you can marry someone that is living there and that doesnt require you to have a college degree.

i am going to college to be a welder. i never said anything about not going to college.

Sorry Kenpachi. When you said "You don't need a degree to live in Japan" I read too much into it.

And yes, if you marry a Japanese person, you can get a spousal visa, and your visa status will be covered.

Then we get into the issue of trying to get married without having a college degree...

The games programming I was talking about was a very long time ago. You would get asked to code anything from the hi-score table to CPU controlled character. I ended up programming sound fx quite allot.

Now I deal with setting up and maintaining computer networks. Not so much the computers anymore but all of the equipment between like switches and routers.

hth.

I wish I could add a lot to this, but MMM pretty much said it all, and others have added further detail.

However, I will add that I have a genuine interest in teaching. That is my job. So I hear all this whining about ALT work or English teaching in general... except, I'd be doing this in the states. So for me, a degree was already part of my plan. And although I made a half-hearted attempt at JET (as previously mentioned), I have eventually ended up in Japan because of economic decisions. Frankly, I can just make money faster here. Not necessarily more money overall, just faster money. In addition, I am relatively young, and it seems to me that when you are young you should be able to have an opportunity to travel and see the world. At this point I don't plan to leave Japan any time soon, or possibly ever, but who knows?

As a teacher, and one who is a teacher, and not a dancing monkey who got here by any means necessary, but someone engaged in teaching as a career, I find the "Oh, I won't 'lower' myself to that level" absolutely insulting. If you can't even bother working to get a degree, than you have no idea what it's like to take the courses and the exams to be a qualified teacher, and I don't want you here, because you're bound to give me and those like me, a bad name.

When it comes to Japan, "put up or shut up" is the best advice I can give.

After I finish getting my Bachelor's early next year, I'm going to put my teaching certification and going for my MA on hold and try working as an ALT. At least I already have experience with working as an Assistant Teacher now and I enjoy it for the most part. The downside is that you can't really choose which level students you'd like to work with, but I still enjoy it, and working as an ALT, just seems like such a nice opportunity to learn how to work with different types of children with various backgrounds and cultures since jobs like that are usually overseas. I also find that it'd be nice to have the opportunity to embrace a whole 'nother culture. It has to be incredibly intriguing and exhilarating as well as educational! ^_^

I really do hope that I can get into JET for 2009. I also hope that I can get placed in the northern region...like say Hokkaido.:p

Well I'm very ecstatic to say that I just got notified today that I've been accepted into JET as a CIR (not an ALT :D). I don't know where I'll be placed yet, but at the moment I really don't care. Becoming a CIR has been my plan ever since I started university 3 and a half years ago. I'll be graduating this June, and a few months after that I'll be off to Japan once again :D.

Sweet news, Hatredcopter! I look forward to hearing more about where you'll be and how it goes.

Congratulations. ^_^ I wish you the best of luck. It's great that you managed to achieve your goal.:cool:

If you find a Japanese man who will let his daughter marry you without a degree (because you have zero career potential), I will happily pay for your wedding


Also, I did mention the spousal visa so you didn't need to explain getting married as being an option...