Moving to Japan - Advise?

[Boondoggle 0]

Hello,

 

So as I await my interview with JET in a couple weeks I've been giving a lot of thought to trying to fulfill a childhood fantasy of living in a ski town. I figured this might be a great place to try and get some advise, which hopefully I can convince them to consider should the interview go well.

 

Basically, where are some great places to reside that have decent access to slopes affordable enough to hit consistently throughout the season? Are there any of those places within reasonable distance of the bigger cities? Which are your ideal places to live?

 

I'm a 24 year old guy and the only real goal I have is to learn the language before I think about moving on. I lived in Kumamoto for a semester back in high school, so I almost know what I'm getting into. I used to dream about living in a ski town, though my experience has been limited to Colorado and the Lake Tahoe area (I was at Heavenly when Sonny Bono bit it - that makes me famous, right?).

 

 

Thanks for humoring me,

eric

 

 

P.S. Did a search for similar topics, but couldn't find any - sorry if this has come up already.

[woywoy 0]

Sapporo or Nagano area would be good although a Canadian guy called Toque had fun living in and around Hida, Takayama for a few years too. Lots of mountains round there

[griller 9]

Here's a good question.... do you like unbearable hot in summer?

[JA2340 16]

That really depends on what you mean by "unbearable hot".

 

We flew out of Tokyo last week when the temp was (late evening) around 7deg C. Flew into Brisbane at 7am and already 22deg, have had 35 or 6 a couple of days since, no real biggie, expected somewhere around that temp for the middle of summer. Was a bit of a shock to get out of the plane in our winter gear and have to find a change room, tho.

 

My point is that "hot" is relative.

[Yuki's Passion 1]

>I was at Heavenly when Sonny Bono bit it - that makes me famous, right?

 

dude! Youre famous!! Can I touch you??

[thursday 1]

Kumamoto, I love those oysters, LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE them

[samurai 0]

The farther you wish to go into a ski town (of which there are hundreds) the farther you go from support as a JET, fwiw.

 

By no means am I advocating that you move to Tokyo, but many of the JETs that I meet out here in the country (Yamagata) get really lonely and spend their weekends wasted in the bar venting about being in charge of the school's English curriuclum all by themselves.

 

Just thought I'd mention it. Sapporo and Nagano are by no means country... or ski towns. They're ski cities. But those small schools tucked into the corner can get pretty lonely.

[Boondoggle 0]

You can touch my famous toosh once I get over there and have a suitable place to live. As for hot, doesn't bother me too much - been living in Florida for long enough and all.

 

Any particular area of Nagano nice? I'll give Hida a look, too. As for Sapporo, I was thinking it might be a better idea to stay on Honshu so I could travel easier. Is Hokkaido nice enough to make it worth the extra effort or is that not really an issue?

 

Thanks a bunch for the responses.

 

-eric

[AET 0]

Other things.... do they actually give you much actual choice these days, or just put preferences?

 

Living in the inaka countryside is also considerably cheaper than in the big cities. Lots of inaka AETs traditionally find themselves much better off than the ones say in Tokyo or other big cities. If you want to be in a crowd of gaijin then cities might be the way to go. Personally when I came here I wanted countryside - didn't want to get into any gaijin-bubble.

[tripitaka 0]

The city's not all it's cracked up to be for a JET teacher either--expensive, noisy and dirty. Some people can deal with it, some can't.

 

The happiest JETs I've met live in Shikoku. If you like surfing and the outdoors, it goes off. Also, their also seems to be a good support network. I also met some JETs teaching in southern Nagano. They didn't seem to have too many complaints about life.

 

Living in the sticks is a good opportunity to get stuck into language study. You have less distractions and plenty of opportunity to communicate.

[Go Native 70]

The liking the heat question is a good one. I decided to live in Hokkaido because I find the summers on most of Honshu to be unbearable. If you don't mind a few months of 30+ temps and stifling humidity then Honshu is fine. Up where I live it almost never gets above 30 and we have only a couple of weeks where the humidity gets high. Thing about living up here though is we do get very long winters so you'd need to like the cold and snow.

[Yuki's Passion 1]

Sapporo is a great city!

 

Cities Id consider living in:

 

Kyushu:

 

Fukuoka (2 thumbs up)

Miyazaki (maybe)

Nagasaki

 

Shikoku:

anywhere!! - its bumfack inaka anyways!

 

Honshu:

Hiroshima

Kobe

Kyoto

Matsumoto/Nagano just cuz youre so close to the mountains

and almost anywhere in Tohoku would suit me.

 

I wouldnt wanna live in Osaka, Tokyo, and the likes but thats just me.

[soubriquet 0]

Sendai is a very nice city. Not too big, an international airport. Access to the Pacific in summer and the snow in winter. It has arguably the best climate in Japan.

[thursday 1]

no advice from me 'cos I know Jack (and Jill for that matter). Sapporo is a very nice city.

[tripitaka 0]

 Originally Posted By: Creek Boy

I wouldnt wanna live in Osaka, Tokyo, and the likes but thats just me.

Osaka attracts a certain type of person: perhaps a bit rough around the edges. It also has the best punk rock in Japan!!

[HelperElfMissy 42]

 Originally Posted By: tripitaka

 Originally Posted By: Creek Boy

I wouldnt wanna live in Osaka, Tokyo, and the likes but thats just me.

Osaka attracts a certain type of person: perhaps a bit rough around the edges. It also has the best punk rock in Japan!!

OK...so - correct me if I am wrong, but I think a lightbulb just went on above my head...

My boy doing his leaving year this year is always in trouble in Japanese class for using Osaka dialect instead of proper forms...I did not understand this comment.

So a bit rough round the edges...linguistically as well?

Child#1 assures me that while he is still teasing the teacher by answering in this way, he is also correcting it with the proper form and a raise of the eyebrows. Just hope he uses the right forms under the pressure of exams!!!

[tripitaka 0]

Mama, Osaka dialect is considered to be the most "colorful" in Japan. Comedians often use it to great effect. It's probably better for students to focus on using standard Japanese correctly. Foreigners who speak Osaka-ben usually find themselves the center of attention among some Japanese. It can be cheesy but if it's a "product of your environment", then there's not much that can be done about it!

[HelperElfMissy 42]

Ahhhh!!!

 

Cheeky little sod he is then!

There are some Japanese boys in his class that he is friends with, he has done exchange in Japan, and we have had some boys here on exchange - so clearly he is picking up some choice lingo.

 

Does not surprise me for one second as it is THAT child...he has some choice English expressions too!

 

Thanks for the clarification - not speaking Japanese puts me at a disadvantage with him on this one.

 

You may all have your thread back from hijack now - LOL

[Yuki's Passion 1]

mama, Kansai ben (collectively) is by far the most colorful. I find people from Osaka to have the best sense of humor, outgoing, etc...and their dialect reflects it. Kyoto ben is very soft, elegant, and quite nice to listen to. Sound very cultured. Kobe and Nara dont have (I think) a very defined dialect other than standard Kansai ben with a bit of their own words.

 

Teachers would surely want students speaking in 標準語 (hyoujungo) which is standard Japanese for obvious reasons. You're better off learning that first and being able to use it properly, then learn the local dialect later.

 

Dialects change from place to place and there are just as many dialects, and very subtle dialects, as there are izakayas. All of them are very interesting, too.

 

My Hiroshima ben used to be pretty impressive but since Ive been in Kansai now for about 4 years I have forgotten some of the really good words. Especially the inaka words My Kansai ben is decent but its not anywhere near the level of Hiroshima ben I had...

 

Lets ben!

[tripitaka 0]

CB, I sometimes think they push that Kansai thing too far though. At the end of the day, Osaka people can be just as uptight as Tokyoites. As for Kyoto, I can't deal with the vagueness, but then again, I'm just a philistine and lack innate sensitivity.

[Ewok 2 1]

 Originally Posted By: NPM

Sapporo or Nagano area would be good although a Canadian guy called Toque had fun living in and around Hida, Takayama for a few years too. Lots of mountains round there

Hida Takayama

[Yuki's Passion 1]

Hira Yu onsen is the bomb!! Too bad Toque is gone...

[snowboarding-sally 0]

I have heard many good things about that area.

[Boondoggle 0]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I've been trying to find more info on some of them. Toyama was suggested to me elsewhere - any thoughts on that area? I have to say, what I can find on Takayama makes it look really nice. Being in Nagano also looks great if just cause it's a little larger. Any of them especially good for a young lad like myself?

 

And yeah, you can only submit preferences on the JET application. I royally screwed that one up, too. Since I wasn't sure where I wanted to be, I put down Osaka, Nagoya, and Yokohama knowing that everyone asks for those and there are few spots. However, I've heard during the interview they tend to discuss your preferences with you and I'm hoping I can use this to present my case. I know each consulate is given a specific number of spots to fill, so it would be ideal if I could list a few places that I've researched and pray they have spots in one of them.

 

Of course, this won't matter if I end up being rejected, haha. At least it's motivation in the meantime for me to crank out this god-forsaken thesis. I just may graduate yet.

 

cheers,

eric