Okinawa Forums

I have been living on the mainland for about 2 years but I have always wanted to go to Okinawa. My first reason for going is that I'm planning to study Japanese there at JICE.

After that or hopefully during, I hope to find work to allow me to stay there. I have a visa and a B.A degree. Besides classifieds and the obvious strategy of sending my resume around what options do I have?

All I have is a BA in nothing specific, no special qualifications. I have little experience in anything except the ALT field. I have conversational japanese(close to JLPT 2), native French and English. What sort of work can I expect to find? Could I work part time during my time at the school? I would be off from 1pm and on weekends.

heading to Okinawa in April

Hey, not too much longer before you head this way, I made the same jump from mainland. It was pretty tough at first, but everything worked out for me in the end. Anyways, it's been a few days since your post, hope you're still around to read my reply.  ;D

May I ask, why did you decide to study Japanese at the JICE? I haven't heard much about it, so I was just curious. Are they going to be sponsoring you for a student visa, or are you on some other type of visa already?

I'm not sure what else there is to do for finding jobs other than looking for things online and sending your resume. I guess once you get here you could ask people you meet here for job leads, but I don't know how far that will get you.

I'd think that you'd probably be able to find some work in the conversation school field. Getting off at five is perfect to start work in the afternoon when the kiddies get off school.

By the way, where are you planning to live down here?

John

I decided to study at JICE because the school has a great intensive study program and very flexible schedules. It is also the cheapest school of that I have come across. I attended a similar programme up here on the mainland and there was a huge difference. I wont go into detail unless you ask me later.

Anyway, I'm heading to Okinawa as soon as my working visa is renewed. So I will already have a visa. I figure it will save me and my potential employers the trouble of sponsoring me. I'm doing that because I hear few employers have the means to sponsor.

I'm aiming for a part time job at first but after my course is done I can go for full time. I will be staying in Naha mostly because that is where everything is for me.

I heard some stories from people while I was down there about how cheap appartments can be. How cheap is it really and what part of Naha has the cheapest rents? How would I find those dirt cheap(25000-40000yen/mth??!) appartments I heard about?

Oh, I see. It's true that a lot of the employers can't sponsor, but some of them can. I think you should be able to find some part time work.

About the housing though, the rents are indeed cheap, and I think you will be able to find low rents in most areas of Naha aside from Shintoshin. The place I'm currently in runs about 45,000 a month and it is fairly spacious with two rooms and a large kitchen dining area. The only problem with the housing down here is that there a very few 'gaijin-friendly' renters. At least when I was in Osaka there was no shortage of housing available for gaijin that did not require key money or guarantors. Here I had to go with a standard Japanese realtor, and while I haven't had any problems with them, my girlfriend's mother had to be our guarantor.

I don't have much advice to offer about that particular issue though, I have heard there are some companies that will act as your guarantor for a fee, but I haven't investigated them thoroughly.

Thanks for the information about rents. While I was down there last summer , I heard some people talk about rents around 45K and even lower like 30K and the occasional 25-28K/month. I'm not sure if that if that is accurate and what those places might look like but with rents like that I expect at least Part of the necessities. They also mentioned an area of Naha called "Nishi" or "Nishi-something". Where rents are usually very cheap. Sound familiar??

As for the guarantor, I know how that works and I expect to need one at most places. Just like up here on mainland.I guess I'll have to spend most of my free time networking to try to find a guarantor. My only lead for appartments so far is Leopalace. They are all over Japan and the apartments are furnished. The only thing is that I wont be able to afford real apartment right away when I arrive. While doing my course at JICE I plan to live in the hostels at 30K/month. I can live there at least 6 months even if I have to change hostels from month to month.

Yeah, I think living in a hostel is not a bad idea. I stayed at one once. I had my own room, and it was pretty decent. Nothing really specially but good enough, and the people were interesting. There is a pretty good website listing all of the hostels, or at least a lot of them in Okinawa.  I can't seem to find it now, but if you search for 民宿　沖縄 there is a bunch of stuff.

I thought about moving to Leo Palace when I first moved to Okinawa too, but I think it works out to be pretty expensive in the long run, so I don't really know if it is worth it. Also, at least when I looked into it, there were some limitations on the internet access that they provide with the apartments. That was a big thing influencing my decision not to go with them as well. The places look pretty nice though, and they're all around here in Okinawa.

The place with low rent's that you are thinking of is probably Nishi Machi. It's a pretty seedy area with lots of red light district type stuff around, but I think the rents are probably pretty cheap there. Other places around there might be cheap like Wakasa or Maejima.

Thanks again for your suggestions and advice. I'm really trying to find out as much as I can before I get there myself.

I really don't mind living in a seedy area as long as the place I live isn't litterally falling apart. All I really want and need are the basics such as running water, electricity and gas. A/C is optional for me. As for the rest, tell me if I'm wrong but I don't think there are any really "bad/rough" areas in Naha. I have been around Naha pretty much everywhere at any hour of the day or night and I never felt the least bit uneasy or worried. Even the worst part of Naha can't possibly compare to seedy areas I have been through. If thats what it takes to have cheap rent, I'm willing to go for it.

The thing I like about Leopalace is that they have furniture and other useful things. Everywhere else I would have to buy a lot of stuff. Anyway, the cheaper the better.

Another thing I want to ask you about is how to you find the local people? Every time I went to Okinawa I found that the locals were much more easy going and friendly than up here on the mainland. It may be a biased impression, but Okinawa is the only place in Japan where I felt that I could interact with people on the same level. People weren't so tense and aloof as they seem up here. I'm not sure what it is exactly, but whatever it is, people up here don't have it.

Hey,

Sorry for the late reply, I've been pretty busy recently, but things seem to have settled down a bit. I guess you've already made it down to Okinawa. How did your living situation turn out? I just thought of a place that might be perfect for you, if you're still in the market.

Anyway, I find the Okinawan people easy to get along with most of the time. A few of them have some problems with the military presence here, so you might be on the receiving end of their dislike of the American military when it comes to getting a taxi or going into a karaoke place (as happened to me), regardless of your affiliation with them or nationality. Personally, I've never really felt any problems around mainland Japanese people either, but a lot of people seem to share your view about people from Okinawa. They are definitely more laid back than Japanese, but they have some of the same groupism in their culture as the mainlanders. I've heard from most of my mainland friend's that they are very exclusive of non-Okinawan Japanese. Of course this isn't everyone, but especially at work that kind of problem seems to come up. I haven't actually had any problems with it though, so as you're not Japanese, you might not notice it either.

Hope everything is going well for you here.

Well, unfortunatly things are not quite working out as I was hoping. I still have a few loose ends to tie up over here on the mainland, so I have to postpone my move to Okinawa for the end of this month or the first week of June at the very latest.

I did however, keep in touch with s few connections from Naha who i met last summer. If there is one thing I learned quick about life in Okinawa it's that you can't have too many connections. Connections can get you more and better results whatever you are looking for.