Thank you, again!

^^

This idea that Japan is really expensive I think is a very outdated one. Sure the big cities like Tokyo and Osaka can be expensive but show me any major city in the world that is not expensive to live in, New York, London or Sydney for instance. Once you get out of the major metropolis's though Japan in my opinion is incredibly cheap, certainly a lot cheaper than back in my home country Australia. I do live up North in Hokkaido though and it is an incredibly cheap lifestyle.

Sorry for interrupting your communicative exchange, but I have a related request: I´m working as a teacher at primary school (made my degree at university in Arts, German studies and Mathematics). - has anybody ever heard about a working exchange year for educators?
I´m planing a language study travel about 4 weeks next summer - so I´m (in the case, that I like it there) interested in opportunities of working there for a year or maybe more (at german schools for example), but couldn´t find any adequate informations in www. I also tried the sites of the japanese and german embassy, but without success. Is such a purpose even possible?

Have you seen these?

Schule | Deutsche Schule Tokyo Yokohama

Tokyo - Willkommen im Goethe-Institut Japan in Tokyo

No, I havent´t found these during my online search. Thanks very much - I guess, my questions will be answered soon on this pages :)

Oh, they are currently searching a primary teacher, haha. But that would be too soon. Adequate japanese language competence should be there. I hope in 1 or 2 years there will be other offers for those jobs. Then maybe it could be a tempting opportunity.

Oh well then, thanks for the perspective.
However, I'm really considering trying to transfer to an American University over in Tokyo after I get my AA Degree. You're required to be in home-stay or dorms for a semester, I think, and then you have to get your own place.

So, I'll still have to do some research on apartment prices there, but overall, I get what you mean.
It's definitely not just "Japan" that's expensive. That could be said about everywhere.

But, you said that you live in North Hokkaido.
May I ask what made you want to move there? And what you do as a living?

I'd like some more personal feedback and experiences.

I originally came to Japan back in '03 with my wife on a ski holiday to the Niseko ski area. This was just prior to it becoming a very popular international ski resort. Skiing is without doubt my biggest passion in life. Anyway I was blown away by the increadible amounts and quality of snow here so we came back the next winter and ended up getting jobs with one of the foreign tour operators. We still didn't have work visas sorted though and had to head back to Australia at the end of the winter. By this time I was completely in love with the place and somehow convinced my wife it would be a good idea to leave our lives in Aus and move to Japan permanently. We ended up getting sponsored visas through NOVA, they put us in a school in Gunma and we returned in June. The heat in Gunma in the summer is rather oppressive to say the least so we contacted our previous employer in Niseko advising we now had sponsored work visas and would like to head back up there. So after just 5 weeks of teaching english we headed back to Niseko and have been here ever since. We both work in property management now for 2 separate companies. There is now about 250 foreigners living in the area year round and it is a pretty vibrant and active little community.
Hokkaido is a truly beautiful place and much more sparsely populated than Honshu. We have a bit of a saying amongst those who live in Niseko, we came here for the winter and skiing but end up living here for the summer. The summer really is very nice with little of the oppressive heat and humidity that afflicts Honshu reaching this far north. The region is amazing for living a very active outdoor lifestyle and Hokkaido is an extremely cheap place to live. Most of us living here earn far less than we did in our home countries but our lives here are just so good that I certainly wouldn't even dream of getting a job in somewhere like Tokyo no matter how much money you enticed me with.
I'm a little different to many on these forums I think in that I didn't come to live in Japan because I had a long term interest in the culture or people. In fact I knew very little about either before moving here and to be honest I continue to have very little interest in the culture. I've always been much more into the natural world rather than the human one and Hokakido is one of the most naturally beautiful places on the planet. Add to that the incredible snow of winter and I'm in heaven. My wife and I are very settled having bought a house and having our first child here last year. We fully intend on spending the rest of our lives here.

Wow, to be honest, I haven't actually seen or heard all that much about Hokkaido, and just from looking at some pictures on Google, it looks absolutely incredible; though I'm sure that pictures alone done do it enough justice.

Reading your story was very enjoyable to me. It was nice to read that though you hadn't expected it to, you fell in love with a place so fast.
I just hope that I'm able to find that happiness and comfort wherever I choose to live.

Now, you mentioned that you taught English for only 5 weeks:
So, did you go through the JET program?
Or did you do something else?
How did you find the teaching jobs?

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, I really appreciate it!
And if you would answers these, I'd be further grateful.
<: )

JET has more control over your visa because they are a quasi-government program (discussion of CLAIR, bidding practices, etc, are outside the scope of this post) and usually only gives you thirty days before they revoke sponsorship. I have my doubts he was on JET.

My guess is that he was an eikaiwa (conversation school) or dispatch ALT teacher. Legally, an employee may quit at will (or may be terminated at will), and usually how notice is given is covered in the contract. He probably just spoke to his boss and explained it wasn't working out after making sure his sponsorship for change of work industry was discussed with his old (and current) boss. He would have then just taken the paperwork to immigration and changed his visa type (or may not even have had to, actually. My visa allows me to do a lot more than just teach, which is what I do with it. If I had an instructor visa, I would be locked in).

As for finding teaching jobs, JapanForum (while a great forum for Japanese culture in general) is not a very good place. Your best bets would be GaijinPot, Dave's ESL Cafe, the Ohayo Sensei newsletter, and googling. A lot.

Note, we are past the hiring peak, and the market is relatively flooded right now. This doesn't mean you can't find a position, just that it is not as easy it has been in the past, and that overseas individuals without visas and previous experience have a harder time than visa holders in Japan who already have experience (and there are a lot of those looking for work already).

We got a sponsored visa through NOVA sometime before it went bust. The visa type is fairly broad allowing work in a number of fields. Outside of the big cities I would think Niseko has the most opportunities for foreigners wanting to live and work in Japan without having to teach english as there are so many foreign run businesses here catering to the international ski market. I wasn't overly keen on teaching english anyway but it was the easiest way to get a sponsored work visa from Australia.

Hokkaido though isn't for everyone. It does have a very long, cold and snowy winters. In fact the town I live in is one of the snowiest in the world averaging up around 40ft each winter. For someone like myself who loves winter and snowsports it's awesome. Summers although relatively short are very pleasant without getting too hot (I don't like heat). If you love a slow, stress free, outdoors oriented life it's near perfect. If you're really into Japanese culture and like big cities and clubbing and all that sort of stuff it's not the best place in Japan.