Yes, it has taken a lot longer for me to write an update than I originally planned. I’m sorry about that. Well, I hope to make up for it with a nice long update this time. I’ll start with a few basic points:
Where I Am
When I originally came to Japan I thought that I might be able to live in a Non-Tokyo place. Well, that fantasy lasted for only about a week (while I was staying at my friend’s house in Nagoya, about 400km SW of Tokyo) before I figured out that there were no IT jobs for non-Japanese speakers anywhere but Tokyo. So, I packed up my bags and rented a room in Tokyo.
I’m living in Nakano-ku, a ward in the West of Tokyo. I like it because it’s close enough to town to be fairly convenient to anywhere in the city, but it’s not one of the downtown areas so there is still the feeling of a small residential town here. I have a bicycle (acquired from a friend who was moving back to the USA), which makes getting to points in Western Tokyo cheap and easy.
I’m currently staying in a place called a “guest house” (nicknamed “gaijin house” after the mostly-foreign residents). My room is small, but it’s dirt cheap, and more importantly did not require the usual months and months of deposits, and 2-year lease agreement. That said, I’m anxious to find a “more permanent” job so that I can move into a slightly bigger and newer place.
Work
To pay the bills while I look for an IT job, I’ve taken a part-time job teaching English. I’m teaching adults only, and all of the classes are one-on-one, so actually the job is quite a bit more enjoyable than I thought it would be. I love it because every night there’s always someone interesting to talk to. My students have included a hotel chain owner, a pastry chef, and a banana salesman (!). Did you know that Japan eats twice as many bananas per capita as the USA? Me neither.
Given some of the stories that I’d heard about the English Conversation School industry here, I was pleasantly surprised by the level of professionalism and dedication that my fellow teachers display. It seems like for the most part the teachers at my school are interested in seeing their students learn and succeed, and genuinely want to be good teachers.
Anyway, I like this job, but the pay is lousy and it won’t allow me to get a visa to stay here for any more than a year, so I continue to look for IT jobs. Due to their nature, banking IT jobs often don’t require much Japanese skill, a nd in fact are in line with my previous experience, so this is where I’m focusing my attention. I’ve got a couple headhunters working for me but nobody’s found anything yet. They tell me that this is normal, that often their clients take this long to even decide to have someone in for an interview, but still it’s sometimes disheartening. Oh well, all I can do is keep trying, I guess.
My Visa Status
Since a couple people asked, I am in Japan on a Working Holiday Visa. Basically it allows me to work in whatever job I want (except as an “entertainer” in a club) for up to a year. After that, I’ll have to either get a normal working visa or get out of the country. The only visa that I qualify for, based on my work experience, is the Engineer visa, so what this means is that I’ll have to find an IT job by next May at the absolute latest.
What Else I’m Doing
Well, I’m taking Japanese lessons a few times a week and practicing and studying on a daily basis. I also go on bike rides when the weather permits and try to meet up and hang out with friends as often as I can. The local high school has an Olympic-sized swimming pool that has public swimming in the evenings for only 180 yen so I do that on nights when I’m not teaching. I also sometimes watch movies that I’ve rented — the DVDs all have the original English-language soundtrack somewhere on them.
Well, that’s about all that there is to say about things at the moment. Keep checking back here for updates that I promise will come more frequently than once a month.
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