meaningfull over there. Real job (which is hard if you don't have special expertise, your engineering degree might help but you really have to be PhD level) or attending proper university education or serious commitment to Japanese cluture/hobby (martial arts is often the case). Or ofcourse, getting married is another serious commitment.

[Kobe]

I´m an expertise in a very particular field and I practice MA, still, I do not enjoy Japan. I have been living in diferent countries, Japan is the one(by far) where I enjoyed less.
To marry a japanese girl?? No thank you, I like women, not dolls with imposted voice.
And believe me, I came here with the rigth attitude, and plenty of respect for such a developed country, it took me few months to realise what its going on, no soul, no feelings.
To come to Japan and to see some interesting things yes, but no more that a couple of weeks, is more than enough.
And I´m european caucasian(the ones that japanese discriminate less)but if the foreigner is asian......he/she can be ready to bear many problems.
By the way, my field is human rigths, in that too, Japan is at the rear of the developed countries.

[Kimpatsu]

But living in Japan is still an experience, Rodriguez.
Besides, why wouldn't anyone want to visit the sun source of Japanese MA?

[Kobe]

Yes Tony, a priceless experience, and if a person can handle Japan, well, then he/she can live in any corner of the world.
I agree with you about MA, if a person likes japanese MA, Japan is the rigth place, but as you know, the japanese teaching system is quiet strange(even in MA), its not very clear, not many explanations, sometimes questions are not very wellcome, and of course, 9 out of 10 senseis will not teach "everything" to a gaijin martial artist, besides that in some dojos foregneirs are not allow. Between 2 good senseis, one japanese and the other one western, I do not have any doubt.
One of the saddest thing I have seen in my life are those foreigners that for different reasons are trapped in Japan(cause they are married, cause difficulties finding job in their own countries, cause they already spend many years here and they feel they do not belong anywhere), Japan can be a jail, add to that the lepers issue, the burakumin, the 3rd or 4th generation of koreans, rape, suicidal meetings, discrimination.....a heaven, at list for my job!!!!

[Kimpatsu]

No one said he was going to live here forever; trying to discourage him from even trying smacks of elitism. Don't forget the civilised aspects of Japan: you can even drink beer in the cinema! If you hate Japan so much, what brought you here in the first place?

[renfield_kuroda]

Let's all remember that Japan, like the US or any other country, is very big and can offer many different experiences. While some generalizations are accurate -- Japan is racist, sexist, inefficient -- they are also accurate for other countries -- the US is racist, sexist, inefficient. No place is perfect. You may consider your home better than Japan, but a) that's YOU, and b) it's a tautology anyway: the place you ultimately choose to call home is by definition better than anywhere else, otherwise you wouldn't call it home and would eventually move on to someplace better.
So, while some (many? most?) Japanese women are airhead OLs, remember that's true for many other countries, too. While most of Japan is crowded and expensive, try Hong Kong, or Manhattan. Racism and sexism in Japan? How about the south of US if you're black, or the south of France if you're Nigerian? Or London if you're French?
Japan is not The Perfect Land of The Rising Sun, but the streets in NY aren't paved in gold, either.

Regards,
r e n

[P Goldsbury]

I agree with Renfield, but would add that anyone coming to live here for a long time should make a very serious effort to learn the language?\and I do not mean just listening and speaking. You should not really be satisfied until you can at least 'decode' newspapers with a reasonable degree of accurate guesswork and also read some of the literature. The 2,000 joyo kanji should be a minumum. Of course, having learned the language, you might find that the natives do not say much of interest, but this depends...

Actually, we have just pushed through a rule here at Hiroshima University requiring research students coming to my faculty to have taken the Nihongo Noryoku Shiken and obtained at least 240 points at Ikkyu. This is not a passing grade, by the way, but is thought to be a minimum for coping with the classes here.

The pros and cons of staying in Japan have been endlessly debated in this forum, but I think the need for a fair level of language proficiency has not been stressed so much.

Best regards,

[Meik Skoss]

Peter and Renfield are right. Social and cultural problems exist in *all* countries and Japan is no exception. Yes, it's most galling to realize that people cannot get past the obvious differences and persist in seeing you as "Other." It hurts. But there it is. If you've a strong purpose and are willing to do a little suffering to attain your goals, it will all be to your benefit in the end. A good sense of humor and a strong sense of perspective help immeasurably.

Peter's point about the importance of language proficiency is absolutely correct. I'd go a step further, however, and say that it is also essential for people to become knowledgeable about the cultural and social aspects of live in the country. Hnowing how to speak (*beyond* the minimum necessary for daily life) is one of the most important things one can do if the goal is to study budo. But if you want to *begin* to "understand" the martial art(s), it's important to go far beyond that. To know what the teacher says, to know why the teacher is saying it, and to what it means (not a very easy task in Japanese, by the way, the language and culture are purposely very vague).

Mr. Hananto is Indonesian, so he's familiar with this last aspect of the Japanese way of doing things (there are similarities between the cultures), but specifics differ. For one to "get it" in Japan, one has to put aside one's own cultural baggage and deal with Japan on its own terms.

Having said all of that, we (my wife and I) had a lot of fun there. I keep going back for more. Excepting Japanese breakfasts, natto, some attitudes, and that abominable sweet bean paste, there is not much I don't like about the place. Okay, the crowding and the noise in Tokyo is pretty hard to take, but all in all, a great place to live and train.