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02-29-2008, 12:03 PM
hey my post was a real post.. so i hope you weren't excluding that. tenchu usually provides crap discussion on this forum and usually based on very little fact.
i think as long as you go to a reasonable sized city you will be fine. the advantage of Kyoto is that you have Nara, Osaka & Kobe all near by where you can look for a job also. somewhere like Fukouka might be a good option, largish city and i don't imagine many people start off there. might be a bit easier to get a job there. 
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02-29-2008, 01:37 PM
Thanks for taking the time to reply anrakushi - your advice is well helpful!
Thats a good idea to start somewhere where there are lots of towns/cities around... Do you think it will be helpful for me to do the TEFL course over here in england or do the schools not really care much? Can I ask - are you japanese or do you teach over there? Thanks again!
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02-29-2008, 11:14 PM
If you are wanting to make a career of english teaching then having a TEFL course is always a good thing. it also shows to the school you have some more formal training and in most cases makes you favourable to hire over someone with no training. having said that, as long as you have a degree then you don't need any teaching qualifications to get a teaching job in Japan. Remember that without experience you may have to start yourself off on the lower paying jobs (¥200,000) a month rather than the ¥250,000 + positions. mind you ¥200,000 is more than enough to live and enjoy yourself in kansai area, plenty of places can be rented for around 60,000, even less.
You certainly can ask, I'm Australian. I have studied and worked (english teacher) in Japan and returned to Australia as recently as August last year. I will be returning to live in Japan in the coming months, hopefully somewhere in Hyogo prefecture. Just waiting until some things are sorted out here before heading back.
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03-03-2008, 12:50 PM
Hi anrakushi,
Ok - I think Ill look into doing a TEFL course if I go it alone - Ill just have to see if I can get a year ticket (flight) or something. So what Id like to do is go to a part of Japan which isnt a massive city - somewhere there are some mountains to climb and forests also somewhere to snowboard if possible. Do you do outdoors stuff? Is Hyogo prefecture a good place for that sort of thing? Thats good advice about the money - I can live pretty simply so thats good!
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03-03-2008, 09:43 PM
The whole of Japan is mountains so in reality wherever you are there are mountains not far away.it is also not very far from most places to go to a ski field but then again it all depends on if you want the best ski fields or not.
I enjoy surfing, skateboarding and Australian Rules Football (which i was lucky enough to be able to play in Osaka) I'm a country boy in Australia and i'm used to travelling so what I consider a small trip you might consider a big one. Hyogo has plenty of nice nature and you can travel to Osaka and Kobe which are both big cities. I'm not sure what ski fields are like as I unfortunately didn't get to go while i was there (something i need to make amends for when i return to Japan) what i suggest you do is looking into city population sizes, make a list of some of the bigger regions where you might have more luck getting a job. then look them up on google earth and see what is around them. you can see how close to the ocean, how mountainous that particular area is etc. The thing about smaller places is there are less people going there for jobs. so look for places in travelling distance to a large city where you can base yourself while job hunting.
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03-04-2008, 07:47 AM
here i am again, apparently i liked this forum better than i thought.
i am happy to see that i am not the only one thinking tenchu is a wee bit off. now, on to ur questions even though anrakushi has given very good tips. what will help u on paper is to try to emphasise ur south african background (do u have citizenship?). this will help u get through the first obstacle when contacting any language schools, it will also be a help for the school when they sponsor u for a visa. the golden rule concerning visa is that the farther u get from a big city, the easier it is to get a visa, not saying that u can't get a visa in tokyo with ur background. TEFL and similar certificates (it's all about certificates here) are good to have if u want to try for some of the more respectable language schools. again as i think anrakushi mentioned it is in no way required. hyogo-ken and nature, yes it is a good place. look toward the sea of japan and u will find mountains and snow in the winter. while the season is shorter and the resorts not as big as the ones in nagano or niigata, there is still plenty of snow. hachi-kita kougen is fairly well known in kansai region. hopefully this is some help even though some is just repeation from what anrakushi has already said. oh, and yes u can come here without a visa, but u might have to leave the country to actually get the visa (a two or three day trip to south korea). good luck!
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