When you start looking for a job teaching English here, you will want to think a lot about location. Japan is an expensive place, and one of the biggest expenses you will have to budget for is your travel. You want to think about the area you will be living in and what you will be able to access from that area. This was my primary reason for not applying to the JET program. You can make your preferences known, but where they place you is where you go.
Now here is a question that was sent to me and my page long reply because I had two hours to kill before any lessons.
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Originally Posted by WanderingWarrior
Im going to try to become and alt and you've helped out a lot. I was wondering what the snowboarding situation is over there. I picked up you board, wondering if you had any info on good areas to be in. thanks man.
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What qualifies as a good place to live in to snowboard depends on a few other criteria. First, how far away from the rest of Japan do you want to be? Second, do you intend on driving, riding the train or taking the bus?
I'll start with the least obvious place, Tokyo. From Shinjuku station in Tokyo you could probably take a bus to just about anywhere in Japan. Especially all the major ski-jo's as they are known in Japan. For example, Hakuba in Nagano (one of the sites for the Olympics way back when) would cost you about 3500 yen. Compare that to taking a train to get to the shinkansen to get to the bus in Nagano city for me would cost around 6000 yen. For me right now the cheapest and most accessible option is Kusatsu. Nice hot springs town but they receive less snow because it is surrounding by the mountains in Hakuba and Niigata. One way to Kusatsu costs 2200 yen.
The method I actually used to choose my location, I looked at a map of Japan finding the company that was interested in hiring me and simply compared the distance to the nearest ski resort. At the time, I couldn't find anything in Nagano or Niigata so I came here to Gunma. Now Gunma is not all that bad, during a good season. This season was not good. The trouble is though, I live at the very southern tip of Gunma. The best places in my prefecture, are actually almost inaccessible by train. This region is called Katashina-mura. The nearest train station is a one hour bus ride from the hills which will cost you 2200 on top of the 1500 fare to get to the station. If you had a car, a whole world of opportunities would open up in Gunma. But again, owning a car is expensive. The only time I think it is worth owning one is in the winter.
Now concerning that first question about getting to the rest of Japan, places like Niigata, Nagano and especially Hokkaido and northern Honshu are far, far away from places like Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima and the bajillion other places you will want to visit while in Japan. Niigata's mountains may be a bit closer to Tokyo than the others. Also you would find more cities in Niigata from what I have been told. Nagano would be a bit more barren as far as getting to big cities and a little more difficult getting outside the prefecture, but the northern end of Nagano is the Japanese Alps. The southern tip of Niigata I guess may be considered part of that as well, who knows? Hokkaido and northern Honshu will definitely provide you with the most snow, but the mountains are smaller and to get away from there is going to cost you an arm and a leg.
Well there you have it. My take on the options Japan has to offer snowboarders. Next year, you can either look for me in Nagano or Tokyo. I have yet to decide if I want to be a hermit or not. If the winter was anything like this year, I may even consider Hokkaido.
Check out
Snow Japan and you can look at all the maps of resorts by prefecture. When you do start looking for positions, feel free to send me the details and I will give you my two yen on it. Also I will tell you if I am applying for the same position, because I am watching every position that comes up in Nagano and Niigata like a hawk in preparation for when my contract ends in August.