If you ever get the chance to visit Japan, one of the must-do experiences is to visit an onsen. An onsen is a natural bath that uses spring water to provide a warm, potentially healthy bathing experience. Visitors enter the baths in the nude, with the onsen usually separated into male and female areas. Then … Read more
Having a drink after work is a universal pleasure. Somewhere to retreat to after a long week or punishing day. Britain and Ireland have their pubs, Germany has the beer hall, the USA has the bar, from South Africa’s Shebeens to the Cantinas of Latin America and Spain. All have their quirks, but each is … Read more
Karaoke, meaning “empty orchestra” in Japanese, is singing along to an instrumental backing track. A visual accompaniment usually shows scrolling lyrics on a screen in time to the music. Many people have tried karaoke, one of the most popular nightlife activities in Japan and globally, but few know the story behind it. Karaoke: Origins The origins … Read more
Back in January, I set a bunch of goals for the year 2021 to reclaim my life after 2020. But with the year more than halfway over, I want to pause and reassess my progress toward accomplishing those goals. In Japan, there is a tried-and-true method for achieving better results and higher productivity: kaizen, meaning, … Read more
Simply put, 過労死 (karoshi) is a “Japanese term for sudden death caused by overwork,” according to the Oxford dictionary. Karoshi: Societal and Cultural Background The term karoshi was first recognized by the Health Ministry in 1987, and its use has been increasing since then. Culturally, Japanese people tend to put work above all other aspects … Read more
Teaching English is one of the most common jobs available to foreigners in Japan. Most native English speaking foreigners I know have taught English to some degree while living in Japan. It is also one of the easiest ways to move to Japan and get a visa. Teaching English in Japan may seem like a … Read more
Is the JET Program worth it? In my opinion, it is 100% worth it. If you have the chance, you should definitely do it. HOWEVER… working in Japan is not all sunshine and rainbows. Many JETs get sick of the job, or even Japan itself, after just a year or two. So how can I … Read more
Japanese drugstores, or yakkyoku, can be daunting. Even if you feel pretty good about your Japanese ability, names and descriptions of medicine can be highly technical and heavy on the kanji. With shelves bursting with more products than you ever knew existed, finding the right medicine might seem like an impossible task. And kampo-yaku, … Read more
A Japanese driver’s license may seem unnecessary to anyone living in a large city. Places like Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya have great public transportation systems, so driving is easily avoided. On the off chance you can’t get to your destination by train, there’s definitely a bus within walking distance of where you’d like to go. … Read more
Your time in Japan has come to an end. It could be that you’re a study abroad student and you have to move back to finish your degree, or maybe you’re at the end of your work contract. Regardless of your reason, there’s a long list of preparations you’ll need to make. The 4 steps … Read more
Congratulations, you’ve landed in Japan! After disembarking from your flight, you’ll find yourself following a sea of people through immigration. If you’re still in another country but plan to move to Japan soon, check out our Preparing to Move to Japan article to help with your journey. Or if you are already in Japan, but … Read more
So you’re moving to Japan! It can be a pretty awesome place to live, but you’ll need to do a bit of planning to make things easier on yourself. If you’ve never been to Japan before, I recommend trying to live in a suburb or urban location unless you have at least conversational-level Japanese. Without … Read more
Communication is the backbone of any office environment. This is no different in Japan. Language is important for communicating, but it’s more than just saying the right words. It’s usually much more nuanced. Your delivery of a statement can impact its meaning. Your body language can also affect how your words are interpreted. These subtle … Read more
Have you ever wondered what working in a Japanese office is like? Most people know that the culture in Japan is very different from most Western countries. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that working in a Japanese office environment is full of unique customs and challenges for non-native Japanese employees. However, there are industries … Read more
If you’re wondering how to get a non-teaching job in Japan, this article will help answer any questions you may have. Searching online for jobs in Japan will quickly make you realize that there are two main types of companies hiring foreigners: tech companies and English schools. Many foreigners who move to Japan start out … Read more
Looking for an apartment in Japan? Be prepared for a long and complicated process involving tons of paperwork. And, you’ll need quite a bit of money, too. Even for Japanese people, moving is frustrating.The upfront costs are incredibly high and come with strange, outdated fees like “key money”. But, if you’re a foreigner in Japan … Read more
A new year has begun! A new semester is beginning, and summer is now a little closer to us. Well, unless you’re in Australia/The Upside-Down, then winter is coming. Say hi to Barb for us! Poor Barb. With a new start here, you may be pondering a big change: a semester or summer studying abroad … Read more
When I taught English abroad in the inaka (countryside) of Japan, I lived in a very small, very old mountain village. From afar, it was beautiful. Rice fields surrounded the mountain, lush greenery was everywhere, and in the summer, tall cumulus clouds floated slowly across the sky. It was like a scene straight out of … Read more
I try to recall the day that I first found Banana Yoshimoto, and the memory is shrouded in an aggravating haze. I must have been in my early college days, browsing the fiction section (the end of it, no doubt, where all the other Y-named authors reside), when the image of a young Japanese … Read more
After drifting away from it for a time, diving back into the world of Haruki Murakami is like going home again. That is, if home consists of heartache, jazz, Western literature, talking cats, whiskey, pasta-making, and classical music. Which, apart from the talking cats, is not too far outside the realm of normal. Murakami, … Read more
In the past few years, a movement has quietly begun to take shape in Japan. A subtle but undeniable growth of the fitness-focused lifestyle has bloomed, planted in a country some might deem barren of fitness education. Images of muscular, tanned Japanese men posing at bodybuilding events are plastered on social media, a stark contrast … Read more
Useful Japanese Phrases for When You Go to the Doctor Going to the doctor in Japan can be a mixed experience, especially if you don’t speak much Japanese. Japan has a “hybrid” healthcare system, meaning that the government pays for 70% of costs (or more if you’re a low-income elderly resident) and the remaining 30% … Read more
Japan has long been a place idolized by outsiders, and rightly so. It’s the country where trains run on time to the minute (take note, Western cities- yes, you, New York City), where vending machines can conveniently be found in the middle of rice fields (this is true), and where a wealth of fascinating history … Read more
Let’s face it – if you’re new to Japan, you’re probably gonna make a few cultural mistakes. And you wouldn’t be alone. Deeply rooted in tradition and religion, Japan has a rich and complex culture, with what seems like a million unwritten rules. That’s pretty tough to navigate, even for Japanese people. Just like with … Read more
When it comes to teaching English in Japan, the JET Program versus Interac is the Coke versus Pepsi debate of the ALT community. JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) is a government program. Interac is a private company. Both provide Japanese public schools with Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs). While the average workday of an ALT is … Read more
A Day in the Life of an International Kindergarten Teacher in Japan Working as an ALT or at an eikaiwa (private language school) seem to be the most popular career options for foreigners in Japan. However, a field in which there are increasing employment opportunities is at international kindergartens. As learning English becomes a more … Read more
Your first contact with a high-tech Japanese toilet may be a shocking one, especially if you can’t read Japanese. These electronic toilets, known locally as “washlets,” boast so many advanced features they’ve become an internationally-discussed cultural phenomenon. Just looking at the control panel can be an overwhelming, dizzying experience. What are all these strange buttons … Read more
If you got accepted to the JET Program as an ALT, congratulations! All of your hard work and patience has paid off.Now you’re probably excited and anxious to find out all about your school, and what working for the JET Program will be like. Here’s a general guideline about what you’ll be doing on a … Read more
Things to Bring on JET Getting ready to move to Japan with the JET Program is both exciting and scary. Packing up your life to live in another country is a big step. Many of you have never been to the area you have been placed, so you don’t know what to expect. Some of … Read more
Working for the JET Program – 7 Things You Need to Do before Coming to Japan 1. Prepare a Short Introduction Speech in Japanese You’ll have to give a short introduction about yourself several times when you first come to Japan. This may or may not include some very important people (like the boss … Read more