Read your post on http://www.vagabondish.com/female-foreign-japan/ and was amazed. What a true and vivid description! That’s good you had those experiences and felt drastically different culture which taught you, I believe, a lot of new things. And I would like personally thank you for spreading up this information to give some insights to people who still see Japan through pink glasses!

All your blogs are awesome. I will be your dedicated reader!

But seriously, as you probably know, most schools only hire in person. So you’re kinda limited yourself to only a handful of companies (and most of them are in rural Japan) by only applying from abroad.

Then again, what makes Japan a better country to work in than Korea, is that you can always get a job and a visa and then quit when you find another (better) job. Your visa is good for up to a year regardless of whether you quit or get fired. Plus you can work multiple jobs, which is always nice.

Thanks for posting Japan advice on my blog, btw. I know tons of teachers who go to a country without a pre-arranged contract and luck out, but I’ve never had the balls. My boyfriend and I are applying for positions together and it seems that in Japan, most schools only have one spot opening at a time. Damn economy. The hunt continues. I’m off to read your Japan posts and sigh with envy.

http://www.amazon.com/Bar-Flower-Decadently-Destructive-Nightclub/dp/0312368976

She was a hostess in Tokyo and she has a blog, which she doesn’t update anymore but she has a lot of info. about hostessing on it.

http://www.geisha-interrupted.typepad.com/

Also, you can check out Green-Eyed Geisha’s blog because she’s written about visiting host clubs in the past. She’s a good writer and her posts are funny but informative, too. You can find her blog at:

http://greeneyedgeisha.blogspot.com/

One good thing about working in Japan (versus Korea, for instance), is that your working Visa allows you to legally work a second job in other industries other than Education. So as long as you know at least a little Japanese, you can get a job as a bartender or waitress in neighborhoods where there are a lot of tourists or Expats. Check out Metropolis magazine, because they often post ads there.

http://metropolis.co.jp/

You can also tutor pretty easily there. It used to be that you could charge 5,000 yen per hour if you had some teaching experience or were just really good at marketing yourself. When I left though in May, I had to slash my rates to 3,000 yen in order to get students. There’s a lot of competition but if you’re female, it’s a lot easier. If you want some more info. on tutoring, just email me and I’d be happy to share some tips and advice on that. I tutored from time to time while I was there and found that it was easy and a great way to make some extra cash.

Hope this helps! And good luck…