Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Thanks for the reply, Justin. Another member has also contacted me through emails and had some valuable tips to offer me. I've included a few below:

anonymous wrote:

I was in Japan from 200x to 200x. That time, I found a job easily over there. I had a working holiday visa at the time and it was easy to find a job working for a big English teaching company. My experience has only been with the big schools; JET, high school, and university teaching is quite different.

I am intending to go over there on a tourist visa and find a job. I have had a look on the net, and it seems much harder to find a job on the net than it was to find a job over there. Things may have changed; guess I will find out once I am there.

I seem to remember that other teachers who were on working visas more or less had to work full time, probably because the company was not so willing to sponsor people to work part time. As a working holiday visa holder, part time conditions were great. I remember another full timer got married, switched to a spouse visa, and was then able to switch back to working part time.

anonymous wrote:

One can become eligible for a permanent residence visa if they have been on a work visa for at least ten years. I am not aware of any other ways to get a residence visa.

anonymous wrote:

If you can speak Japanese, things become a lot easier I think. As I said, the eikaiwa (conversational schools) want you to work full time, but if you can step out of that arena and into another, more possibilities open up. I never did find any other work where I could get by with only English, which is not to say that such jobs dont exist.

Some eikaiwa worth checking out are Geos, Aeon, and ECC. There is another company called Gaba, and they have some system where you can pick and choose your hours so there may be more flexibility, but I dont know about their pay conditions and visa sponsorship. If you have a masters degree, try Westgate. It sounds like they have a good system teaching university students, which means a narrower demographic, and its probably better than working for the big eikaiwa.

anonymous wrote:

Yet another option, and perhaps the best one if you can afford it, is a cultural study visa. You need substantial savings in a bank account for some months and probably a letter of support from a shakuhachi teacher in order to qualify. You can only work a maximum of twenty hours a week, and if I remember correctly, you can only get it once, and it lasts for one year.

I was on JET for the full 3 years and I thought it was great. It really depends on the situation you are placed in though. I was at a high level high school and the students were great, I was still done around 4pm each day, the pay was more than generous, and I only wished I could have extended the contract longer than the max of 3 years. But my friend was at a sports high school nearby and could only take it for 2 years and had to escape. But he came back through the now floped NOVA, but there are other schools out there. But the best way is to actually be here in Japan and walk in and apply rather than online applying. Experience will help I think, but you'll probably need to start on a cultural visa. You could also apply to a Japanese language school and get student visa, you can still work a certain number of hours a week (and more under the books).
But you really should aim for Nagano or northern Japan becaue anywhere else you won't be escaping the nasty humidity. I got away to Buffalo for the summer this year and am going back mid September, I hope it's cooler there too but I now it will definately still be more humid

Thanks for the additional tips, everyone. From what I've read on the net, doing JET gives you little choice in where you end up (you can choose your top three prefectures, but you have no choice in whether you're sent to a senior high, junior high or elementary school -- since I can't stand children, that sounds like a big no-no).  I didn't realize one could go on a student visa and work at the same time, and that sounds perfect for me to get settled in and look around for an ideal 'shop' to help me apply for a working visa (hopefully one which doesn't insist upon my working more than a 25-hour week).

Zak

Kiku Day wrote:

Oh yes, I was extremely surprised when I couldn't work on a student visa in the US. In Japan and EU student visas gives you the possibility to work part time.

If I end up liking living & working there, I intend to make a life of it... so going the student visa & limited part-time work can only be a temporary thing (perhaps 3~6 months). If I end up not liking it, I'll be applying for a permanent residence card here in Taiwan at the end of the year and can always come back here to live (though again, the humidity + heat is killing me).

Kiku Day wrote:

You can also try to tune into a shakuhachi teacher who could perhaps support you to get a artist visa in Japan and then work part time. As Josh mentioned, it is usually fine to wander around applying for English teaching. And with your CV showing all the teaching experience you have - I am sure you'd have no problem.
Yes, do think about where to be located if you want to escape the humidity. Mountains or northern coastlines...

It's a thought, but after a little over two years of lessons on Skype with my teacher (Michael Gould) and a recent face-to-face intensive, I can't imagine seeking out another teacher anytime in the near future. I still have so much to learn from him (and my flutes). As for location, I'm pretty much dead set on Hokkaido -- I'm one of those weird people who never get cold & wear shorts year-round.

Zak

Zakarius wrote:

As for location, I'm pretty much dead set on Hokkaido -- I'm one of those weird people who never get cold & wear shorts year-round.

Hokkaido is, as Lanier flutes wrote, extremely beautiful! I love it there. But don't be fooled by the the location being the northernmost island of Japan. Inland, even in Hokkaido, it can be extremely hot and humid during summer and then extremely cold in winter. I was dying of heat when I have been there in summer. But the coastline has very moderate temperatures even during summer. So go for it!

I believe Chikuzen is a fantastic teacher. You can kind of get that vibe from what he writes. Open-minded, knowledgeable and a good player. But a teacher in person is another animal and having two is not bad and I can recommend it, especially if you are in Japan. However, I do understand fully what you mean, though. When I first began to play with Okuda I was so fascinated by his playing that I didn't even feel like listening to others, let alone learning from others.

Good luck with it all, Zak ! ! !

Jam, it sounds like you're happy with your set-up, and I think that's great. You must be in a school that you enjoy and I suppose that you don't dislike kids like I do. However, I've been teaching English for 7 years and jiu-jitsu for 4 years before that -- I simply don't teach people who don't want to learn. Instead of being an English teacher / disciplinary figure / motivational speaker, I'm an English teacher / entertainer. Nearly all of my students are in class because they want to be there and I imagine that most of your students don't.

From a different perspective, I've been working at the same cram school for 7 years in order to get a permanent resident visa which will allow me to take off the shackles -- with perm. residency, I can stay in Taiwan indefinitely without having to work a minimum number of hours at a school. Needless to say, being fluent in Chinese has helped me to set up many outside (under the table) classes which now account for the majority of my salary.

So perhaps my wishful thinking for some freedom and control over my work life (and thereby lifestyle) is asking too much when first moving to Japan. But if I go, that's what I'm after. Out of curiosity, Jam, how many hours do you work a week?

Zak

Zak, there are no quick and easy answers to your problems.  As in Taiwan, everything here depends on connections.  With the right connections, you can land the 'dream job.'  But, it's very difficult to walk into those connections.  It requires time to develop.
I think that you will probably have to accept less than what you ideally want if you decide to come here cold.
One other suggestion is to see if there are any internet forums for foreigners in the areas that you want to settle.  I live in Kumamoto (southern and too hot, but great madake) and there is such a forum for foreign residents here.  Here's a link if you want to check it out.
http://www2.kumagaku.ac.jp/teacher/~mas … index.html

Permanent residency, in practice,  comes with a little more attached than 10 years.  The law states that a minimum of 5 years of continuous stay is required, however the rule of thumb is that one must reside here continually for 10 years and be married to a Japanese national first.  In the process, a transition of visa status from work visa to long term resident to spousal to permanent is usual.  As such, if permanent visa is your goal, then don't hold your breath.
jeff

Dear Kohl,

I have read your post just now, and noticed that Japan needs many Chinese language teachers, can you tell me some more info.? As i am a Chinese who is teaching English in China now, i do want to travel to Japan to experiance different culture, and most importantly i want to see and get acquaitance with shakuhachi and also Japanese bamboo.

Can you contact me at zhangjian720@hotmail.com , to tell me more details.

Thanks for your help.

James