Resources for Finding an ESL Job in Japan

Pretty similar to my post on "How Much Will I Get Paid Teaching in Japan?", here are some resources for finding yourself some employment on this radical island.

All of my experience has been in finding teaching positions, so most of the information is geared towards that. However, you can use the links at the end of this post to find a great variety of different careers, some with no language requirements at all. Check them out.

In the future we'll go into more detail of how exactly to approach applying for a job, give a rundown of the different companies and advise on other career choices.

Teaching English:
Use these links to find Instructor positions in Japan. Some are in school, such as JET and Interac, but most are eikaiwa (English conversation schools).

• JET
• Interac
• Westgate
• AEON
• Berlitz
• ECC (Education through Communication for Community)
• Gaba

iShareJapan has a great list of Eikaiwa schools in Japan.

Local government jobs are very desirable and will pay about the same or a bit more than the JET program. They are pretty hard to find, though, and competition can be tough. Most successful applicants already live/are in Japan, and more often than not speak a decent level of Japanese. Use the job websites listed below to find this kind of job.

Many smaller schools advertise online for English teachers. Beware that a lot of the part-time or pay-by-hour options can lack security or may not pay a livable wage if you're living alone. Here are some links to investigate by yourself:

• findjobsinjapan.com
• jobs.gaijinpot.com
• jobs.japantimes.com
• careercross.com
• jobsinjapan.com
• daijob.com
• ohayosensei.com

The above links also have many other types of jobs in various sectors. Beware: don't look if you aren't qualified, because they pay a lot more than us lowly teachers get!

And that's about all we have for you for now. If you have any experience using these job sites, or know anything we've missed here (or would just like more information), post us a comment in the box below the related posts.

Ear Cleaning: The Horrible Truth of Mimikaki and Mimisouji

If you live in Japan then you have surely come accross the ear-cleaning-scoop-things (耳かき - mimi kaki) used for the horrifying practice of mimi souji (耳掃除).

The Japanese love to clean their ears, and cleaning a child's ears is a sacred moment akin to breast-feeding.

BUT I have some terrible news for the proponents of this practice, and some weird genetic information (!!!).
Read on.

First of all, Japanese ear wax is not the same as gaijin ear wax. I can hear your "WHAT?" from here - this sounds exactly like the kind of thing a Japanese person would say (like when the nurse asked my girlfriend what temperature gaijin were supposed to be), but actually it's true.

• In East Asians (and Native Americans), a dry, grey type of ear wax is the most common, whereas on the other side of the world - Europe/Africa, you'll find we have the moist orange gunk. It's something to do with ancient climates. Weird. The moist stuff is dominant, though, which means that if you have a half-Japanese baby you can be assured it has good old Western Wax.

So okay, the Japanese are right this time about being different from the rest of the world, but they are most certainly wrong about thwe need for mimisouji in the first place. Here's a tip for you curious gaijin out there: don't buy a mimikaki and definately don't stick it in your (or anyone else's) ears.

• Wax is in your ear for a reason, it's a normal secretion which is naturally removed when necessary. If you have a blockage, go to an ear doctor. Never put one of these things inside yourself or you could end up with some serious internal damage. You can't see what you're doing in there. Furthermore, scraping at the walls of your inner-ear actually causes more discharge. だめ！

More 

• Mimikaki come in all shapes and sizes. You can get them with red LEDs inside, anime characters on the end, in horrible multi-layers dental tool fashion, and far too many other styles. Google images has more.
  
• The weirdest part of this whole situation is that you can pay (~3000yen) for a kimono-clad woman to rest your head gently on her lap and scrape at your ear-canals for 30-minutes. No thanks. Sounds even less fun than getting an ear-candle (which, incidentally, is totally useless and potentially harmful).
  
• If you're completely twisted you will probably enjoy watching this disgusting yet fascinating Japanese video of earwax removal:
  
• You could go even further and use one of these mimikaki with a camera on the end. We recommend you don't.
  
• For yet more fun, there is a(n award-winning) manga short-story entitled Yamamoto's Ear Cleaning Shop which you can read here.

Worksheet Sunday: Relative pronouns: Noun-"that"-Adjective (Third Grade JHS - 14-15yo)

A needlessly over-complicated part of the second half of third-grade English is relative pronouns.

After having been asked to come up with something for page 52 of New Crown 3 ("I have a book that is good for childen") I eventually produced a version of Battleships which went down pretty well. Fills about 30 minutes with the explanation.

The Battleships template is batted about ALT circles pretty often. The version I used started life as this entry on JHSEnglipedia and was later beautified by my girlfriend. I made it look even better, changed the target grammar and here it is (as ever, bear in mind that the Google Docs previews distorts everything, but if you download and open the file in Word it will look fine).

Just in case you don't know the game (most Japanese don't):

1. Battleships is played in pairs.
2. Each student draws four ships on their grid as indicated on the sheet, wherever they like.
3. The second grid is for drawing on hits on the opponent.
4. Students must then ask each other a question using the words in the columns on the sheet (i.e. "Do you have 6 eggs that are interesting for me?").
5. Student two finds the corresponding box and calls out "Yes I do", or "No, I don't" to indicate hit or miss.
6. One question per turn.
7. Winner is the student who destroys all the opponent's boats first.

Played it? Liked it? Improved it? Let us know in the comments.

(Good) Japanese Rock

I've always had a difficult time getting into the Japanese music scene. If you have spent any time in Japan at all, you'll have realized that the Japanese public eye rips through musical acts at a frenzied and disconcerting pace. Each week a new artist appears with a hit single that gets played over and over on radio stations and late-night entertainment shows. And a scant few days later, the song and the artist are all but forgotten, like Dust in the Wind, to be replaced with a new flavor of the week. Persistent stars are all but theater productions built up by media conglomerates, with little or no hand in creating the content they act out on stage.

If you mention an act from last month or last year to Japanese colleagues (or students, if you're a teacher), you'll be met with cries of, "Oh, that's old!" But, honestly, it all sounds the same to me. Meaningless pop fluff repeated over and over in the same ridiculous formats (and so many, many more iterations of them than any country should ever need). Sometimes I'll happen across a song that's catchy, but I've rarely felt respect for the artist or his (or her) creation.

That is, until I stumbled across this gem:

JapaneseRockFFS is a blog that has been sitting in disuse for over a year. But, it still happens to provide 48 snippets that rejuvenate faith in the history of modern Japanese music.

These are edgy, earthy artists who aren't afraid to challenge their instruments or listeners, from Far East Family Band's 30-minute space odyssey "Parallel World," to the I-don't-give-a-damn drone dominating the Jacks' first album, which almost begs to be compared to Reed's voice in "Venus in Furs."

The point is, they show passion and consideration for their music, rather than a focus on walking through Paris in heels. So, the next time you turn on a TV and feel a little depressed at the state of music in modern Japan, remember there is a rich history of rock music here. It just doesn't often get the public nod.

"Wot dis? Dis pen!" Appalling classroom English set to change?

Before AccessJ's five favourite terrible classroom English moments, we have some news.

It looks as though things may be set to change at some possible distant point in the future. Today both the Daily Yomiuri and The Japan Times have been busy informing me that the government has hypothetical plans to send Japanese English teachers to genuine, bone-fide English speaking countries as part of their teaching qualification.

This could be a smart move as some teachers we've worked with have been embarrassingly bad at the language. Let's just hope they send the textbook writers there too.

However, it does seem to be another rung on the "reforming English teaching" ladder which has seen cutbacks to and potential downsizing of the JET programme. Many tongues have been wagging on that one.

Nevertheless I don't think it's time to panic just yet. The main reason for this theorising of how best to better Japanese English is the advancement of English teaching in elementary schools. English has been semi-taught in elementaries in my town for more than 20 years. I did it last year and had a blast, but the quality of the teachers' English was pretty bad. Albeit it was the first year there had been a more formalised structure to the learning, and the first time the homeroom teachers were actually supposed to be actively involved in the lessons.

But to be honest maybe it's better in some ways to have Japanese teachers with decent accents than it is to have poorly (or not at all) trained gaijin bashing their heads on things everywhere. There is definately room for improvement on both sides of the fence, let's just hope that the demand for us foreigners doesn't fade away before we've all died and gone to hell.

But anyway, let's lighten up this post a bit with some of my favourite classroom English errors/strange English.

1. Straight from the title - "Wot dis? Dis pen!". Terribly awkward moment in elementary last year. What should I have done? Is it okay to correct him? I guess it is, but I don't want to make any delicate nervous teachers cry on my watch.
2. "How green roofs are hot?" - Oh boy. This was from a Junior High teacher, and printed on a worksheet as a question. I was asked to read it out and pick a volunteer to answer...
3. "Come, Father. Come!" - preposterously complicated ejaculation from a distorted retelling of 'The Whale Rider' in third grade JHS textbooks. "Kahu climbed up onto the old whale. 'Come, Father. Come!'" - if anyone can convincingly explain that in a way that 14/15 year old will understand you can give a speech at my wedding.
4. "What is your treasure?" - Incomprehensibly stupid subsection of the Junior High textbook featuring everyone's heroes Bethwel and Chakila. Bethwel's treasure is the city, doncha know. Chakila prefers "the tree", whilst dashing smooth operator Gerado has a penchant for his school.
5. "I have six balls!" - the funniest thing about this one is that it was actually me that said it. My face changing from mild enthusiasm to master comedian mid-sentence must have been quite a sight.

Anyway, stories in the comments as always.

Gundam Halloween Costume

Why not slip a bit of fun your way? Here's my Gundam costume from this year's Halloween party. Hope you like it!

I won second place, only losing out to some obscenely cute child who shouldn't have been in the bar in the first place.

Eihouji Temple, Tajimi

Scattered across Japan are thousands of gorgeous locations that go untouched by guidebooks like Lonely Planet. Drawing on our own experiences over time, we'd like to introduce some lesser known locations that are very much worth your time to visit. Experience the Japan that even many Japanese are unaware of. And best of all, do it without the crowds of those tourist traps that everyone knows about (and most everyone has already seen).

Today's location is Eihouji Temple in Tajimi, Gifu.

Location:
Tajimi is a moderately-sized city near the Southeastern edge of Gifu prefecture. It is about 45 minutes away from the center of Nagoya by train or by car. (The cities are near enough to each other that the expressway won't save much time--unless you are driving during Nagoya's rush hour.)

Access:
Eihouji Temple is situated near the center of Tajimi City. It is most easily accessed by car, but for travelers who don't mind a little walking, the temple grounds can be reached from Tajimi Station on foot in about 30 minutes. A bus line starting at Tajimi station also runs past the temple grounds.
The address of the temple is: 岐阜県多治見市虎渓山町1-42 (Gifu-ken, Tajimi-shi, Kokeizan-chou 1-42), and it's GPS coordinates are: 35.347026, 137.130765
Free parking is available for temple visitors just before the Chuo-sen train tracks.
Temple hours are from 5:00 to 17:00 every day.

Points of Interest:
The Eihouji temple grounds actually contain several buildings. The oldest and most interesting buildings are secluded in the small valley that the grounds encompass. Coming from the Northwest entrance of the grounds, you will encounter a winding, divergent path. (As of October 2010, two of the path's branches are closed for renovation.) Continue on any descending route to reach the main attractions of Eihouji, the 観音堂 (kannon-dou) and the 開山堂 (kaisan-dou). These two buildings, both built nearly 700 years ago, are designated as National Treasures of Japan. They are surrounded by Eihouji's beautiful Zen gardens, complete with a pond, ornamental bridge, and waterfall. Continue up the paths leading out of the Zen garden for a quiet walk through dense forest, during which you will come across smaller, unmanned shrines and jizou. If you entered the temple grounds from the Northwest, be prepared to retrace your steps, as the scenic path from the Zen garden leads out to Eihouji's harder-to-reach South entrance. (However, the South entrance is worth a visit, as it boasts a nice modern park and view of Tajimi City.)


Late-October to Mid-November is one of the best times of the year to visit Eihouji, as you'll be able to experience the temple scenery against autumn foliage.


Zen Meditation Service:
In line with its strong Zazen history, Eihouji Temple offers visitors a chance to participate in traditional Zen Meditation services. Services are held at 6:00 a.m. on the third Sunday of each month. Reservations are not necessary, but you must arrive early enough to register and secure a spot in the temple before services begin. There is a fee of 1,000 yen.

After registering and paying the fee, you will be directed to the meditation hall, where you exchange your shoes for rubber-soled sandals to wear inside the hall. When you enter the hall, place your palms together and bow once. Keeping your palms together, walk at a reverent pace to your seat. When you leave the hall, layer your hands against your chest as you walk.

For the first portion of the service, you can sit in Japanese seiza style, lotus style, or cross-legged. The seated portion of the service continues for 30 minutes of silent zazen meditation. A break follows, then a gentle walking procession through the temple grounds, meditating and enjoying the scenery. Following this, another 30 minute silent zazen service takes place, reading of Zen hymns, a sermon by Eihouji's main priest, and a light meal of o-kayu and an umeboshi.

Other Events:
Occasionally, the interior of the 観音堂 (kannon-dou) building is opened for observation by the public. It was last opened in March, 2010.

Worksheet Sunday: Halloween

Well, it's Halloween today so maybe this is a little late, but for those doing something next week or next year here are some activities for mixed ages.

• First of all just talking about Halloween is entertaining for many classes - describing the Treat or Treat process and carving of pumpkins (and difference between Japanese pumpkins and other countries').
  
• Then you can play some touch-related games with elementary, 'special' or first-grade JHS (11-12) classes - use (sealed) packets of pasta sauce, cooked spaghetti, spiky hundred-yen store Halloween goodies etc in a sealed box. Students touch them and try to figure out what they are. It's fun and easy.
  
  
• Wordsearch. Simple but effective, and works with all JHS grades. You can make your own wordsearches using any words you like here. Here's mine.
  
  
• Simple 'do you have game' using the small Halloween flashcard sets from mes-English. Use the big sets to show the class/teach or test vocab and then give out 5-10 random cards to each student. They have to ask other students "Do you have a ghost?" etc and reply with "Yes, I do. Here you are." Of course this can be modified for whatever suitable phrases you want them to use.
  
  
• Word challenge. Very simple sheet which just requires finding the right word in the list and writing it in the boxes beneath the images. Good for slow learners/'special' classes.
  
  
• Mask making, even costume making and mock trick-or-treating (buy some sweets) if you have the time.

Well, that's all I have for you today. I found it very hard to come up with activities for older kids, so if you have any then please let us know in the comments box below.

Accommodation: Capsule Hotels

If a Love Hotel seems too lonely, Couch Surfing too scary, Youth Hostels are full of roudy youths and an Internet Cafe too sleazy, why not opt for a capsule?

People bang on about capsule hotels being a Japanese revolution of quirkiness and efficiency. To be honest they're just a crappy version of a bunkbed, but they can be handy when you need a cheap place to stay in the business district.

Beware: Height Resitrictions.


カプセルホテル(capuseru hoteru) are pretty common in the bigger cities, and are almost always catered towards business workers who are too drunk to get home or working too late for trains. They will sometimes have a 24 hour onsen as part of the fee, and will almost always have alcohol, cigarette and food vending machines. They're easy to spot by generally having photos of capsules outside in the same way that internet cafes have pictures of the "beds" they offer.

Their reputation for being quirky is not really deserved. Apart from the concept of sleeping in front-loading bunkbeds there's not really anything new here, except that the capsules are usually made of plastic and have a TV, radio and alarm-clock fitted inside. Invariably the TV will have several porn channels, and if you're lucky (like I have been) you can hear other customers enjoying theirs throughout the night.

Those with claustrophobia issues needn't worry unless it's very severe, as there's usually enough room to sort-of sit-up inside. The standard size is 1 metre x 1 metre x 2 metres. This can be a probelm for taller people, however. I'm 6'4" and have a problem with the privacy shutters on some capsules which you pull down in front of the entrance, and closing this means that I can't lie completely flat comfortably and have to do a feotus impression all night (or leave the shutter partly open).


Prices

• These will vary from 2,500 to 4,500yen depending on the location and amenities. Many places in the business districts will offer a point system or pre-paid option (pay for nine nights and get the tenth free). Booking ahead is not usually necessary.

More

• Women are not usually allowed in business capsules, but the more tourist-orientated ones will usually have a women's room, or mixed section at the very least.
• Some capsule hotels offer rooms of four+ capsules for private hire. Capsule Inn Akihabara is an example of this.
• In Akebonobashi (Shinjuku) there is a gaijin-targeted capsule hotel with larger-sized wooden units (~3,500yen). It gets very hot and can be pretty noisy in the mornings, however. They also offer budget beds (although you must request them specifically) for around 2000yen.
• In Kyoto there is a place called Kyoto Ryoukan Capsule, which is a curious cross between a traditional Japanese hotel and a capsule place (3,500yen). The capsules have tatami floors and futons, and the place has a traditional setup. There are also standard ryoukan rooms.

Other posts in this series:

• Love Hotels
• Sleeping in Internet Cafes
• Capsule Hotels
• Youth Hostels
• Couch Surfing
• Budget Hotels

Japanese Cooking Measurements

A cup is a cup, right?

Well, it is, as long as you stay in the same country. Even though the word "cup" remains constant across a number of countries and is a constant go-to word in the kitchen, the actual volume it refers to differs by country.

Let's clear this up with the help of some internationally recognized measurements:

In Japan, 1カップ (ichi kappu) in a recipe calls for 200 ml of material.
This is the measurement you'll find on measuring cups bought at grocery stores and 100 yen stores.

In comparison, "one cup" in the U.S. means about 237 ml.
And in the U.K., "one cup" (or a "breakfast cup") means 285 ml.
Keep this in mind as you translate recipes across borders.

And just to make things a little more complicated, Japanese rice cookers use a measurement completely separate from this, but it still gets regularly translated into English as "cups of rice."
Rice in Japan is portioned according to a traditional system called the 尺貫法 (shakkan hou). The unit suitable for use in the kitchen is called the 合 (gou), and it equates to 180 ml. This is why measuring cups in Japan have separate markings for rice and other ingredients.

Before coming into contact with the West, Japan commonly used the 合 in applications outside of rice. The volumeter from this time period was usually made of wood and had a square shape. Today, that same instrument survives in the sake industry, and if you drink Japanese sake at an upscale establishment, it will often be served in a wooden 合 "box" rather than a glass.

Fortunately, larger quantities in Japan tend to be clearly measured according to the metric system, and other common instruments in recipes, like 大さじ (oosaji) and 小さじ (kosaji) are equivalent to their Western tablespoon and teaspoon counterparts. (It sure beats the crap out of silly quarts and fluid ounces.)

But, if you find yourself unsure about a conversion, I highly recommend the site Wolfram Alpha. It is useful because you can pop in a number from a recipe (like "3.6 fluid ounces") and have it converted to another system of measurement without having to do any multiplication yourself. It also supports traditional units from around the world (including the 合). But, I wasn't able to get that pesky 200 ml "Japanese cup" to appear.

Example of a Landing Permission

As a continuation of our visa series, today we take a look at the 上陸許可 (jyouriku kyoka), or "Landing Permission," stamp in your visa. This stamp is your lifeblood in Japan. Obey the items written on this stamp, or risk deportation from and sanctions on re-entry to Japan.

1. 在留期限 (zairyuu kigen): This is the date until which you are allowed to legally reside in Japan. If you overstay this date, even for one day, you risk deportation and barred re-entry to Japan, depending on the mood of the immigration officer handling your case, and whether Japanese Immigration is having a general crackdown on illegal immigrants or not. Either way, it is a pretty big risk. Don't take it. Apply for and Extension of Period of Stay at least 1 to 3 months before this date.
2. 在留資格 (zairyuu shikaku): This is your Status of Residence in Japan. Japanese Immigration is strict about allowing people to only perform certain tasks within certain Statuses of Residence. Some Statuses, like "Instructor" or "Specialist in Humanities," allow a person to be employed part- or full-time. Other Statuses, like "College Student," do not by default permit a person to engage in profitable activity. Even Statuses permitting employment usually restrict the type of employment that person may engage in. If you are on an Instructor visa, but you scored and started a new job as an investment banker at a financial institution, or as a translator, or a web developer, you are breaking Japanese Immigration law. Apply for a Change of Status of Residence before you start that job.
3. 在留期間 (zairyuu kikan): This is your Period of Stay. It is first determined by the information on your 日本国査証 (if you used one), and could be anywhere from 10 days to 5 years, depending on what Immigration deems is necessary for you to fulfill your intended duty within Japan. Most common values are 90 days (like this "tourist visa"), One Year, Three Years, or (apparently coming soon:) Five Years.
4. Disembarkation Point: This is the location at which you entered Japan.
5. Departure/Embarkation Stamp: The Landing Permission in this example has been "used up" because the individual departed from Japan. In order to spend time in Japan again, this person would need to get a new Landing Permission.

Worksheet Sunday: Review Crosswords

Laura has been at it again and made another great couple of sheets.

These two are crosswords for 2nd and 3rd graders. The second grade one covers vocab and grammar up until about mid-October (chapter 6) for New Crown, and the 3rd grade one is a review of past tenses, including present perfect forms.

Just like with wordsearches the kids love these and get really into them. Expect to fill 15-20 minutes.

Just in case you are completely dumbstruck and don't know what a crossword is, the students must choose the right form of the word in brackets to complete the sentence, and write it on the numbered grid in the direction indicated.

Without further ado, here they are:

2nd grade October review
3rd grade past tense/present perfect review

If you use them or have any other comments or suggestions, please tell us in the box below. Feel free to use these in your classes, but as with all our sheets here, don't redistribute.