Domo Arigatou Mistah Roboto

So I’m making a new blog about living in Japan! :) Seeing as how I didn’t really keep a blog during my travels to Europe last year, I thought I would make one now since I’ll be making a drastic change in my life and moving somewhere completely different.

*Cue Scenic Picture of Mt. Fuji*

Anyway I thought it would also be good to document all of the things I will be experiencing there so I can maybe help out other people who are also planning to move there or anyone who is just interested in anything japanese. :) That is of course if anyone will be reading this at all.

Before I get into anything “japanesey” (as Utada Hikaru puts it), let’s take a quick recap on how I ended up moving to Japan..well, I was working as a Fashion Designer for some local & foreign clothing brands back home. I mostly designed lingerie but I also designed women’s casual, Sleep wear, maternity and lounge wear.

Quite interesting, I know. But ever since I was in grade school I have always wanted to go to Japan to experience living there. I was completely fascinated with the culture. Of course, being a fan of manga and anime also helps. Haha! So I when I got back from my internship in Moldova, I sent out applications to some eikaiwas and schools.

Gundam in Odaiba

Let’s face it, you can’t work outside of eikaiwas and english schools if you can’t speak Japanese. And I only know basic Japanese; that’s not gonna cut it if I wanted to work in design (or any other industry for that matter) since they require you to know business japanese or at the least, conversational japanese.

Now, there are some companies outside of the english teaching industry who do hire people overseas and don’t require you to know Japanese. I know this because my cousin had the good fortune of getting hired in a japanese company’s international department and he didn’t know a lick of Japanese. But these are very rare, so most people settle on teaching english instead.

For me though, I have always wanted to teach when I was younger so it was a nice opportunity for me to give it a try. I was lucky enough to be able to secure a teaching position at a school in Hokkaido as an english kindergarten teacher which is super amazing because I love children! \(^w^)/

I would love to eventually go into design or maybe illustration in the future but for now I can just take my time in learning the language.

I’ll be making a post on the visa stuff I experienced or maybe a little something about some eikaiwas I applied to. :>