[Pachipro]

I have read the majority of posts here and I must agree with the points handed down by jasonbvr and Nyororin and would like to add a few of my own comments based on personal experience.


Working In Japan

If you desire to go to to Japan your best and easiest bet would be to go as an English teacher. However, you must have a degree. If you desire employment outside of teaching and, if you have marketable skills, you can always search out other employment once you become acclimated to living in Japan and decide that is where you desire to live for a while. As I've said in another post, there is virtually no employment you cannot find in Japan if you have the marketable skills and a basic grasp of the language and culture. However, it will not be easy and may be downright frustrating, but the jobs are there if you look hard enough for them and are serious enough.


Japanese Women

From the "Been There, Done That File":

As far as Japanese women go, let me give all you males one piece of advice that maybe jasonbvr can back me up on. Do not hang around foreign frequented places to meet Japanese women as most are only looking for a trophy or "token gaijin boyfriend" to be fashionable to their friends. The majority are not worth your time and you will often have a broken heart when the next new "cool" new foreigner comes into the bar/hangout or rolls into town and she has eyes for him.

Sure, you may be able to get an easy lay if that's what you're looking for, but in the long run it's just not worth it. The majority are there for one thing and one thing only: to meet foreigners and maybe hit the lottery with a rich one. I'll bet any woman you meet in those places has slept with more foreigners than you have fingers. Granted there are those few cases where two people do click and eventually marry, but don't count on it. It rarely happens.

Some women may even have more money than god and buy you anything you desire but, in the end, you will more than likely be sorry and realize that you were a bought man. Not only did that happen to me, but another of my friends also. Not a good feeling in the end. Some may desire that but, while interesting at first, was plain hell in the end and I felt like a fool and rightly so as I allowed it to happen.

Your best bet, if you have a minimum grasp of the language, would be to live in areas and go to places where foreigners never frequent. The women you meet in those places, while not easy lays, so to speak, are more real and down to earth than any of the others in the places mentioned above and you will meet real, honest, Japanese women who are not just looking for a "token gaijin". Sure, you may be "targeted" and meet women easier because you are a foreigner and can speak Japanese, but your experience and relationship, if it comes to that, will be a real one and not a superficial one. Also, don't count on sleeping with them the first, second, or even third time you date them. Try it if they are not interested or give no "signals", and you will probably never see them again as they are not looking for trophys or tokens. Also, their English will probably be minimal at best.

Also, if you do meet and fall in love with a Japanese woman who does not speak English real well, be real careful about marriage as not all Japanese women who fall in love with foreigners can acclimate themselves to life in your country. Some do and some don't and desire to return home. Many a divorce has come because of this lack of foresight. Just as many foreigners do not adjust to life in Japan, the reverse is true for those you marry and bring home with you.

Language
Nyororin and jasonbvr also gave great answers to learning the language and I concur. There is no better way to learn the language than to be fully immursed in it with no safety net of other foreigners. If you are serious about learning the language do stay away from other foreigners as much as possible as it will only impede your language learning.

While you are there it would be in your best interest to learn the language and learn it well if you desire to stay. There is nothing more pitiful than meeting a foreigner who has lived in Japan for more than three years and discover he/she cannot even handle the simplest of conversations in Japanese. This is due mainly to the fact that they are lazy and find it more beneficial to hang out with other foreigners and go to places where only other foreigners hang out.

Thus, they get no real feel for living in Japan, never understanding the Japanese and their culture, and usually come to dispise the country as they cannot get along outside of their "security blanket" of being with other foreigners and are easily influenced by their so-called friends' biased view of Japan. My suggestion would be to live as far away from foreigners as possible so you can easily immerse yourself into life in Japan. If you have no foreign friends to fall back on for support you are forced to learn the language and understand the culture.

Myself, I lived about 45 minutes outside of Tokyo alone, hung out with no foreign people save for a few times a month, and all my friends and aquaintances were Japanese who did not speak hardly any English. Therefore, all my conversations and daily transactions were in Japanese 99% of the time and if I wanted to have a good time I went to the local bars where I was well accepted after they got to know me. There is no better way to learn the language than to be fully immursed in it with no safety net of other foreigners to fall back on.

However, I would suggest textbooks as new ways to learn new phrases and words even if the textbook is in Romaji and is a basic one as, once you use a new phrase or word in real life situations that you have learned yourself from a book, you will never forget it. However, one word of caution, most of the books in Japanese teach you formal speech and, although helpful to an extent, is quite akward in real life situatuions. Also, once you have mastered the basics of hiragana and katagana and the basics of kanji stay away from romaji based books as they will only deter you from learning the language fully. You can use manga (comic books) instead to learn slang and informal, real life speech as well as the TV and Japanese friends.

While not a utopia by any means, Japan can be a most rewarding place to live if that is your honest and heartfelt desire. Do not be put off by the naysayers. Go there and decide for yourself. Live like a Japanese lives and you will have an honest, all around, real grasp of the country and cutlure.

Good luck.