Nyororin is a Mrs. ^_^

And there are definitely schools in Japan that offer degrees in English.

If you can speak decent Japanese, go for the 3D modeling/animating. I can even hook you up with a nice company (One of my friends has a huge company that part of makes the CG animation for pachinko machines.)

However, if your Japanese isn`t good - 3 months won`t get you there, so it will probably be hard finding a company that will hire you. Most places do that sort of work in teams, and if you can`t communicate with your coworkers they`ll likely not hire you.

Personally, I don`t want to recommend an English teaching job, but if you can find a decent one that is probably your best bet - if only to get a working visa and have the money to stay on until you can find something else.

Someone else already mentioned it, but I`m female. :)

I`m sure there are several universities that offer studies in English. The problem is cost and admission. Obviously, there are a LOT of people who want to study in Japan but not in Japanese, so it may be hard to get in. Plus, I don`t think they`re all that common.
I`d personally recommend coming to Japan with a *Japanese* course, learning Japanese, and then studying in a regular Japanese university. You`ll have far more options available to you (pretty much any university out there) and you`ll have a lot more freedom in what you study - The courses in English tend to focus in certain areas, and if they`re not what you want you`d be out of luck.

A good year of intensive university study toward acquiring university level Japanese will not only give you the language, but make admission into other universities much easier.

The health part - possibly. But I really don`t think most people are more laid back. Everyone is worried about saving for their future, about working, about future stuff in general. I don`t know if they ways of showing it are the same, but people do care about the future.

I`ll be totally honest - you`ll have a very hard time finding a job on a student visa. Sure, they say they allow part time work, but good luck finding anyone to hire you on that. As English isn`t your first language, it`s probably impossible to teach at an English school, and most other jobs would require working during the times when you would be at school (morning, afternoon). That isn`t permitted with the visa, so good luck on getting enough to stay somewhere... Which brings me to another point - you can`t rent or apply for utilities, etc, on a student visa... And without a real form of income, it will be hard to find someone to sponsor you to do so.

Either way, even if you did manage to keep the student visa after the course is over, and did find someone to sponsor you, it is a *crime* here to employ someone on a student visa without getting direct permission from their school and sponsor....... As you`d no longer be in school, that`s impossible.

I would also really look into the conditions with your visa - a lot of places give long term visas but apply to have them revoked at the end of the course.

My suggestion is, if you want to do all this without leaving Japan, to search for a school *during* your studies, that you can hopefully switch to immediately after you are finished in May. If you don`t have the money for admission, etc... Then there isn`t much of an option other than going home. You`d have no way to raise the money here.

Sorry to be cold, but this is reality.

[quote=Nyororin;10115]Well, as far as a life story goes... My mom was a total piece of crap - selfish and certainly didn`t care about me. She was one of those women who dates a bunch of guys, milks them for everything they`re worth, and then dumps them. She was NEVER at home, and wouldn`t *let* me go to school as she "wanted to go out that day" and needed me to watch my brother and sister. It was an almost everyday event. Life really REALLY sucked.


that is my mother too, so I live with my grandparents.:p I hate my mother for everything she has done to me. yes, I do mean Hate.:mad:

Thank you Nyororin for your answer :ywave: You are very helpful to many people on this forum.

Actually, I think you're in Nagoya, right? I was a student there! And I loved it very much. I'm sure my son would pick up the language pretty quickly. He had just started with his Mandarine when I left my husband, just over a year ago, but dropped after being here a couple of months. I still try to speak to him some, but I'm loosing my tones, and we speak a little Spanish. I'd like him to be exposed to as many languages as possible. He's very intelligent and has a very large vocabulary for a 4 year old! Sorry, had to brag a little.

But changes are very hard for him and I worry that it might be a very big adjustment in the beginning. And might it not be a little hard for me to be a foreign single mother? Do you think my son would face problems because of his race? Everyone might assume him to be half Japanese, which might make him popular, but I do worry.

How old is your son? It would be nice for my son to have a playmate!
It would be nice if we could meet sometime. You sound like you must be pretty young. I'm 35 already! But I bet we have a lot in common.

And thanks for the tips about better employment opps. I understand these positions allow teachers to be treated more professionally, and the hours and pay are better? I'll need to do some more looking into this. I taught at university in Taiwan and it was one of my favorite jobs!

Housecat

thank you nyororin..and i'm soory i did't know that u r femael:o

the problem nyororin san that when I returned to my country I will not get a job unless my degree is in English or Arabic it may sounds weird but it is the truth.

thank you again nyororin san

This probably isn’t the sort of question you were expecting but do you know what the rate of short term capital gains tax is in Japan?

I make my living day trading US stocks which is something I can do from anywhere so long as there’s an internet connection. Since I’m not tied down by a job I can move around and I’d really like to experience living in Japan or a year or so and possibly longer. Unfortunately I’m having a hard time finding information related to capital gains tax in Japan and what information I can find appears to be the long term rate and even then contradicts other sources. I hate paying tax (don’t we all) so the rate of short term capital gains tax is the key factor in deciding whether I want to press ahead with learning Japanese, looking into relevant visas and eventually looking at moving to Japan.

If you don’t know it’s not a problem, but if you do happen to know or can direct me to a Japanese tax site I can run through a translator I would be extremely grateful. Thanks a lot for your help.

Hi Nyororin. I was just wandering how long it took you to learn Japanese? I am just wandering because I want to go to Japan next year, and my Japanese is not very good at all. I will probarly study the language for a year or so first, because I don't realy want to work as an English teacher, more like a regular job, for which I will need fluent or near fluent Japanese. I will probarly have to work as an English teacher till I get settled, but I will start learning Japanese there as soon as I arrive. So how hard is it to learn Japanese and how long do you think it will take me?