Plans to move.. realistic?

[NewAura]

Alright SOOO I'm living in Canada, Mississauga, ON, and visited japan for 2 weeks in October of 2008 and fell in love ^.^. I've gone through my schooling got my certificates and diplomas to be an aesthetician , opened a business and closed it, I'm moving to blue mountain to work at a resort and have a gift in arts. it's not even been a year and I'm DYING to go back, I would love to move to Japan in september of 2010 for a couple years to work in a resort, which I think is possible... here's the dilema...

My boyfriend would also love to move there and his gift is cooking, he's done co-op in this field but would LOVE to do an apprenticeship cooking there. Is this possible? Is there any restaurants or companies that are connected with an across the boarder apprenticeship?

Or is there an alternative we could look at?

[Hatredcopter]

Sorry, I misread that you were from Canada, which means you can live in Japan without holding 4-year degrees.

You'll need to look into Working Holiday Visas, they're your ticket to living in Japan, at least for a year or two.

I'm afraid I don't know about cooking apprenticeships..., however I'd be more worried about your language skills. Are you fluent in Japanese? You'll have a heck of a time working there (outside of English education) without the language skills.

[Tsuwabuki]

You can get a cultural visa to study Japanese cuisine, but the income, if any, must be at subsistence level.

[Sangetsu]

You live and work in Japan temporarily with a working holiday visa. The good thing about a WHV is that you can do pretty much any job (part time), the bad thing is that without a college degree you will probably won't be able to find a job which pays more than 900 to 1000 yen per hour. A WHV requires that you work part-time so you won't be able to make up for the low pay by working extra hours.

Restaurant work is not hard for foreigners to find, but the pay is bad, and tipping is not a custom in Japan. If you don't have any Japanese language skill, you will have a hard time getting by anywhere but in the major cities. But living in the cities is expensive, and difficult to do with what little pay you are likely to get.

If your boyfriend is an excellent cook, with experience in a good restaurant, he might qualify for a culinary/chef's visa (there is such a thing). The pay is better than ordinary kitchen work, and he'll be allowed to work full-time.

[Jealousy]

Finding a proper restaurant is not hard, paying for the meal we eat is harder. But Unable to eat in a restaurant or getting kicked out of restaurant is a true serious shame! That's hard to take anyway.
Applying a visa to Japan is easier. Have a nice journey!

[godwine]

Originally Posted by NewAura

Alright SOOO I'm living in mississauga, ON, and visited japan for 2 weeks in October of 2008 and fell in love ^.^. I've gone through my schooling got my certificates and diplomas to be an aesthetician , opened a business and closed it, I'm moving to blue mountain to work at a resort and have a gift in arts. it's not even been a year and I'm DYING to go back, I would love to move to Japan in september of 2010 for a couple years to work in a resort, which I think is possible... here's the dilema...

My boyfriend would also love to move there and his gift is cooking, he's done co-op in this field but would LOVE to do an apprenticeship cooking there. Is this possible? Is there any restaurants or companies that are connected with an across the boarder apprenticeship?

Or is there an alternative we could look at?

I am from Canada myself, as a matter, i was just in Missisauga yesterday As other suggested you should be able to stay there temporarily, I don't know how long of a stay you are allowed with a WHV, but its likely that you won't be able to stay there perm. One thing you can look into are onsen resort, especially the ones in Haone and Atami (Try Fujiya), they are starving for English speaking staff, but as Hatredcopter pointed out, you will need to speak fluen Japanese as well.

As for the cooking side of things, I highly doubt that he can find an apprenticeship program anywhere. What he can do is to specialize himself in a non-Japanese cuisine and hopefully find a job in a Western style restaurant in Japan that will offer him a head chef type position. Of course, as Sangetsu suggested, if he is not going to find a job as a cook, then its a totally different story...


A permanent stay is almost out of the question unless they are willing to sponsor you, in which case, the chef does have some possibilities (If he can earn a name strong enough that the local restaurant wants him). Though, any big restaurant that has enough fund and are willing to sponsor him will not be in the resort area.....

If you do search, i would recommed that he can either find something in Nagoya or Yokohama, while you can find a resort in Atami or Hakone, at least this way, its within hours with the shinkansen (it will get expensive though)..

[NewAura]

Thank you all so much for putting things in perspective, I only speak basic Japanese this far but hopefully the improvements will be dramatic from now until we go, I've found a program called Human Japanese which is a great program for the way I learn.

There's definatly ALOT more research I need to go through but I least I've got a rough idea.