Well well well, what do we have here? Holy it's been a long time, was just about 3 Months ago I made my last post. Now I will admit that when it comes to updates I a bit slack, in fact amazingly slack. However this time I have a good excuse! As you may remember I landed a job in Japan as an English teacher, and I simply haven't had a computer to actually post from.
Holy Tokyo!
Its been an amazing couple of months so far, in fact I have so much to write about that I'm going to have to take some time and write them in retrospect, so I guess this is sort of to be a bit of teaser while I sort out what I want to talk about first. Briefly Ill go over whats been happening I think then Ill go into details in following posts to be able to fully give justice to the experiences.
Our trip begin in Tokyo, about a thousand people from around the world (although mostly America) came for orientation before heading out to designated prefectures. We were only there for a few days, never really having been to a super large city before it was quite over whelming, combined with jet lag and 35-40 degrees heat and 100% humidity it exhausting, but still amazing.
New Home
After leaving Tokyo our group headed to our prefecture, Shiga. So far it has been pretty good, its only 30 minutes by train from Kyoto as well =D. Admittedly I had never heard of this particular area of Japan, so I came here without any expectations which I think has allowed me to enjoy it all the more. Of course it helped that our first night in Shiga we were able to view the best fireworks festival of the year by the lake side.
I arrived in Japan with around 200,000 Yen ( around 2.5k USD ) and immediately had to pay 130,000 in just rent. My first pay check wouldn't for an entire month, and after factoring in money for trains and necessities I found myself with 50k (around 600USD) Yen left, however I literally had nothing in my apartment apart from a futon. With a lot of surprise costs showing up in the first month I was down to around 50 dollars the night before my first pay, so things were a bit tight for that first month. Although I still don't own any tables.
Cat Cafe
However I did have enough money to do some fairly unique things, such as going to a cat cafe! It literally a cafe where you have some coffee or cold drinks while pats walk around and you play with them and stuff.
Cats are naturally very popular over here, I even got a video of this woman who had a cat riding her shoulder while she was going for a bike ride.
Again I have been very brief and will go into more details soon, just after I decide how I want to format the content, if you guys want me to look into something specific while I'm over here let me know! Cheers.
I've read about cat cafes and I love the idea. Basically because places in Japan tend to be small or cramped, there's not much room for pets, so they give you the pet experience in a cafe. You're basically living my dream, and living it well. Even if you did have a bit of money problems. I hope that things are a bit better for you. With some budgeting it should be. A futon is really all you need. And a laptop. And wifi.
ReplyDeleteWith costs so high over there what are your wages going to be like and welcome back?
ReplyDeleteI get paid around 300,000 yen ( Around 4k USD I think)a month. Not sure how much an average month just yet since I have a lot of costs to cover before I can start saving, after a few months ill have a look and mention what its like. However I also get a lot of subsidies which are paid back to me every 3 months which is fairly generous.
DeleteDamn costs are very high, but sounds like a wonderful experience indeed. Cat cafes? haha the cat really likes that.
ReplyDeleteoh, how exciting, I've often thought about finding a teaching job abroad, since I'm also an English lg teacher. Tell us how do you communicate with the students, since I'm guessing most of them don't know any English?
ReplyDeleteWas the payment later on large enough to pay the bills?
that sucks about the bills. Hopefully the English teacher job will get you back up.
ReplyDeleteyour first month sounds a bit rough, but you've survived, so it must have all worked out. :) the cat cafe sounds a bit different. :)
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you're posting again :)
ReplyDeleteJapan is a lovely country, I love the people and their culture. The cat cafe sounds amazing, I could finally go out with all my 3 cats and nobody would stare. Kisses :).
ReplyDeleteSounds like a very interesting experience.;) Had to smile when you describe how quickly you run our of money.;) Exactly the same happened to me when I moved to the US as a 25 year old to start working at a research lab at a university. My last pay-check from home went to fill deposits at an apartment complex and to open a bank account and i was without a cent within 3 days. Had to borrow money from my employer for the first two months.;))
ReplyDeleteGood luck and thank you for visiting my blog,
xoxo
Mam nadzieję, że następny miesiąc będzie lepszy finansowo. Myślę jednak, że jesteś zadowolony z pracy w Japonii. Pozdrawiam.
ReplyDeleteI hope that next month will be better financially. But I think that you are happy with the work in Japan. Yours.
This is so very cool - I've always daydreamed about moving to a different country to work. Keep up the posts. I'd love to hear more about your adventures
ReplyDeleteSo many nice photos!!!!
ReplyDeletenice you have a post again after many days,
ReplyDelete