Moving to Tokyo - what do I need?

Hello,

I am going to be teaching English in Tokyo for 12 months.
I have never been to Japan and in fact I have never lived away from home for such a long period of time.

I was wondering if you could give me some advice on what are the most inportant things to take with me. As i understand they have different plugs and such.

What were the things you missed the most when you moved or you wish you hjad taken with you?

I don't know anyone in Tokyo. Are there any places where I can meet other foreigners?

All advice is greatly appreciated.

Ian, go and have a look at the www.eslcafe.com Japan forum where this question has been discussed in detail countless times. Some good info there. You're not going to work at Nova I hope?

Thanks a lot. I will definitely have a look at this site.

I am not going to work for Nova, but for Real Gap. At first I wanted to go with Nova but I heard they had some problems and decided to switch to Real Gap.

Dave's ESL cafe is a good website.

Well if you are working at an english teaching school, obviously the first place you might meet other people in the same situation as you are is in the work place itself.

Tokyo is a large international city with many expats. Of course it depends on your purpose in Japan if you want to spend all your time meeting expats or locals instead.

Meeting locals? i have read many post on this forum about foreigners - Japanese people relationships and it seems that Japanese don't want to befriend foreigners and although are kind and polite to them don't really hang out with them a lot.

1) Any importable foods you love (eg. Nutella, peanut butter, etc) that will be very expensive to buy there (although you'll find it). Esp. Candies.

2) Any importable medicines you'll need. Things are different there, so medications won't be the same. (Although I've found Kaigen Ace Capsules to work far better for colds/flus than any non-Japanese medication I've used.)

3) Any computer equipment you'll want to use - laptops, computers, etc.
Even though prices are dropping, you can't buy stuff as cheap.
eg. in USA, $199 USD for a new notebook will be advertised next month for Black Friday sales; in Japan, it's $600+ for a notebook.
Digital cameras, on the other hand, do go on spectacular sales at Sofmap #9 in Akihabara. Memory cards are cheaper imported however - eg. 2GB SD $13 USD, $30+ in Japan.
Don't bother bringing most printers - won't have the same ink cartridges, and heavy for the price to ship it in.

4) Any clothes/shoes you need for work right away, or for evening wear. Almost everything is sized differently, and it'll drive you nuts until you settle in to go clothes hunting right away. Best to have a week of shirts/ties/pants/jackets/shoes for work at the minimum. Also it can be very expensive to buy work clothes in Japan unless you've found a cheap store.

5) Your own favorite must have music & movies & tv shows, preferable on one external hard drive for the computer.
At least you'll be able to bring in thousands of albums and movies on an external HD without much weight, and trying to figure out the TV/DVD/etc. thing at first will drive some nuts (region coding, compatibility, etc). Easier to RIP everything to the HD.

6) You're own GSM/WCDMA cell phone with SIM card + worldwide roaming service.
You can buy a phone locally and local service later once you've settled in, but it's always nice to keep the same number for contacting everyone while you settle in.

You MUST have WCDMA/UTMS 2100mhz support on your phone (eg. Nokia N95, 6233, Samsung Z510, 540, most Sony's with 2100Mhz WCDMA support) for it to work in Japan, and your service must have worldwide roaming enabled.

You're not going to use it that long anyways since it's expensive to keep using it in Japan (unless you keep calls to a minimum and use text messaging), but it's a far cry from having to hunt down a pay phone everytime you need to call someone.

7) A few photos or album of favorites to share, if not already on the computer you're bringing to show the natives what home is like.
Of course, if you've already Flickr/myspace/etc. the photos online, no worries there.

8) A copy of all important phone, resume, credit, passport, doctor, etc. numbers - whether in hard copy or online in your email/notepad/etc.
A real pain forgetting that special number thousands of miles away from home.

9) Other than that, go to the JET Japan Program website, download the 2007-2008 JET guide in PDF format for their teachers, and read up on the section for adapting to Japanese life and culture shock. It'll help you deal with things like getting super-frustrated with all things Japanese after a few months there.

Meeting locals? i have read many post on this forum about foreigners - Japanese people relationships and it seems that Japanese don't want to befriend foreigners and although are kind and polite to them don't really hang out with them a lot.

Depends on the person.

You'll see many foreigners don't want to deal with other foreigners.

Yeah it depends on what kind of person you are. When I first came over to Japan, I stayed in Tokyo for 10 months. In the beginning I knew no one and my Japanese was very poor, so I went to the bars/clubs/places where mostly foreigners (English speakers) hang out. But let me tell you, the majority of the foreigners I met in Tokyo were assholes {Most of them were English teachers, not that I'm saying all Enlish teachers in Tokyo are assholes, I met quite a few nice ones). They only spoke bad of Japan and the Japanese people, didn't attemp to learn the language or make Japanese friends. They stayed in their little "English speaking Gaijin only" bubble. So yeah I stopped going to gaijin hangouts and socialising with foreigners. I made Japanese friends rather easily. I'm a very polite and kinda shy person, so I guess I just fitted in. Nowadays I only have two foreigners as friends, neither of them are English teachers. In fact both of them only speak a little English, so we communicate in Japanese (They're Polish and Swedish btw.)
So basically if you're polite and friendly to the locals and at least try to learn the language, you'll make Japanese friends easily.

Plenty of Japanese people want to be friends with foreigners. Some of them partly or mostly want to be friends to practice their English, and if you don't speak any Japanese you will be limited to hanging out with Japanese people who speak English, but be careful of stereotypes like "Japanese people don't want to befriend foreigners"- try to come without any preconceptions.

Most Japanese people are extremely friendly and fun to hang out with and I, and most foreigners I know living here, have lots of good Japanese friends.

I wouldn't bring too much food if I were you, it's heavy and you'll need the space for other things.

Real Gap sounds like the name of a job placement agency rather than a school- any ideas what kind of job they are placing you in? ALT position or English conversation school?

Thank you for your help:)

Sira, I want to ask you another question. i read your answer to another post on this forum and you said:

"Just for interest's sake, ALTs are usually paid about 250,000 yen a month. An Instructor visa is the norm- I have never heard of anyone on a working holiday visa getting this kind of job."

The company I am going to work at does actually want me to get a working holiday visa. Do you think that's fishy?

And btw i just foind out that I would have to get a step down transformer for my laptop. Can i buy it at the airport in London or Tokyo? Or are they not available there?

you don't need stepdown transformer..most laptop power supply [the black rectangular box] are dual voltage, 240V (UK) and 110V ( US/Japan)..just double check on the power supply sticker to confirm..you have to change the cable 3-pin plug(UK) to 2-pin(US/Japan), you can get it here in japan for less than 1000yen..

oh really? thanks a lot.

I checked the sticker on that black box but it doesn't say anything, there are just some marks and warnings... what should I look for?

Ian, are you going to be a full time ALT (i.e. in ordinary Japanese schools team-teaching kids with a Japanese teacher) or an eikaiwa teacher?

The reason is that the conditions of a working holiday visa theoretically don't allow full time work at the same place long term (unless it has changed, they didn't use to).

It's unlikely you would be checked, but theoretically a proper, full time ALT should have an Instructor visa.

As you are coming with an agency, it's likely though that they are presenting your job to the authorities as some kind of exchange, as the poster in the thread you mentioned was saying that 18 and 19 year olds are eligible for these jobs. If you are under 20 and without a degree there is actually no other visa for you to get than a working holiday visa. Don't worry, I'm sure then agency has been doing this for a while.

As for your laptop, if it was made in about the last 10 years by a reputable manufacturer, that black box should be the step-down transformer. Does/ did it have a sticker on it anywhere with at least 110V/ 240V on it?

Can you search on the internet for infrmation from the manufacturer if you no longer have the manual?

Thank you Sira.

I am 22 years old and I have a degree(I graduated this year). I am going to teach English, so I am not sure if that classifies as ALT.

I read all info on that black box and it does say 100-240V.

Ian,

I am 22 years old and I have a degree(I graduated this year). I am going to teach English, so I am not sure if that classifies as ALT.

ALTs (assistant language teachers) are dispatched to public schools - usually through the JET programme.

I read all info on that black box and it does say 100-240V.

Then all you need is a plug adapter, as it will work fine on the Japanese 100 V mains.
And while it's not relevant in this particular case, a step-down transformer is used when running a device from a mains supply with a higher voltage than for which it is rated, e.g. when running Japanese 100 V appliances off the UK 240 V mains.

Dave, from what I hear the majority of ALT jobs are no longer handled by JET anymore, especially in the cities. ALT positions are now mostly contracted out to dispatch agencies like Interac and Westgate, and don't pay all that well anymore compared to JET as the agencies take their cut from what the Boards of Education pay.

JET still handles a lot of the really rural placements, but almost none at all in Tokyo or Osaka for example.

With your degree and age, Ian, you could actually get a proper working visa but it seems that programme you are coming on isn't an ordinary job placement.

Make sure you will be paid properly- full time ALTs and eikaiwa teachers usually start out on around 250,000 these days, although the base rate has been dropping slowly. Even if you only have to teach a couple of lessons a day, if you are required to be at the school all day that is considered full-time.

IF you end up working full time hours and being paid a lot less than that you might want to look at finding a new job that will sponsor you for a proper visa, although as mentioned elsewhere the collapse of Nova will make finding jobs difficult for a while.