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Spot reserved for 60 paragraph diatribe about how much I've learned about myself and the Yamato people after 4 months here, and how it has changed me forever.
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Jan 5, 2016 11:46
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 16:32 |
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JET is the best paying option for people without something like a Master's in TEFL/TESOL, but you need at least a Bachelor's for JET. Regardless, you've actually just missed the application deadline by about a month, and it's on a yearly rotation, which sucks. INTERAC is the other option I know a few people do, and it has more seasonal hiring schedules so you may be able to apply for this Summer or something. I also know a few people who just rolled into the country and found Eikawa jobs. The caveat with that being both of them were 1.) Kiwis, so they had a 'Working Vacation' 1-year Visa, which you can't do if you're from the US 2.) Both had SOs in JET who were set up with apartments/jobs/connections so they had somewhere to live when they got here. I wouldn't recommend trying that 'Roll up and see what you can find for work' thing. I've heard people who've had success with that in SE Asia, but Japan is way different. I've never worked for an Eikawa, but ALT jobs seem to be a lot more stead with regular hours, less responsibility, and better pay. But they're also harder to get. Again, I would recommend JET or INTERAC, even if it means having to wait another year.
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Jan 7, 2016 00:37
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Knuc U Kinte posted:Rich uncle penny bags in the language thread is my homie because he learned high level Japanese to find javs that satisfied his chubby Asian fetish. Is there any reason besides this that people learn foreign languages?
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Jan 7, 2016 05:19
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Come visit scenic Akita. Nestled in the Tohoku region of the barren North, we boast the highest rates of alcoholism and suicide, as well as being the prefecture with the highest average age. Let's enjoy!
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Jan 29, 2016 00:48
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Hey guys I have some questions maybe you can help me with. I met my wife in Japan 2 years ago while I was over there teaching English for a semester. I'm now 32, she's 22. We started dating, got engaged, married, and she came over to the US via the K1 visa program about 5 months ago. There are several issues that have come up since we got married and moved in together. I'm hoping for some goon advice from others in relationships, even if they're not exactly like this. Keep in mind she has been in the US officially for about 5 months. I understand there is a huge cultural change and learning curve, but some of this is crazy. 1) She still hasn't learned to drive. But not through lack of trying. She has extremely bad nerves, and every time she even gets in the driver's seat she freaks out and starts shaking and sweating. We tried parallel parking once and she just floored it while the E-brake was still on. I had to physically pull her foot off the pedal. We try driving at least half an hour a day and she's gotten no more comfortable with it. 2) Her English is pretty good, but she still prefers speaking Japanese all the time. My Japanese is alright, but I don't catch everything, especially slang and things like that. Many times after an argument she'll run into the bedroom, lock the door, and start yelling things at me in Japanese that I don't understand. 3) We are having some money issues - mostly tied to the fact that I'm the only one working. I'm a substitute teacher, and work is spotty at best. I also do work as a landscaper but it's winter so there's nothing going on. So finances are TIGHT right now. We've looked for work she can do from home until the driving situation is fixed, but most of it needs a way better understanding of English. 4) We still haven't consummated our marriage. The most she's willing to do is some stuff with her feet, no actual intercourse. This is a nerves thing again.
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Feb 22, 2016 07:20
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First of all, we love each other very much. My wife is also not a child. Again, put yourself in her shoes. Imagine you are just living life when suddenly you meet this amazing person who is also your Japanese teacher. You have a whirlwind romance and he or she asks you to marry them. Of course you say yes - but then you move to Japan with only a rudimentary understanding of the language and culture. You'd probably be pretty shaken up, right? That's what my wife is living with. Her support network right now is me, and a family that's on the other side of the world. Finally, on the sex thing. I probably should have clarified this since it's apparently an issue for several goons. Yes, I have a foot fetish and my wife is fully aware of this. One of the ways we started bonding in the first place was I'd give her foot massages - it was a nice little thing for both of us. After a few dates I worked up the nerves to kiss her. After a few more I took her to a Japanese "love motel" with the intention of losing my virginity. However while I was putting the condom on she started crying. I asked her what was wrong - she said she was a virgin too and didn't want to do anything until marriage. I told her that was fine, kissed her, and she went back to her parents' house. I tried to consummate the marriage on our honeymoon. As mentioned, money is very tight, so for our honeymoon, we did a 3 day pass to Hershey Park. It was a lot of fun. To make the first night really romantic, I splurged on something really cool. The staff will fill the bathtub up with melted chocolate (really more like slightly watered down chocolate syrup - it's a skin care/spa thing). I had them do it and planned to make love to my wife in the tub (we both love chocolate, her especially). That didn't go well because she said it looked like a tub of "poo-poo". I showered off but by the time I was done and had cleaned and drained the tub, she had fallen asleep. The next day I tried again, just regular bed sex. I was about to put it in and she suddenly started shuddering all over. I asked if she was cold, and she told me she was so nervous. We had an adult conversation about this and she admitted that my penis was much bigger than any other boyfriend's she had before (makes sense as she had dated solely native Japanese before) and that she was worried it would hurt her. We agreed to go dildo shopping after the honeymoon as a way to kind of "work up" to me. Since then she's started that process (this is a real thing, before goons jump to conclusions). Our current form of sex will usually be her using dildos (starting really small and working her way up) on herself. I'll then try to enter her but she'll either start shuddering or her vagina will tighten up so much I can't enter. After about a month of this I got frustrated, and she saw that. She then gave me a footjob, which I'm not gonna lie - was awesome. I kind of let up on the penis in vagina sex after that, since she'll give me a FJ fairly regularly now. She is still using the dildo step up process, though, and I hope to consummate things by Valentine's Day. I am also trying to meet some Japanese immigrants around my city for my wife to become friends with and discuss the whole cultural adjustment thing. We went to a Japanese restaurant a few weekends ago and I started talking to the chef. It turns out he was actually Hawaiian so it doesn't matter, but that's the kind of thing I'm willing to do for my wife. I will keep updating this as needed. The holidays were a nice downtime and we bonded a lot and got a lot of driving practice in. I figure if we can get the driving and sex things tackled by Valentine's day, and a job by St. patrick's day, then we're golden going forward. Also regarding the holidays - this was an awesome time for us both. I've been an atheist since elementary school (I'm sure some jokes will fly at this, but it's the only educated way to look at the world and I figured that our really young) so I don't decorate for or celebrate anything related to Christmas. My wife and I exchanged gifts, but that was it. We went to see Star Wars on Christmas Day - it was her first time seeing a movie in theaters and although it was a bit too much for her (she had to run to the bathroom when the aliens broke out on Han's ship and started eating everyone). When the movie was over she was waiting in the lobby for me and she was fine then. Afterwards we ate KFC I had bought a few days earlier and kept in the fridge(this is a Japanese tradition on the holidays) and we both really enjoyed it. I think getting these kind of American experiences in is helping her a lot.
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Feb 23, 2016 00:28
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Stalins Moustache posted:So I had applied for a semester abroad through agreements with my university. Applied to 6 universities across the world, and 5 rejected me. The only university that accepted my application and asked me if I wanted to study there for a semester? University of Akita, Japan. is it Akita International University or Akita University?
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Feb 24, 2016 00:27
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Stalins Moustache posted:Akita International, of course. I live nearby, and have visited AIU several times for different things. First off, you don't need any Japanese. Every class at AIU is conducted exclusively in English, with the exception of a few classes that are only for Japanese nationals so you don't need to worry about it. Everyone I talked to while I was there, students and faculty, had strong enough English that I didn't even have to think twice about what they were saying to me. Honestly, you're only going to be there a semester (So like, maybe 4 months?) so there's literally no reason to break your back learning Japanese beyond the most basic survival words if you're not interested in the language. I mean I guess if you're going to be trying to pick up dates outside of the campus maybe you need some, but other than that I can't think of a reason why you'd need it at all. Even if the only Japanese language you ever learn is 'Arigatou' you'll never be "That Person" because the entire structure of the university is "All English, All The Time". The campus is pretty remote, though, so be prepared for that. Akita is a really rural prefecture, and AIU is literally just all by itself, not in a town or anything. It is like 15 minutes from Akita City, which has like 300,000 people and everything you could need, so don't worry about not having supplies you need, just realize that you'll need to take a bus to get anywhere off campus. If you're coming between October-March, pack some warm clothes and snow boots. I hope you like snow and rain, a lot.
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Feb 25, 2016 02:53
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TWSS posted:Man, the people here are so loving nice they make Canadians look like a bunch of self-absorbed cunts. Random locals keep coming up to me and my girlfriend and giving us free poo poo. Thus far we've been given a set of ponchos, oodles of sweets and a few people even gave up their tables in busy restaurants so we could eat together. No you fool, those people are GAIJIN HUNTERS and they are extremely rude and trying to oppress you. Just listen to Ryan Boundless, he is extremely knowledgeable about these tricks.
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Mar 15, 2016 05:36
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SpiderLink posted:I appreciate your input and advice, but it's not for Netflix. I'll check out Strong VPN. That makes it sound way worse.
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Mar 16, 2016 05:01
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zmcnulty posted:I'm probably way overthinking this but the Robot Restaurant is a pretty interesting case study as far I'm concerned. The management must have really done their homework. They latched directly onto the "crazy Japan" aspect that so many Western tourists who come to Tokyo actively seek out, had extensive English-language media coverage when they opened, and I suppose the website/staff has at least passable English. Or maybe they use Engrish on purpose. I've never been so no idea. But presumably they deliver enough zaniness that people aren't disappointed when they walk out of there. Lol at foreigners living in one of the biggest, most modern metropolitan areas in the world trying to shame people for not having an "authentic Japanese experience" when visiting.
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Mar 30, 2016 00:29
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I watched Forrest Gump with my girlfriend on Netflix and turned on Japanese dub for it, it was so depressing. I was trying to explain the way Forrest talks and how it's such a big part of his character but absolutely none of that came through because the Japanese voice actor was just saying the lines like a normal person would apparently.
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Mar 30, 2016 02:01
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Like people have said, in Japan they would rather hire a Japanese person with minimal qualifications over a foreigner with good qualifications, especially one that doesn't speak the language and knows nothing about how Japanese society and business function. It'd be a hard sell to convince them to hire you based off your intangible business development skills you gained from your failed start-up tech company.
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Apr 5, 2016 05:16
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.Z. posted:National Treasure Tree Japan really loves keeping old things alive regardless of the cost.
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Apr 11, 2016 04:20
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.Z. posted:Does anyone know of a tattoo friendly, public onsen? I've been looking around, but I don't think they exist. I've been to about a dozen different onsen and I have lots of tattoos, never had anyone say anything. Most of these were in rural Tohoku also. I am a giant white guy though, so I don't think people were suspicious that I might be Yakuza. Unrelated, but I recently got a tattoo in Kyoto and the artist made me sign a waiver thing before we started. I assumed it was your typical "I'm of legal age, ect.", but when I asked her she told me she did it because apparently Yakuza will never sign their name or give you their ID so she did it to make sure none of her customers were Yakuza. She said most of the tattoo industry in Japan is mobbed up so that's why she went off on her own.
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Jun 6, 2016 07:03
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Tea.EarlGrey.Hot. posted:I went to onsen in Amanohashidate with some friends and was almost turned away because a cute Italian girl had a little bird tattoo on her shoulder. We managed to convince the owner to let us in by promising to cover her shoulder with a towel. Yeah, absolutely. I made an effort to cover my tattoos with a small towel, but they were still pretty apparent.
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Jun 7, 2016 04:23
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.Z. posted:Wonder if they didn't care or were just intimidated. What's funny is I'm about the least intimidating person ever, I'm just tall. But here people always say I look scary before they get to know me. I had to basically have my counterparts at my school make an announcement about it being okay for students to just come up and talk to me if they wanted.
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Jun 10, 2016 01:57
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Aug 16, 2016 00:49
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The Great Autismo! posted:kansas is v bad but at least there's like one cool basketball university in it Kansas is awesome if you live in Kansas City or Lawrence, both of which are right next to each other. Any place other than that is garbage.
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Aug 29, 2016 06:39
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The Great Autismo! posted:ya the awesome basketball university i was talking about wasn't in manhattan, lol University of Kansas and Kansas State University serve two very different functions. University of Kansas is for the type of people who don't think Kansas is amazing, Kansas State is for people who want to be farmers and still use the word "colored".
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Aug 29, 2016 06:44
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Knuc U Kinte posted:The most action this thread has seen in years is a bunch of clowns painfully deconstructing the Friends plot arc where Chandler is tricked into moving to Toledo. Tulsa?
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Aug 30, 2016 00:32
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What should I do in Sapporo for a week.
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Sep 27, 2016 05:56
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Is there any rules about shipping knives from Japan? I wanna get some handmade cutlery from a local store to send home for gifts but I didn't know if there was some sort of restriction on mailing that kind of stuff.
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Nov 1, 2016 01:31
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Is it a situation where I would be better served by just saying I'm sending home toys or something? I did that before when I was sending home a bunch of random stuff and my language sucks so I just said "Its manga" and they went right ahead and shipped it.
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Nov 1, 2016 04:53
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totalnewbie posted:"Cold" is a relative term. Kyoto's average low-high for Dec/Jan is 37/34-52/46. That's downright balmy depending on where you're coming from. Every year we have to have "Winter Preparedness" seminar for all the English teachers in the area. It's a full day and has hour long seminars over things like "Defrosting your windshield", "How to stay warm in your apartment", and "Seasonal Affective Disorder".
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Nov 8, 2016 00:36
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They will have snow tires available if you rent one in winter. Also driving in snow isn't any different, just go a little slower.
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Nov 18, 2016 02:45
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I think Akita has the highest suicide rate. It's also the oldest prefecture.
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Dec 1, 2016 02:20
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Mid November is the perfect time for momimomi.
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Dec 14, 2016 00:50
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peanut posted:Sounds like she needs one of those cozy mountain towns where you can wander the street in a yukata going between ryokan using all the baths. It would need a few restaurants to escape the kaiseki bloat. Idk the name of the places like this though :/ This is every single town in Akita.
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Jan 17, 2017 01:02
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Piano Maniac posted:Are there any common gaijin pitfalls you would definitely like to warn about 100%? If you're driving there are specially designed Gaijin Pits on the shoulders of some roads to trap your tires. Watch out for those.
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Mar 2, 2017 00:27
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You've got spunk kid, let me hire you. How does 100,000 USD a year sound? When can you start?
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Mar 13, 2017 01:11
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There's little to no chance you're going to be able to get a Japanese company to put your foreign phone on a Japanese cell phone plan.
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Jun 20, 2017 07:18
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Haneda has nice chairs for sleeping on. And I like your new avatar, GTA.
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Jun 29, 2017 02:08
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Sup Japan goons. I'm thinking about coming back for a visit in a few months and since I had a 3-year VISA it's still active until October of this year. It's an Instructor Visa, can I just come back over using that or do I need to get a different one because I'm just coming for vacation?
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Jan 23, 2018 22:01
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zmcnulty posted:Do you still have your residence card? I think the re-entry allowance is a year after departure, regardless of how long your visa was initially valid for. Residence card is somewhere in my house but they punched a hole in it. It will be less than 1 year since I left and I'll only be there a few weeks. There isn't any real reason not to get a tourist visa, I was just wondering since my passport still has the active Visa in it.
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Jan 26, 2018 20:49
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