Mountain climbing in Kakogawa

This weekend, our neighbour, Oomichi-san took us out on our first mountain climb.


Jason and I vaguely want to climb Mt Fuji to see the sunrise... But we're just not sure we can commit.


This mountain climb was a lovely starter.


It was an easy climb, about 3 hours in total.


We slowly made our way up the first summit (Jason and I actually thought this was our end point, silly geese that we are). We stopped there for a break and to look out onto the small town below.

 

We then made our way along mountain ridges, slowly climbing higher. It was so amazing to be walking along the horizontal ridge between two mountains with drop offs on either side! Scary, but amazing. Just balancing on this narrow little peak, the wind blowing your hair, a couple of hundred metres of cliff just inches from your feet on either side.

After walking along the ridges for a while, we passed over the tsuribashi (suspension bridge) and came to a rock face with a metal chain hanging down. We climbed up the rock face, using the chain for support (it was a lot easier than I expected actually)

There, we reached our second summit, higher than the first. Here, we were surrounded by other mountains.

Our neighbour pointed out the summit that we were actually heading for... It seemed an awfully long way away...

The final destination

From here, we walked along delicately inclined ridges (and even down some, despite wanting to go up), and then traversed a large, tricky rick face, and a rocky, steep set of "stairs" (Rocks and dirt which were more like a cliff, but did have chunks and foot holds similar to stairs, but three times the height) to get to our third and final summit. The third summit was of course, the highest and the most difficult to get to. It was the only spot where I started to hurt. At the top was a viewing platform ("MOOOORE STAIRS!?") where we could view the mountain ranges below us on one side, and the town far out below us on other.

Here, we set up for lunch, dangling our legs close to the precipice. Looking into the depths of the canyons below us was dizzying. It felt like you might be pulled into it, depite sitting firmly on the ground. We ate our little picnic, and everyone had brought something to offer everyone else. Some had brought sweets, or chocolates, and one man even set up a little gas burner and made everyone a cocoa, tea or coffee on the top of this mountain. Drinking the burning hot cocoa while the brisk wind chilled our sweaty limbs was heaven. Luckily, I had packed a bag of grapes to share so that I could give something in return. There was a sense of comradery as we sipped our hot drinks and stared silently into the green and sprawling abyss.

The hike down was quickly, although descent is the hardest part. The loose stones and dirt are treacherous to walk down on and it was easy to slip and slide, being unable to stop yourself. We learnt to take tiny baby steps in the most dangerous parts, and we held onto trees, twigs, and even long grass. Anything for a tiny bit of support.

We were down in half an hour, and we then walked back through the area to our car (Oomichi drove us here).


The group was so friendly and the hike was quite addictive. The next hike is planned for the following month, and is a 5 hour hike, which will be a good jump. Mt Fuji is around a 10 hour hike, so it will be good training!

Kobe, the charming city!

Last weekend I went into Kobe by myself to get a hair cut (The Japanese air is doing very strang things to my hair).

While there, I ended up exploring the streets.

Kobe is such a beautiful city, filled with interesting European style buildings that seem out of place next to the raamen shops and cherry trees.

Have a look at the lovely architecture!

I then went on a little food tour, finally trying Japan's famous Pablo Cheesecake! I was not disappointed! Pablo cheesecake is famous all over Japan, but especially in Kobe, Japan's Sweets capital. The base was so sweet and crunchy, and the filling of the original mini was a balance of dense and fluffy (hard to do!), rich, and perfectly sweet. Japan has such a huge range of cheese cakes, from those that taste like a sponge, to those that literally taste like cheese. They have camembert cheesecake, "rare" cheesecake, and even cheesecake that has melted Danish cheese on top (served warm!). But so far, if you're looking for a cheesecake that satisfies our Western cheesecake palette, Pablo has been the best I've tried!

I highly, highly reccommend it!

I then went and tried the Lawson Special edition Starbucks sakura caramel berry milk. It was... a bit strange. But pleasant. It had sakura jelly in it which was nice. 

Aaaand a donut that was adorable...

I then met up with Jason and we went to Kobe's China Town, where there was an abundance of steamed buns and bao available on the streets, along with icecream, and bubble tea. Kobes China Town is famous for its steamed buns!

Groceries in Japan!

Buying groceries in Japan is a trip.


And I mean that in both senses of the word... It is both trippy (very confusing and disorienting) and also literally quite a journey. I feel like I've aged after attempting to do a large grocery shop in Japan...


First of all, grocery shops in Japan do not have large trolleys like in the West. Instead, they have tiny shopping basket holders. So you can not shop more than one basket unless you have a second person to push a second basket holder... Japanese people usually shop a couple of times a week, doing small shops each time. This annoys me, because I like to just plan out my week and buy all that food so I don't have to waste time within the week... Plus, I'm working later now that I'm in Japan, and no one wants to go grocery shopping at dinner time.


Trying to buy meat is depressing. First, it's super expensive for tiny amounts. All of the meats are pretty pricey. Second, all their cuts and types of meat are different and written in Japanese. Want to buy low fat beef mince? Good luck! I'm not sure if they even have a low fat beef mince... I tried just buying the reddest mince (which was still not as red as the low fat options we get in Aus) and it still created a pour-worthy amount of oil in the pan. Not cool, Japan. Not cool. It's also very hard to work out the caloric value of a lot of Japanese meat, not being familiar with all the different types of meat. It seems like Japanese beef basically comes in thin slices, ranging from "nearly entirely fat" slices to "slightly less fat" slices. Which is delicious, don't get me wrong. But I need my protein!


It's VERY hard to get protein in Japan...  Meat and seafood is all very expensive and contains a lot less protein than in Aus, as they choose fattier cuts generally. Protein shakes are not available in general super markets like they are in Aus, and even high protein "mousses" that you can get in some convenience stores are actually NOT very high protein... Jason and I have resorted to buying protein powder online from myprotein.com and are waiting for it to arrive.


Fruit and veg are also very expensive here. It's so weird not being able to buy all the fruit and veg you want. Fruit becomes a delicacy. You start craving an apple (the apples are like $2 a piece here). Apparently fruit and vegetables are most expensive this year than ever before, as they had a typhoon in Autumn that wiped out a lot of crops. So you start thinking about how much nutrition is worth to you, because you will have to put a price on it. You start buying cheaper vegetables like cabbage and Japanese cucumbers.


The shops were overwhelming for me at first, becuase our grocery shop is so large, and has so many sections that our shops in Aus just don't have, and so many items I'm unfamiliar with. It was sensory overload. The first week we were here we went shopping every day, just buying groceries for the day, becuase we couldn't figure out what to get. We wanted to try everything! Japanese grocery shops have a fried food section (that's right), a bento (packed meal) section, a sushi section, a bento ingredient section (ready made small foods for you to put into your own bentos) and a huuugee bakery section.


Oh the bakery section.... It is amazing. So many amazing rolls, breads, and sweets. And all so cheap. Why can't the healthy stuff be cheap!? No, instead, it's the baked goods... It's so tempting. I avoid it now. Because my first week here I just binged on amazing soft Japanese cakes and buns and cream filled things every day... Again, I wanted to try everything... And the range is huge... It was so exciting... Aaaand now I have to lose those kilos. Thanks, bread.


One element of Japanese grocery shopping that I'm having a love/hate relationship with at the moment is all the seasonal goodies. They always have an events or seasonal section of the shop where they highlight al the LIMITED EDITION seasonal snacks and drinks and things. This is usually displayed right at the front where you can see them and feel the need. The need for cute, limited snacks. For example, right now we are coming into Spring so they have cherry blossom flavoured everything for a limited time. Cherry blossom kitkatsa, cherry blossom chips. I don't care who you are, you WILL feel the urgency. Japan is VERY good at this. You will want to try them out of novelty, but then if you like them, you'll feel the urgency to buy them as many times as you can before they are taken away to be replaced with the next flavour. Japan has these both for seasons and also events. Like special Girls Day snacks, or New Years snacks. It is very compelling.


After a couple of weeks, you do start getting used to the products, you start to find which things work for your life. Japanese ingredients are cheaper than imported, and seasonal ingredients are cheaper than off season. Eventually it starts to be less exhilarating/panic inducing.

Japanese Life Hacks!

I've only been living in Japan a few weeks, so I don't profess to know everything about Japanese life...

Far from it...

But I do now know a few things that I wish I had known from the first day. Or even before, when I had traveled to Japan for holidays. So here are a few things I've learned that make living or travelling in Japan easier. I'm sure in 6 months I'll have a whole different list of things I've found out and wished I knew...

1. Buy a handkerchief/hand towel

They sell these in all hundred yen shops, and also pretty much everywhere else. In Japan, most public toilets do not have paper supplied to wipe your hands after using the sink. They also, largely do not have hand drying machines. Japanese people, both men and women, carry a hand towel around with them in their bags. They're only small and would easily fit in a pocket, but are a lifesaver in cold weather when you face the idea of having to go out into the wind or snow with wet hands. They also come in handy when you're travelling around, visiting temples and want to use the purifying water.

2. Keep your shopping bags.
A lot of Japanese grocery shops charge for shopping bags in the spirit of `mottainai`  (don't waste). Japan is very eco friendly so this is just one way that Japanese society encourages people to think deliberately about their actions. You'll start collecting the bags in your house and reusing them when you go shopping.
 

3. Take your bottles and takeaway tray to the shop with you
Japanese house bins are usually quite small, and if you have people over, or have a pig out weekend, or miss one of the specific bin days, you might not have room in your bins. So, get into the habit of taking a little bit of trash with you to the shops when you go. Shopping centres will have recycle-specific bins out the front and you can just pop your trash in on your way into the shop. Be aware though that a lot of bins will just be specifically just for PET bottles, or  just for bottle lids, or just for cans, or just for the little trays that you get takeout food on. You're also supposed to have washed your litter before you put it in these bins.

4. Use all day tickets for the train
Every Tuesday and Friday I travel into Kobe for work. From my town of Nishifutami, this costs me 770yen one way. That's about $10 one way, so $20 in travel each day... It's a sizeable chunk. But I recently found out that there's a 1000yen all day ticket that you can buy for certain railways. It only allows you to travel using one railway company, but usually this is enough, and most railway companies offer them. This reduced my train expenses greatly, and also means that if I want to go somewhere after work then it doesn't cost me any extra. The 1000 yen ticket gets me anywhere from my home to Kobe area. There's also a 1500 yen ticket that can get you anywhere from my home to Osaka and back. Again, it's very discounted. If you go to any subway that's manned, you should be able to ask one of the attendants how to purchase an all day ticket. Just remember to make sure wherever you want to go is all on the same subway line.

5. Study on the train
Train rides around Japan are often long, and if you work in Japan, you'll probably have to do them pretty regularly. So you should study Japanese (or a chosen field) on the train! If you're wanting to learn some Japanese, I highly reccommend memrise. It's a free app, although you canpurchase the pro version. The pro version is super cheap- I think it's something like $60 for a whole year, and if you practice on the free version they usually offer you a 50% off! I reccommend getting the pro version because it allows you to download whole courses, which then allows you to study anywhere without using wifi or data. This is what I use every day on the trains. And the more you can understand, the easier your life in Japan will be.

6. Find the closest 100 yen shop
Seriously. You need to do it. You can usually just type "100 yen shop" into google and it will give you the closest location. For anything you need for your house, the 100 yen shop is the place. You'll find things you didn't even know you need for your house. You'll see it in the hundred yen shop and think "AH! This will make my life/home so much better!". You'll be surprised at how much you can get for 100 yen so this should always be your first stop when you need something. If it's NOT in the 100 yen shop, THEN look in more expensive places. They also have Lawson 100s which are 100 yen convenience stores. They are also your friend.

7. Carry a coin purse
Japan has 1 yen coins. It's essentially the equivalent of 1 cent and it's essentially worthless... You will get a lot of them. If you have a standard wallet, coins can stuff it up pretty quickly and make it unable to close. Luckily, you can get a cute coin purse easily from a hundred yen shop! Plus, they make good spots to put your all day pass so you don't lose it.

8. Use hyperdia.com to plan routes on trains and subway
Google maps is of course everyone's go to, and it's great for using when you're out and about.
But when using public transport in Japan, it has it's down sides. For example, google maps often does not show the cost of the tickets for private railways. This means that when you get to the ticket machine, you have no idea which ticket to buy, and are left desperately searching on the huge map signs which are sometimes not in English. For those who don't know- the only way to buy a ticket in Japan is to put in the price- you cannot buy a ticket by putting in where you want to go. You have to KNOW how much it should cost. So, if you're planning a trip in advance, use hyperdia.com. It gives you the amount you'll need to pay for each leg. It also gives you the option of finding a route that only uses JR trains (if you're using a JR pass). Google doesn't allow this and will always give you the quicket options instead. This might mean that you miss out on a free ride and have to end up paying because you used google rather than hyperdia.

9. Buy things online
Having trouble finding shoes to fit your size 12 feet? Or pants that are long enough for your 6 foot tall frame? Buy your stuff online! Lots of shops, like asos.com have free shipping to Japan that arrives in a reasonable time frame. Make sure you get someone to help you put in your Japanese address though! Which brings us to our last hack...


10. Make a Japanese friend!
This is literally the biggest life hack possible. It will make so many things easier in Japan.For example, in Japan, if someone tries to deliver a parcel and you're not home, you will then need to CALL them to arrange for it to be dropped off. So if you're not proficient in Japanese, this might be a struggle, or even impossible. So you need a Japanese friend as soon as possible! Meetup.com is really big in Japan and there are lots of groups for different interests. You can easily and rapidly meet Japanese people, and a lot of them simply want to practice English and will be willing to help you out. Tinder is also popular in Japan, and it's more for making friends without the stigma of being entirely for sex, like is common in Western countries. So you can also easily meet close-by people on Tinder. Again, people will probably hit you up wanting to practice English.
 

ALL YOU CAN EAT KUSHI KATSU IN KOBE!!!

Kushi katsu is basically fried food on a stick. Kushi means skewer and katsu means cutlet. Japanese people love fried food, it's no secret (although, doesn't everyone...) and their kushi katsu can range from seafood, to weiners, to my favourite... cheese! That's right, fried cheese on a stick. It's amazing. Kushikatsu normally is accompanied by some kind of soy-based dipping sauce. It's delish.

So, after dipping our toes into the kushi katsu waters recently for the first time in Osaka ( we just ordered a couple of sticks each as an entree) and we decided it was great so we though that going to Kobe's all you can eat kushi katsu place would be great!　We were not disappointed....


The place is called Kushiya Monogatari, in Kobe's Harborland. It's a little pricey by Japanese standards. Lunch, from 11-3, was 1600 yen plus 200 yen for the drink bar. Dinner was I think around 2000 yen without drinks bar. For that price, you get a table with a deep fryer in the middle (yassss) and 90 minutes of unlimited access  to a bar filled with little things to fry, a salad bar, japanese curry, soups and rice, fried noodles, and a small dessert bar with a chocolate fountain.

 

 

 


Jason and I started off slow, picking out a bunch of bite-size skewers from the kushi katsu section. We don't eat seafood, so our selection included wieners, cheese donuts (that's right),  beef, pork, and potato gems (yes friend, potato gems). We took these to our table and also got a sectioned plate and filled it with a variety of dipping sauces. On our table was a dish of batter and a dish of panko bread crumbs. We battered, crumbed and fried our skewers, dipping them in our selection of cheese, ponzu, sweet, and tartar sauce. To make a token effort to be healthy (ha!) I even battered a brocolli and deep fried it, dipping it in cheese sauce for maximum irony...

We followed that up with another serve of our favourite kushikatsu (the beef, potato gems and pork were winners) and a side of Japanese mild curry on rice, and fried noodles.


And then, my favourite part... Dessert!


I took taiyaki (fish-shaped pancakes filled with sweet beans), swiss roll cake, strawberry mochi, and I deep fried all of them. That's right, I crumbed and fried a slice of cake. Come at me. Then, the piece de resistance, I took them all to the FOUNTAIN OF MELTED STRAWBERRY CHOCOLATE and I smothered them all in warm, pink love.

 

It was amazing. The taiyaki was the best. It tasted like a hot donut. The outside was delightfully crispy and the inside was soft and gooey. Jason doesn't even like red bean taiyaki, but even he loved it. The strawberry chocolate was delicious, and not too rich. The chocolate they use is seasonal, so it's not always strawberry. It might be milk, or dark, or white, or something else, depending on the day. The fried mochi was interesting... It basically became a fried ball of goo... But I enjoyed it.


They also had jelly and a soft-serve dispenser so of course I had a bowl of soft serve covered in melted chocolate. Does it even need to be said?


After we had eaten our fill (more than our fill really), we paid up our bill and rolled out of there feeling mildly sick and very sleepy. The fried-food-coma was upon us. It's an experience you could only do once in a blue moon. But rest assured, the next blue moon, I'll be back there, filling up my plate with fried taiyaki and chocolate...

Sapporo Snow Festival!

This past weekend, Jason and I ticked off one of our bucket list items, seeing Sapporo Snow Festival.

 We'd wanted to go for years, but Sapporo is just so far away from any where on the main island (10 or so hours from Tokyo by train, and 12 hours from Osaka). Not to mention of course that those times would be using a shinkansen (bullet train) which cost an arm and a leg if you don't have a JR pass (you can`t get a JR pass while living in Japan).

But we figured, this is our year! This is our year to tick off all those bucketlist items! We're in Japan for a year! What better time to travel to Sapporo than when we have a whole year to play with!

The festival sculpures were beautiful and daunting in size. There were some lovely features, although I could have got more out of the weekend if we'd followed some of the advice I now know...

THE ACCOMMODATION

We booked an Airbnb a good 6 months in advance (I like to plan). At this time, the Airbnb was very reasonably priced and I think that perhaps the owner hadn't realised it was the Snow Festival weekend... a month before we were due to go to Sapporo, I recieved a message from the Airbnb host, asking me if I had made a mistake, as I only booked for one person, when there was 2 people coming...

 
She then requested that I pay double the entire booking. For those not in the know about Airbnb, this is not how it works. The owner herself had stated that for extra guests (more than 1) is simply a charge of $32 a night... not double the whole booking... She had even doubled the booking fee (unacceptable as it's only one booking and this is supposed to go to Airbnb not her) and also doubled the cleaning fee despite this being listed as a once-off fee. i told her of her mistake and said that I wanted to pay the amount listed on her website and she then said that once she has requestd this money she can't change it and the only way to change it would be for me to cancel and rebook with 2 people..
So I thought sure, that's what I'll do. That way I'll save myself a bunch of money doing it the legit way. but when I cancelled my booking, and tried to rebook she had then raised the price to OVER DOUBLE THE PRICE! Eveb more than what she wrongly tried to charge me before! So my two night trip was now going to cost $900!  So then I saw what her intention was. Obviously she had realised that the weekend was the Snow Festival weekend and all the hotels around her were charging a premium and she wanted her share...

This was unacceptable to me so I started looking around at other hotels and Airbnbs. But now, being only a month before the Snow Festival, most of the hotels were fully booked, and those that weren't were charging suuper high rates. I'm talking $300 a night for a mattress on the floor in a single room with a shared house... Most places were around $500 a night, with some being over $1000 a night!

Eventually, we found a not too expensive airbnb that did not give us physical pain to book... It still cost us about $200 a night when our original booking was only going to cost us just over $200 in total...

So please be aware of these scams if you're going to the Snow Festival! I'd reccommend booking with a real hotel for this event, rather than Airbnb, as Airbnb hosts can cancel your booking at their own discretion, leaving you high and dry just before the event like us and having to pay exorbitant fees for shitty accommodations.

Make sure your accommodation is near Odori park, as getting around can be exhausting. In the snow, even a 10 minute walk to the train station can be gruelling.



GETTING AROUND

You can easily catch the train or tram from anywhere near Sapporo to Odori or Susukino, and you can then follow the colomn of sculptures and festivities that line Odori park.  

 

I highly, HIGHLY reccommend wearing either snow boots or little snow grips that you can attach to your shoes. I did not have them, and I deeply regret it. I couldn't get as much out of the weekend as I would have liked as a result of this. The grounds of Odori Park are largely free of snow with the exception of the parts where you walk across roads, but getting to and from train stations, and to and from hotels is VERY slippery. Plus, if you want to see any of the other snow festivals like the one at Tsudome or closey by towns, you'll need to be able to walk on snow and ice.

 

Walking on the snow and ice will get very exhausting and will work entirely different parts of your feet, knees and legs. You'll find your toes and feet trying to grip the ice as your legs constantly sply outwards, slipping on the ice. You'll shuffle, hunched, trying to minimise your movement as you walk. This puts a lot of strain on your back and knees. By the end of the weekend my knees were killing me and both my husband and I had blisters so make sure your footwear, whether snowboots or otherwise are comfy and well worn in.

THE FOOD!

 
I'm a big fan of festival food, and there was plenty at Sapporo's Snow Festival. Be sure to bring some cash, to try fesival foods like pork rib steamed buns, fresh seafood, long potato fries, buttered corn, doughnuts, fried chicken burgers, and a huge array of portable fried food. Even the convenience stores are selling special snow editions of foods, some featuring "Snow Miku", Hatsune Miku's snow alter ego.

 

Sapporo is famous for its Yubara melon, which is similar to Aussie Rock melon, or American Canteloupe, so be sure to try their melon pocky, mochi and icecream!

 

Sapporo/ Hokkaido is also famous for it's milk products so Hokkaido ice cream, milk, and butter are all famous around Japan.

 

DRINKING

 

We went to Susukino to drink, as we had heard that it was the center of Sapporo's nightlife. There's an abundance of restaurants and bars, and a lovely ice sculpture display as well. It's quite different to the night life in Osaka  and Tokyo though, in my opinion. Perhaps it's just the fact that it's so cold out, but there were no sprukers outside with pamphlets trying to persuade us to come into restaurants or offering us "all you can drink options".  This is something  love about Tokyo and Osaka night life, so I was a bit disappointed that I didn't see any, as this is usually the way Jason and I decide where to eat/drink. Especially because a lot of Japanese restaurants can be a little bit daunting with small spaces and closed doors. You feel like you're intruding a little if you just want to come in and see what they've got. Plus, a lot of restaurants are upstairs or downstairs out of sight, so without these sprukers we were a little bit lost.

 

We eventually ended up at a bar called the "Electric Sheep" which I had seen advertised on a website. They offered a delightful range of enticing, fancy cocktails for a nomihoudai (all you can drink) deal of 2600 yen (around $30) for 2 hours.This is quite expensive by Japanese nomihoudai standards, but still cheap by Aussie standards, so we decided to splurge. It also included one food item from the menu in this price.

 

We made sure to get our money's worth, with each of us ordering at least 8 drinks, but we were slowed down by the sub-par single waiter. Perhaps he was not used to Australians finishing their drinks so quickly.

Some of their cocktails were amazing though. Standouts included the glowing, colour changing cocktail the Blade Runner, and the Peach Pudding Martini (a thick, pudding like cocktail that was to die for!).

Finding a Job in Japan

Jason started looking for a job months before we moved to Japan. The idea of living off of one salary while also being in a country that encourages consumerism to the nth degree, while also wanting to travel, was scary.

So he got straight onto gaijinpot.com and other jobs in japan websites and started looking. There are also a lot of Facebook groups solely for the purpose of finding jobs in Japan, although a lot of these jobs are for people living in Japan already. There are exceptions though.

Jason was given a skype interview with English Instruction company NOVA. In the interview he was asked general informational questions, and also given some scenarios in which he was asked how he'd approach certain situations. They were fairly common sense questions.

After the interview he was offered a job, but upon getting more information about the job, it was a fairly shit excuse for a job. He was to be paid 1200 yen per hour (about 14 aussie dollars) and would have to work every single weekend. He got no holidays, and  if he called in sick, he would actually have to PAY the company a couple hundred yen per lesson he was supposed to teach that day, so they can cover his lessons!
 

Now, by foreigner in Japan standards, that wage is fine. Most jobs being advertised for foreigners in Japan seem to be between 800~1500yen. But as a teacher, I pretty much only get weekends off... so if Jason had to work every weekend, we wouldnt be able to do anything. So what's the point of being on a working holiday visa... 

 

Since we've moved to Japan, we've heard multiple people joke about how terrible NOVA is, with one of them even saying that NOVA means "No Vacation".

So we scratched that job. If we can't enjoy our time in Japan then we might as well be back in Aus...

Our next thing to try, aside from continuing to apply for jobs in gaijinpot, was the HelloWork centers. These are advertised on the Japanese Perth Embassy website as a way to help foreigners get a job. So surely it would be a foreigner friendly place to find a job...

That's where you're wrong, kiddo...

The HelloWork centers are available in most bigger Japanese cities. Jason went in to the Kobe one with big expectations. The website said that the allotted time for English speaking people was from 11 on Wednesdays. So he went in at this time and was told that their own website was wrong and he would have to some back at 1pm. 

 

Off to a good start....

So he returned at 1 and was met with an English translator whose English skills could only be described as "woefully lacking". After trying to get through some basic information like what sort of jobs he was looking for, she searched in her database for suitable positions,  printed off some jobs descriptions in Japanese and asked him for a Japanese copy of his resume.

 

 When he told her that he didnt have one, as he doesnt speak much Japanese, she told him that she would make him one and that he had to come in the next day to pick this resume up, although the interviews would be in Japanese...  Despite this being a time specifically for people who only speak English... In a place reccommended for foreigners to get a job... What good was an assistant who spoke some English if he then had to interview in Japanese?!

They told him that they would, when he picked up his resume the next day, call some of the positions to see if he could apply. He was told that some people might want an interview that day, or even straight away so he should come prepared to interview!

So he went in at his allotted time the next day, prepared for a possible interview in suit and tie, and was told that they had not yet done anything. No resume had been made, nor any calls. So once again, he had to leave and come back.

 This time they had printed his resume and gave him a few copies, telling him to mail them to the job places himself, a completely different situation than what he had been told the day before. There were no interviews. It seems like the entire two days was a bust, although at least he got a Japanese resume out of it.

Since then, Jason actually got an email from a job he applied for on gaijinpot. It's from another English instructing job, from a company called Cosmopolitan Village. They offered flexible hours, an unheard of 3000 yen per hour!

 They did a short phone interview (using someone elses phone as we've decided not to buy Japanese sims at this stage to save money) and he's going in to their office in Osaka monday to register as an instructor.

 

He will take clients as they come and will hopefully be able to take those clients in areas close to our home.
So I definitely reccommend gaijinpot as the best job finder in Japan. Hellowork, not so much. It's taken about 2 and a half weeks of being in Japan to get this job, for a time reference. I'm not saying that's standard, but that's what it took for my partner.  And he hasn't actually started yet. So if this job turns out to be too good to be true, or no hours, I'll let you know!

Getting a Working Holiday Visa for Japan

My husband, Jason gets to have a very different experience in Japan, as he is currently looking for work.

 My next post will be all about finding work in Japan, but before you do that, you need a visa. 

Jason got himself a working holiday visa before we left for Japan. If you have a job organised before  you come, you might be able to get a standard working visa, but if not, then working holiday is probably the easiest visa to get.

To do this, he had to fill out an application form from the Australian Japanese Embassy Perth website, attach a passport photo, write a letter about his reasons for wanting this visa, and he also had to include evidence of the following:

1. A valid Australian Passport (you actually have to post or bring this in with your application. If you live in Perth city, you must go in in person, but if youre outside the metro area you have to physically post your passport with a seperqte registered envelope with your passport so they can attach the visa to your passport and send it back to you).
2. Your resume in English
3. Your flight details, either return or one way. If you book only one way, you do have to show evidence of having extra money on top of the money already neccessary for the visa. 
4. Proof of funds- You need to be able to show proof of having saved 2500 Australian dollars to qualify for the working holiday Visa. This amount increases to 3500 if you apply as a couple. If you dont have flights booked and fully paid for, thus increases to 4000 and 6500 respectively. Evidence of this is shown in the form of printed bank statements.
5. Proposed schedule for first six months. The Embassy reccommends and encourages people to not stay in same place for more than 3 months, as you are there to travel. Jason and I will, of course, be staying in our apartment for a whole year. So to get around this, we listed our short holidays as "living somewhere". The itinerary needed is quite vague. So, for example, in February, Jason and I are travelling to Sapporo for a short weekend holiday, but each month on the itinerary you are just expected to list one place, so for that month he listed Sapporo. Then the month after, he listed that he'd be back in our area of Akashi. Hence, he has travelled. The month after, he might list Osaka, as we will definitely stay there a little bit.

The working holiday visa only lasts for 6 months, but you can easily get it restamped whilst in Japan by submiting your next 6 month plan.  Link to the embassy's working holiday info:  http://www.perth.au.emb-japan.go.jp/en/visiting_japan/visa_info/working_holiday_visa/index.html

If you send in all your information and application with your passport and a registered envelope, processing is usually pretty quick. I got mine back in 10 days. I think its a maximum of 2 weeks, unless theres something missing, in which case they'll call you (I reccommend calling them after a few days anyway just to check they've recieved it).

The visa itself is just a small passport sized paper glued into the passport. On arrival in Japan, they then take your passport at the airport and make your a residence card quickly while you stand at the arrival desk.

 You won't need to find this desk or anything, everyone goes through it to get into the country, your process might just be a little longer than your usual holiday process of getting your passport stamped.

All in all, it was a much less painful process than we imagined and the residence cards are pretty cool. One thing I reccommend is having your address in Japan written down because you will be asked to fill this out on entry cards. 

Day to Day Differences Working at a Japanese School (Compared to Working in an Australian School)

I've been here in Japan for about 2 weeks now, and I've just been at the school for a total of 3 days, and already the differences are huge! There's a big learning curb when changing from an Aussie school environment to a Japanese one!

A lot of that is just that in Australia I'm a fully qualified teacher, running my own program and am rushed off my feet most days, whereas here in Japan, I'm an Assistant Language Teacher with very little planning to do, who largely waits to be called upon for English questions and demonstrations. That in itself is a big adjustment, but one I am worried will become far too easy to get used to!


Apart from that obvious difference in job description, allow me to outline the differences in school life that will most likely affect your job if you're interested in working in a Japanese school environment at some point, or are simply interested in the education system around the world.


1. Entering the School
The first thing you need to do when you come to any school in Japan is take off your shoes at the entrance, put them in a locker, and put on a pair of small, cold school slippers. If you don't want to do this each morning, then you need to bring in a pair of designated school shoes. These will then not leave the school building. You will change into them when you arrive at the school entrance and change out of them at the end of the day. That way, all of your messy "outside dirt" supposedly stays outside.

2. Dress Code
Japanese schools tend to be a lot more formal than Australian Schools, but that being said, every school is different and so it's best to dress formal on your first day and then assess what your collegues are wearing. At my school in Australia I would commonly wear black jeans or little dresses with leggings underneath. Singlets were common in Summer. In Japan however, most men where suits, and women are usually wearing smart, very modest clothes. This usually means no singlets, as showing shoulders and collarbones is generally a no-no in schools. Most schools won't allow you to show tattoos either, although the school I'm currently at does, as part of it's multicultural diversity push. I'm here to show them authentic Western culture and part of that is a relaxed attitude toward tattoos.


3. The Lessons and Behaviour Management
The lessons are very different to what we're used to in Aus. In Australia, I'm clocking up a lot of steps (usually over 10 000 a day), making sure students are on task, handing out pencils, restating the instructions to those who didn't listen the first few times, and trying to get those unmotivated students to do something... Here in Japan, despite there being 40 students in each lesson,  I'm lucky to get 5000 steps. Teachers expect students to listen to and follow the instructions. I'm sure it will differ from school to school, but there's very little "telling off" or behaviour management of any kind going on at my current Japanese school. An English teacher I was working with today had set homework for the class the lesson before, and then, at the beginning of this class, asked them to get it out and discuss their answers with a partner, trying to use full sentences. I asked him if any students ever didn't do their homework, and whether he ever had to punish any students. He responded that he expected that nearly all the students would always do their homework. He does not punish the students, as he sees himself as a "facilitator of learning". He said that he is simply giving them the best chance to learn English. Most of the students are very motivated to learn English, and so he finds it better to give encouragement. This seems to be a similar approach as a lot of the teachers here. I am yet to see a reprimand. I asked if there was a detention system at this school, and there is not. Occasionally a student may be given cleaning duty, but apparently it is rarely needed. Can you imagine?


I have not seen any students get sent out of class, or students asked to stay back and talk to the teacher. Students are chatty at the beginning of classes, but the teacher usually does not tell them to be quiet. The teacher usually starts talking and the students quiet down quickly as they want to listen to the instructions so they can succeed. Classes here are very silent when doing tests and quiet work, and are chatty during discussions and activity transitions. The fact that nearly all students have this expectation that they should be doing well is something very different from a lot of my classes in Australia, especially when it comes to learning another language.  Again though, there are better and worse schools in Japan, so I'd expect a range of motivation depending on the school.


Lessons here are, surprisingly, very cooperative. I say surprisingly because I did have this idea that Japanese schooling is largely rote learning, and I imagined students reciting lines and vocabulary repretitively. I guess this idea is outdated, at least in my school. English is learnt very cooperatively, with students doing large amounts of peer and group activities. I think Japan is try to move away from rote learning, and use more cooperative and critical skills. There is a lot of speaking and listening happening, as well as writing. This also surprised me as many Japanese talk of a lack of speaking skills being taught in schools. Again, I think Japanese schools have identified this as a weakness and are trying to rectify it.Most English lessons start off with a short chat time on sa chosen topic, or using chosen key words. Students also discuss, reason debate, and give different perspectives to eachother in English throuhout the lesson.


4. The Office
Japanese school offices are big open things where all the teachers are together. This is quite different to some Australian high  schools which give seperate offices to different departments. Here, everyone is squished in together, everyone owning or sharing a desk. When you come into the office in the morning you say "ohayou gozaimasu"(good morning) to everyone as you come in, and as you leave, people say "o tsukaresama de" (you must be tired).

Students come into the office fairly regularly to hand things in and get help. They always say "shitsurei shimasu" as they enter (sorry for the interuption/rudeness) and they bow and say this again as they leave. It's so polite!

Teachers in the office often are employed by the prefectural board of education, rather than the school. This means that teachers are often rotated between schools at the discretion of the board. They may be at a school just one year, or as long as 10 years.


5. Transport
Most Japanese staff and students come to school by train or bike. There are no special school buses like in Aus, and there is usually very little parking at schools. If you are not familiar with the Japanese train systems, they're super convenient. Find out what the closest stop to your school is, and then chuck that into google maps.

6.  Students
The students at my school are lovely. They see me as some cute foreign object, it seems, and that's fine. You'll probably have to get used to students going "kawaii" when you answer some questions or do certain things...

One big difference between the Japanese stdents here at my school and those back at my school in Australia is their preparedness, and responsibility. By second term, many of my Australians students had foregone pencil cases, instead, only bringing in a pencil, if that. Many students started the year without pencils, and by Term 3 and 4, some of my classes only had 50% of kids with even a writing implement. I'm currently in the Japanese students' last term, as their school year ends in April, and I have not seen a single student without an immaculately kept pencil case. They take pride in their possessions, and enjoy displaying cute pencil cases, cute pencils, and many students even bring folded blankets with them into class to help deal with the cold.

All students are wearing school uniform, including for girls, sailor bow ties, long socks, pleated skirt, ironed shirt, sweater and blazer. And for boys, pants, ironed shirt, tie, sweater and blazer. All students wear the same white school shoes which they change into on arrival. There are no exceptions. They are not allowed to wear make up and jewellery or die their hair. All this promotes uniformity and togetherness.


7. The Classroom
Students stay in the same class all day, with the exception of specialty classes, and teachers rotate through. This is the students class and they become like one big family. They eat in this class, clean this class, and study in this class. They even sometimes decorate this class. Within the class, they are in a seating plan. Seats are commonly individual in Japan, in vertical rows. At my school, they switch the seating plan about once a month so all students in the class must be cooperative with eachother.


8. Heating and Cooling
The staff office in the school is nice and warm. If you're sitting in here most of the day you can take off your coat and be comfortable in Winter. However, make the mistake of stepping outside the office without your coat and you may die... It's freezing. The classes are varying degrees of freezing all the way up to just warm enough. So layers are your friend.

In Summer, most Japanese schools don't have air conditioning. So with our modest clothing expectation I expect to not have a fun time in Summer.


There are so many differences between the 2 school lifestyles, I couldn't possibly list them all in one sitting. But I hope I've given you a vague idea of what to expect.