Has anyone here been to Japan? Any recommendations on areas of Japan to go to? I'm applying for a placement and need to put down my top three choices of where i want to be located. I have done some reading, but it would be good to hear from people who have actually been there. So far my top choice is Kyoto but then i guess that's going to be popular.
I've been to Japan twice, but not mainland Japan. I lived on a military base both times on Okinawa, Japan for 6 months each time. I visited a lot of tourist sites and liked most the castle ruins I saw there. But I felt I had mostly explored the most interesting things to see there in that time. My feeling would be that I would have been able to see more if I'd been on mainland Japan, so that's the only thing I can recommend is chose a place that is on the main island.
Is it the JET Programme PrincessGarnet? Also, which do you want - big city with stuff to do and plenty of english or smaller place with less stuff to do but better chance of learning tons of japanese? i lived in Oita for two years. it was okay, but i wanted either more city(nothing to do there) or less city (learn more japanese). Akihabara is part of Tokyo, which is hard to get on the JET program. Tell us more about what kind of place you'd like to live and we can narrow it down for you Kyoto is popular and I always wanted to go there. I think if you try for a smaller city/town near to Kyoto (in the same prefecture preferably), you'd be much better off. Then you can travel there easily. If you try to go travel between prefectures (even if it's really close) it starts getting too expensive for weekly trips.
What are you going there for Princess? Can you speak Japanesse? I have never been myself but it looks fantastic. Only, the is based solely upon Lost in Translation.
It is for JET, which is the japanese exchange and teaching scheme, so if i get accepted i'll be in Japan for a least a year teaching english in a primary or secondary school. And I don't really know much about Japan just through lost in translation as well , but i quite like going to places i don't know much about and learning more. Also I don't know any Japanese expect for when answering a telephone i believe you say 'mooshy mooshy'. 67kangaroos thanks for info, i guess that's my problem i'm not sure in one sense cities seem fun but i guess they're more cosmopolitan and less authentic, so i guess i'd want a bit of both, which i guess doesn't help Also I keep changing my mind away what kind of temperature i want as islands in south are hot whereas northern island has snow for quite some time. I guess though i prefer cold to hot, but i probably will stick to the main island.
Yeah, your best bet would probably be a suburb of Kyoto. I haven't been there, but I've heard it's the best city of Japan. And if you're on the big mainland (i was in the southernmost of the four big ones) you have a much better time of travelling. Like I said though, you should go for a city/town within the same prefecture as Kyoto if you plan on going there a lot. Once you go outside of the prefecture, train tickets go up $50. And the JET Programme is really good (much better than any of the other teaching programs like NOVA, etc.). I hope you get it. Good luck~!
Yeah, you're definitely better off in the bigger cities if you don't speak Japanese. You're more likely to run into people who speak English, and as far as I know (though I may be wrong) the people will speak the more standard dialect that you would be taught if you take a class before you get there, which would be a good idea.
Rofl. I live in Japan, on the JET programme. Been here since the last intake (July). PM me if you want details. My suggestion is that you go over to www.ithinkimlost.com and hit up the forums. Lots of good info there, particularly during the application process. The one thing you need to be clear about is that the JET programme is like the army: You get put where they want you, not where you want to be. So, you could be in anywhere from downtown Osaka to the super hick countryside, where you're the only non-Japanese resident in a village with a population of 500. And there are lots of countryside placements on the JET programme: it pays the best, but it has the most arbitrary placements, because the government needs teachers in the countryside. The cities often use private contractors. Good luck with the placement requests, though. I didn't request anything specific (just semi-urban) and I got put into a large city, so it's not as if it doesn't happen. Be prepared for the inaka, though.
Kyoto is a fantastic city, packed with sights and quite large. In the area you also have Nara and Osaka - a big city which to me looked rather soulless. The most northern island, Hokkaido, is very beautiful to visit, but probably too isolated, and in winter too cold, to live there as a foreigner. If you've never been to Japan, bear in mind that it's one of the most expensive countries on earth - and certainly transportation doesn't come cheap.
That sounds great, and I suppose you'll pick up the language as you spend more time there. I hope you enjoy it anyways, I would love the chance to work for a while in another country, France in particular.
To my knowledge, anyone can go live in Japan if they want to teach English and have a degree (in any field at all). However, if you're applying for a placement to go there through an exchange program, there is likely going to be tons of competition for that spot from other students, and learning/knowing Japanese is REALLY going to help. For mainly two reasons: 1) The school will only be interested in giving that placement (and they are right to do so) to someone who is genuinely interested in Japanese culture and shows that they are interested. Not just some random person who wants to go just because. 2) Contrary to popular belief, no, people in Japan do not speak much English, and it is just way easier for anyone who plans to live there an extended period of time to learn the language. Um...no. That line of thought would work if the OP was a child whose language development hasn't fully set in, but as you get older it becomes harder and harder to learn a new language. Japanese is hard, the pronunciation may be easy but the structure is completely different than English, and I have heard from many sources that learning to read/write kanji (the main Japanese alphabet) is a nightmare. It isn't something that you can just pick up by hearing other people speak it, if that were the case then you could just learn it by watching subtitled animes. Want my advice? Take Japanese classes.
Lol. The vast, vast majority of JETs don't speak Japanese. It's only a requirement for CIRs, not ALTs. Not a single one of the South Africans that entered the JET programme in 2008 speaks Japanese, and the vast majority of the other JET programme participants don't speak Japanese when they arrive.] In fact, of the people in my city that came in my year, some 40 or so, two spoke Japanese, and only one of them was fluent. OP, don't let people put you off. Learning Japanese before you get here is useful, but you really don't have to. You can start studying once you get here, and provided you stick to it, it's perfectly plausible to get the necessary grasp of Japanese to navigate, although it's unlikely you'll become fluent unless you put in an enormous amount of effort. In any case, cities are perfectly survivable without Japanese, and if you're in the countryside, you'll learn Japanese much faster because of the complete immersion. Edit: By "study" I mean, using books for self study, doing language exchanges, correspondence lessons (the JET programme has one set up for us). Not necessarily formal lessons, although these definitely exist. I honestly wouldn't shell out for Japanese lessons solely for the purpose of getting on the JET programme. It's not a reliable investment, particularly if you're not otherwise interested in Japan.
Still, since the person in question is a university student, it wouldn't hurt at all to take Japanese classes as an elective whilst he/she is studying. Honestly, part of showing interest in a culture is to at least try to learn the language, and if Japanese culture doesn't interest you, why would you go to Japan?
Tehe, I like how you said 'he/she', what kind of man would have princessgarnet as a name I would look into learning some Japanese before I go and read up on the country. I was just wondering if anyone had any recommendations about which area to choose, although my main fear isn't learning the language, getting used to such a different culture etc, it's the flight there, and if i could get out of it by going by land and sea i would, but it's necessary because of how it's set up. Anyway thanks for the info everyone. I sent my application away today.
