Teaching English in Japan

[kaleb_zero]

There's another way into the country that George didn't cover
Marriage to a Japanese National.. However, aside from the obvious hurdles associated with obtaining a girlfriend in the first place, there can be a number of sticky points about this option aswell.

I finished my 1 year working holiday in Japan, and while there met a girl. Now she is here in Canada on a 1 year working holiday visa.. Beyond a working holiday visa, our only options for staying together are really limited. I dont have a university degree, and she does but it's not easy finding a good job in Canada with not so great English, let alone a job where the company will sponsor a full work visa. I'm thinking about the Marriage route, but that seems like a huge step to take so we'll see how things go.

[Mrgantys11]

Has anyone tried to live in a Japanese city like Osaka or Tokyo? I know life there can be expensive but if I sign a year contract I would like to know that I would have enough money to send home for my student loans.

I'm living in a moderate sized city (Yokosuka). The only thing that seems to vary with location is the rent, and maybe the prices for utilities. Needless to say, I have 4 air conditioners and an electric dryer, and using the dryer about 3-4 times a week, and running about 1.5 AC's (average) around the clock (yeah, I'm a typical American electricity hog), my Electric bill was about 300ish? Something like that. It wasn't too cheap, but it was about the same as I saw in Hawaii.
Then again this was the summer months.
-Also, they like to use gas appliances, my gas bill seems to hover around 50ish dollars a month.
-I don't think I've gotten a water bill yet, although I moved in three months ago... I better check into that. All the damn bills I get are loaded with Kanji. I mean loaded.
-My cable bill is expensive too, but I went all out and got the super deluxe package... the internet here is super fast! Sometimes I can get 1MB/sec download rates from normal cable internet.

My work pays me a stipend for some of my living costs, so it makes things easier, but if you are trying to be frugal, you could easily cut down on alot of your costs.

Oh! Food. Food is more expensive, but it depends on what it is. Eating out is probably slightly cheaper here because they have a larger market for it, in my opinion. Its kind of hard to explain, but there are more 'bargain' priced eateries here, and more people eat out, so I would say the food quality is much higher. In Japan, if you want to go out and get a meal for 10-12 bucks, you can do so, and get a pretty tasty meal. In America, you have to go to Denny's, and then it usually sucks. Either that, or resort to fast food, which is unhealthy. With that being said, the serving sizes are still smaller than in America, but that's one of the reasons why America is so fat.
Certain foods are more expensive, milk being one of the best examples. Other foods are cheaper, or so my wife tells me. I can't think of any examples off the top of my head.

Anyways, this probably isn't too helpful, I just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents cuz no one else did.

[Mrgantys11]

There's another way into the country that George didn't cover
Marriage to a Japanese National.. However, aside from the obvious hurdles associated with obtaining a girlfriend in the first place, there can be a number of sticky points about this option aswell.

Maybe George should start a mail-order groom service.

[cynsny]

Oh! Food. Food is more expensive, but it depends on what it is. Eating out is probably slightly cheaper here because they have a larger market for it, in my opinion. Its kind of hard to explain, but there are more 'bargain' priced eateries here, and more people eat out, so I would say the food quality is much higher. In Japan, if you want to go out and get a meal for 10-12 bucks, you can do so, and get a pretty tasty meal. In America, you have to go to Denny's, and then it usually sucks. Either that, or resort to fast food, which is unhealthy. With that being said, the serving sizes are still smaller than in America, but that's one of the reasons why America is so fat.
Certain foods are more expensive, milk being one of the best examples. Other foods are cheaper, or so my wife tells me. I can't think of any examples off the top of my head.

I have to agree about the food thing. I have learned that there are seasons where you don't want to buy some things. There was a week or two that I could buy a nice little watermelon for about 400 yen. Then it jumped to 1,000- I did not buy it then. I prefer the Japanese fruits and veggies. I am also beginning to savor local beef. It is pricey, but fresher. I paid 198 yen/ 100 g for ground beef. It was ground very fine and stretched well. Which was good as I bought 500g which was about US $10.50 for a pound if I did my math right.
The prepared foods you can buy in the basements of the stores are pretty good, and we can eat well for relatively cheap. We grab kara age chicken, tempura, salad and gyoza and spend about 1,500-2,000 yen and feed a family of four. This is not often though because this is not the most healthy meal!
The eateries Mrgantys speaks of are very nice. Though I have not spent a lot of time there, my husband is familiar with izakaya, and he says they are awesome.
For inexpensive everyday things- run to the 100 (105) yen store. You can get just about ANYTHING there.

[kaleb_zero]

I will second that the rent is probably one of the more expensive aspects of living in a big city like Tokyo. The more convenient the location, the more expensive, usually - eg. closer to a subway/train station is a bit more expensive..

I would suggest to save money, live as the Japanese do - don't use the electric dryer when you can hang your clothes to dry. Most Japanese don't use an electric dryer, and besides hanging them leaves your clothes in much better condition so they'll last longer and it's better for the environment

As for food, again, eating the same as Japanese do is generally the best choice. It's cheapest AND good for you.
I'm a pretty skinny guy and I'm only 172cm (5'6" or so?) so I found that the portions were fine for me. After coming back to Canada I really noticed how fat everyone is here - and we're not even as bad as America in that regard. I also was shocked at how tall everyone is in Canada compared to Japan - I miss being considered average height like I was there. lol

[Quemaqua]

I'm really interested in this kind of stuff. I'm actually waiting for a book on living in Japan to get here. I don't plan on moving, but the differences are very interesting.

[cynsny]

I bought one at Barnes and Noble before I moved here... I can't find it right now though.
It was called 'Living Abroad in Japan' by Ruth Kanagy. It covers a lot of questions one may have. I remember there was a lot about visas. It talks about housing from where to live to dealing with the agents. There are quite a few helpful phrases in there as well.

[Mrgantys11]

I think I have that one too CY, lol, I remember there being a typo on the price of electricity in there.

[Gar]

Interesting as always. I am thinking about going with AEON and seeing where it leads, unless, I get this job promotion with my current employer. As great as it would be to get it, part of me wouldn't mind shrugging off financial security and running off to do what I want to do... ever get that feeling?

Conversely, has anyone gone to Japan to study Japanese and come back to teach Japanese?