Living in Japan can be rewarding but socially isolating. Living on the fringe and not participating will leave you feeling left out and longing to be home. There a few things you can do to get the most out of your experience in this advanced culture. Japan can be exciting and very rewarding for the person who takes the initiative to peel off some of its superficial layers. You will find if you at least make an effort to speak the language people will tend to help you a whole lot more. Japanese people know it’s difficult and most will excuse your faux pas. If you are staying in the country for an extended period you should be thinking about taking lessons. You will most likely make some good contacts this way and could make things open up for you. Like any language, learning Japanese takes time and commitment. Get a couple of good translation books and study them. Get the basics down so you can ask for directions and read a menu. If you are persistent if will come to you. The more you immerse yourself in it the faster you will become fluent.- Behind the Sushi Curtain: Life in Japan uncovered.

Map Of Japan State Maps Of Japan

Real Estate In Japan EscapeArtist Real Estate Marketplace Property In Japan - Current Listings - Properties listed with private realtors carry heavy fees and commissions, while properties listed with the court system are cheap enough to buy outright.  Every prefecture has a district court.  In some prefectures there is a branch in each major city.  The courts deal in real estate and they have a separate section for this.  Unlike some countries, you don’t have to be a citizen or even a permanent resident to own, only a resident.  This means that your name is on file at city hall as a foreign resident.  Some courts have real estate listed on websites for easy viewing.  Houses, lots, fields, buildings whatever are available but you have to be here. Also see Real Estate in South-East Asia Real Estate By Type - Islands, B&B's, Plantations List Your Property In The Marketplace

Articles on Living & Investing in Japan

Behind the Sushi Curtain: Life in Japan uncovered - Japan is a fascinating country and is full of wonders for travelers. Be sure to get a good travel guide and plan a trip. Trains and buses are the best bet. Shop around for passes that will get you the best value. Some people go to Japan for business then leave as soon as their business deal is done. This is a sad mistake. If you can set aside at least 2 weeks to hit the high points you’ll be glad you did. It’s a small country with a great transportation infrastructure. You can do an amazing trip crisscrossing the country with a rail pass and have the time of your life. Some trains are magnetically levitated. This means they actually float over the tracks on about an inch of air. They are smooth and fast. Japan also has some of the world’s fastest bullet trains. Your trip doesn’t have to be expensive if you eat in noodle shops, sleep in hostels and squeeze the most out of your time sensitive rail pass. Living & Working In Japan – Visa Choices - So you want to live in Japan. That’s fine for 90 days at a time (maybe 120 if you hold certain passports). Let me just say, I am NOT a visa expert. I am still going through the process myself. But here are some of my thoughts on the whole getting a visa thing.  The first thing you need to do is work out why you are coming to Japan. Work is fine, if you have a job, your employer will help you get your visa sorted and away you go. But what about the rest of us poor schlobs! (or maybe just me!!) Initially as I was planning on studying martial arts, I assumed a cultural visa would do. In some respects that was right. However, I have a child and soon to be wife. Somehow I think we are going to need to eat. (If it was just me I could live in a tent in the mountains and eat what us Aussie’s call “bush tucker” – foraged food from the environment. But that is no life for a 3 year old boy and his city bred mother!) With research I discovered I could apply for certain dispensations to gain permission to work 20-28 hours a week on said cultural visa. That’s not too bad, would get us fed. Samantha, who has JUST turned 30, is still (just) eligible for a working holiday visa. So again, that allows her to work, but she MUST leave Japan after 12 months. Climbing Mount Fuji - Having just turned 31, I had never experienced living or working abroad. Canada came to mind, as I had previously visited Vancouver during my days as a flight attendant and I’d loved it. London also beckoned and then there was Europe that was only hours away on top of the fact that I had relatives in France whom I could stay with. For whatever reason … I ended up in Japan. For six months, I was an English language instructor in the land of the rising sun. Anyone who has ever lived in another foreign city will appreciate both the trepidation and the excitement that a new culture offers. Japan was an assault to the senses – Tokyo was a melting hot-pot of activity, mixing the traditional and the modern in sometimes chaotic and often mysterious ways. Teaching English was a delight, but at night I was plagued. I could not sleep. The frenetic energy of Tokyo pulled me into fractal waves of unsettling proportions. I often wandered the streets (where I lived in Azabu-Jaban) until the early hours of the morning. Guide to Getting a Better ESL Job in Asia - Teaching hours are usually more but actual working hours are less. Franchises abound. After the kids finish public school they’re off to another school for a solid day of 12 hours+ of school. They are essentially “businesses”. Again conditions vary. Schools are opening and closing down all the time. Many teachers have felt that there duties sometimes can extend up and beyond the “normal” call of what they imagine a teacher to be. Some cater to parents wishes, parents who usually have no idea of what’s actually best for there kids’ level and/or don’t speak any English. Many schools directors don’t speak English either, so there can be communication problems. *Materials and curriculum vary and often they are subpar and/or at an inappropriate level for the students. This can lead to more preparation time and/or poor lessons, better materials are easier to prepare with and lead to better classes. Japanese Citizenship - On Your Own - I've lived in Japan for about seven years which is considered a long time by Japanese people and non-Japanese alike. It is considered a long time because most people don't come here to stay but rather to experience living in "First World" Asia and to earn a bit of money. I had always wanted to live outside the States and had long thought about the possibility of permanently living outside the United States. I wasn't sure where to look but in middle school and high school most of my best friends were from Asia as minorities tended to stick together in my school. I got an introduction to the values of the region through them and their families. Buying Property in the Philippines & Japan - In order to live, work and study in Japan you need a visa.  There are many types of visas and different ways to get them.   To get a work visa you have to have a job before you come to Japan.  If you have a four year degree from a university you can be issued the Specialist in the Humanities visa which is commonly given to those who come to Japan to teach English. You need a sponsor i.e. an employer to get this kind of visa.  The internet is a good resource for finding jobs in Japan.  Just use your favorite search engine and use key words like, “ESL teaching positions Japan” and sift through the matches.  The are so many English teacher job posting websites these days that it won’t take long to come up with a long list of prospects. Down on the Farm - Homesteading In Japan - Homesteading In Japan - I don’t know if anyone has ever considered homesteading in one of the most densely populated expensive countries in the world.  Japan probably does not come to mind when considering buying a farm or developing a piece of land, but because of some interesting demographics and economics, Japan should be on anyone’s list of possibilities if homesteading is your desire, especially if you have or plan to have children. I will tell you why. To anyone who has visited or even thinks of visiting Japan, the images of Tokyo skyscrapers and oozing masses of people crammed into dinky dwellings that rent per month for more than a years wages in many countries, comes to mind. But there is another Japan. I am talking about rural Japan, outside of the cities. Retiring On $500 A Month - South East Asia - Some people regard Third World and Developing World countries with fear or even derision. Granted they don’t have the same lifestyle, things happen more slowly in some countries, often not at all. Problems that locals shrug off, like power outages, or water shortages could drive you nuts. Yet if you are prepared to adapt you’ll find there’s a uniqueness of culture, warm weather and warm people. Places where $500 a month can afford you a nice retirement are becoming harder to find. South East Asia allows you to tick the retirement-with-ease boxes. Granted it is an adventure and you’ll certainly never live like a king. But then, do you really live like one now! Retiring on $500 a Month – Part 2 ~ Following on from last month, Ken Bayliss provides information and insight on how you can comfortably retire on an income of just $500 a month in Cambodia and the Philippines. Once, nearly a thousand years ago, it was the big player in South East Asia. Its empire became vast and influential but Cambodia now seems like any another Third World country.  Time has taken these glories and in the modern period, after a trying internal war, they are finally coming out of the nightmare. The 10 million Cambodians are a surprisingly happy lot, considering their recent difficult history. Resources for the Japanese Job Market - Looking for a job in Japan is not so different from the rest of the world - the main requirements being patience, determination, and an everlasting smile!! The first place to begin your search would have to CareerCross Japan's job search page where there is a large selection of positions currently available that can be applied for by the click of a button. Also by registering as a member with CareerCross you can post your resume in the Resume Bank and receive regular email up dates of new jobs as soon as they arrive. There are of course other recruitment sites out there on the web, but we believe ours is the best, so we will not bore you with information on the others! Point Your Mouse Cursor To A Job in Japan - In the heyday of teaching English in Japan, way back in the 1980’s, while the Internet was still just a twinkle in Bill Gates’ eye, the best way to find a job in Japan was to buy yourself a plane ticket to Tokyo’s Narita Airport, pick up a copy of the Japan Times at the train station kiosk on Monday morning, and apply in person for any of the dozens of jobs listed in the classified section.  But all that has changed. While the Japan Times is still a great way to find yourself a job in Japan, these days, “dot.com” is definitely the way to go. The World Wide Web is now the quintessential “Jobs in Japan” resource, in which a simple keyword search, such as “jobs Japan” or “teach English Japan,” will yield a bonanza of websites that cater specifically to job seekers with a wanderlust for the Orient. “The Gaijin Life for Me” Teaching English in Japan - I went to Japan with no definite plan on leaving. It was a post-grad school adventure, and a time to be without a plan.  Right after graduation with a master’s degree in social work that I wasn’t keen on using right away, the interim goal was to find a job teaching English abroad, most likely in Asia somewhere. An ad in the Boston Globe lead me to Nova Group – what turned out to be a corporate-run extensive network of English language schools all over Japan. They were looking for candidates in possession of a B.A in English to teach in the Kanto (Tokyo, Yokohama) and Kansai (Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe) regions of the country.  After a perfunctory interview during which my credentials were verified, I was hired pending further visa application. This was the beginning of my odyssey.  A few months later in September of 1994, I was flying an Asiana Airlines widebody to Tokyo Narita airport. Ways to make big $$$ in Japan -  As you're probably already aware, Japan is a very unique place. No where else in the world will you find the same outrageous opportunities to make money that are open to just about anyone. English Teaching. The most common job for new foreigners is teaching English. Despite the thousands of English schools and 12 years of study at school, the English level in Japan remains at lower intermediate, ensuring strong demand for teachers. Every type of class and situation exists from Elementary schools right through to Flight Attendant Colleges. It can also be a great way into a previously non-existent position. I know of one teacher at a top Advertising agency who later became an English copywriter. He had no experience whatsoever in copywriting, they just liked him and enjoyed his lessons. Working in Japan.  A word from a veteran.. - "I love the Japanese YEN!" Japan is still one of the best EXPAT destinations for both professionals and ordinary people who want to reap in a high return for their work.  I've been in Japan for 7 years, and worked in 5 different cities and 4 different industries.  Before I get started, let me sum up my advice in just a few words: If you are thinking about coming to Japan, be ready to work- and work hard.  And if you can do that, you will get paid. Work!  Even if you're a student why not make 500 dollars a week on the side while you're here?  This equates to 2 hours a day of teaching English.  But your employment opportunities are in no way limited to English teaching jobs. Living In Japan - Restoring A Home In The Japanese Countryside- In a previous article I described how to purchase a used house from the courts in Japan. But how do you restore and repair a house that may be fifty to 200 years old? As with any house in need of repair you have to ask yourself can you foot the bill or do you need a loan. Who will do the repairs? The first thing to remember is that there are always options. Getting a loan as a foreigner in Japan is not easy. Banks will not even talk to you unless you have permanent residence (Eijuuken) or citizenship.So if you do not have either of these it would be difficult to have massive work done on the house unless you had a nice sized savings. How much money you have may ultimately determine where you go to have the work done. Large well known companies are expensive and want payment up front or in two installments.If you cannot afford that there are further options.