Thinking of re-locating to Japan

I have just graduated from uni with a history degree, and was talking to japanesse friends and it got me thinking. I am not starry eyed anime fan that thinks everything is fun and happyness, but the more I read about the culture, etc about Japan the more I realised that maybe I should consider moving out there? Any advice would be most apprieciated and pointers would be brillliant.

Thank you all again

knightlydark,

Your first move should be to sit down and read through the archives for this very forum, as yours is a very frequently asked question here. But in short, if you are a native-English speaker and have a university degree, then you have few hurdles in your way, so go for it!

Thank you for your reply, yes im a native english speaker. Looked through the archives here and got some of the answers to make a decision. But still not sure what are the first few steps I need to do? Any help would be most great. I'm going to go for it and take the chance.

if you're american the first thing to do is to come here and visit. visit a number of cities and decide which one has the style you like the best. don't restrict yourself just to big cities, visit smaller ones on the fringes as well.

if you decide you like living in japan, then come here full time. while you're visiting you should be applying at english schools around the country and doing interviews. with a degree it will not be hard to get a job. you can tell them you want to start 4 months down the road or whatever and then come back to japan when you're ready.

living in tokyo is very easy if you're used to a western style of life, you can lead a western life without any trouble in tokyo if you so desire - but you can also live like a japanese person if you wish. depends on how much you want to immerse yourself into things.

the farther away from cities you get the more japanese things get, and the better your japanese language will need to be.

My suggestion for a home is Kyoto. I lived their for a few months during study abroad with a host family that lived in a temple (Tenri Kyo). Kyoto mixes traditional japanese and western lifestyles.

As for housing see this page: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2200.html

happy new year. Applied for some jobs and looked at some appartments. Any advice would be good.