[steven]

I'm sure there are other teaching jobs out there, but JET seems like the safest bet. However, that's not to say it's without its short comings as well. For example, sometimes (and not unlike most other teaching jobs in Japan) you will have to jump between schools like a pinball every day. I've seen people with 7 or more schools before. This is especially bad for people looking for teaching experience as having to deal with that many schools means less student-teacher interaction, which is really important. The kind of teaching you can do is also limited which makes it a bum deal for the boards of education doing this type of thing, too (but I believe they do this to save money). I don't know if that is the majority of the cases or not, but I only have to go to one school (reduced from 2) and it's an extremely satisfying job.

Misericordias, I don't think I'd be suited for a job like that. For starers, I think most of them are located in bigger cities. I really enjoy the inaka too much to do a job like that. I'm not so sure I'd be qualified to do a job like that anyways! To begin with, I just don't think I have the brain power. It seems like you have to know all the laws in America as well as all the laws in Japan and you have to know all kinds of things. I can't imagine what they have to deal with either... like people losing passports, expired passports, full passports, visa problems, criminal issues, babies being born, marriages, divorces?, etc. As far as everyday things, that's what I picture, although I'm sure there's more. It's not something I would want to do, as far as I can tell. It seems like it would be a job without much humor. Why do you ask, out of curiosity?