[Enkidu22]

Thanks for the informations. Now I'm starting to think that my dream of living in japan is really achievable ^_^
But how hard is it now to get an ALT's job? I read about strong concurence nowadays, and I guess only some schools are hiring them right? Also do many foreigners give private english lessons? And most important: is ALT's pension enought to make a living in japan?
Sorry if I'm starting to be annoying with my unending flow of questions but when I learned about this whole ALT thing I've become really passionate about the issue. I have never before even heard of such a working possibility until I found this forum (and I just recentely started searching for a possible job in japan in the first place).
BTW ALT's never appeared in any manga or anime I saw (and I've seen a lot of them) so I'm guessing ALT's are pretty rare (or a new idea), am I right?