Going to Japan to study Japanese for a year

[warellis]

How're the locals treating you?

And what regular foods you're used to that are missing in Japan?

[Rokudaime]

The locals are nice.

I miss regular bread, since as a Norwegian I'm used to eating bread with cheese etc all the time. All the bread they have here in Japan is loaf in my eyes. Norwegian bread is dark, wholegrain, nutritious, and has a more solid texture. Japanese bread is white, has almost no grain, is very low on nutrition, and is really soft (eww)...It's pretty terrible to be honest, and doesn't really qualify as food for me...I actually finally found a special shop today though (funny you should ask today in that regard) that sells crisp bread, wholegrain bread rolls, and proper cheese (which is also hard to come by), so I feel like I'm finally saved from endless amounts of rice, soup and noodles! ^^

[Rokudaime]

Passed all the tests and made it to the next level of my Japanese studies again, which of course means a break, which of course means time to explore again. I was on my way to a train to go to Chiyoda to see a shrine and an imperial garden and stuff when I randomly came across this small cinema(?) in Shinjuku that specializes in anime. Apparently right now they're focusing on the Prisma Illya Phantasm thing:


They also have a cafe:


If you order the "combo set" for 800 yen, you apparently get this original A4 clear file of the three main girls with a large size soft drink:



And I guess you get one of these coaster cards for free as a present? Though which one you get seems to be random.


I'm not terribly interested myself, but might be cool for some.

[Rokudaime]

Went ahead and deleted my blog, since I never use it. I'm too lazy.

[Gray]

So how much do you have left? You leaving back for home in January or have you decided to stay longer?

[Rokudaime]

So I just realized I completely forgot about this thread. Anyway, after finishing a year of studies, I actually got a job as an English teacher at a language school in Osaka, but without going into more detail, it turned out to be one of Japan's infamous "black companies" (Google it if you don't know the term)... So I'm back home in Norway now. Things didn't go the way I wanted, something I was always aware might happen, but oh well, at least I tried. Maybe I'll try going back one day, but it won't be any time soon. Even without the Corona virus and the Olympics looming on the horizon, the experience left me pretty fed up with Japan, so I'm not in a hurry to go back and try to live there right now. All the cute girls sure were nice though, at least.

[hayate]

So I just realized I completely forgot about this thread. Anyway, after finishing a year of studies, I actually got a job as an English teacher at a language school in Osaka, but without going into more detail, it turned out to be one of Japan's infamous "black companies" (Google it if you don't know the term)... So I'm back home in Norway now. Things didn't go the way I wanted, something I was always aware might happen, but oh well, at least I tried. Maybe I'll try going back one day, but it won't be any time soon. Even without the Corona virus and the Olympics looming on the horizon, the experience left me pretty fed up with Japan, so I'm not in a hurry to go back and try to live there right now. All the cute girls sure were nice though, at least.

Yikes. Black companies are the worst.

Here's to hoping it did not ruin your overall experience. There are some good experiences there after all.

Will attempt to apply to Japan too for a caregiver position after the quarantine.

[Rokudaime]

Yikes. Black companies are the worst.

Here's to hoping it did not ruin your overall experience. There are some good experiences there after all.

Will attempt to apply to Japan too for a caregiver position after the quarantine.

Thanks! I had plenty of good experiences too, during my year of studying Japanese in Tokyo, even if I lacked money, and the food didn't agree with me. It was mostly the short time after that, in Osaka, that was really bad. When you do apply, let me know how things go, won't you?

[warellis]

Thanks! I had plenty of good experiences too, during my year of studying Japanese in Tokyo, even if I lacked money, and the food didn't agree with me. It was mostly the short time after that, in Osaka, that was really bad. When you do apply, let me know how things go, won't you?

That reallynsucks about the black company. How did you find out it was one?

Was your home there okay? What issues did you have with the food?

[kennystone]

Thank you for this topic! I was very interested to read your posts about the trip.

[harveyclafe]

Please, write as many as you can about studying in Japan. I am also going to go for studying to this country. Thanks in advance.

[Rokudaime]

Didn't realize some people still check this thread. I didn't just forget about the thread, lately I kind of forgot all about Beast's Lair in general too, really. My bad.

That reallynsucks about the black company. How did you find out it was one?

Was your home there okay? What issues did you have with the food?

I found out it was a black company the hard way, firsthand, when I worked there for a while. And my "home" was equally awful (filthy everywhere, dead cockroaches etc...I spent a long time cleaning up, and even then, it was super tiny, and had virtually no utensils or furniture...oh, and my bed was broken so badly that it literally collapsed one day while I was sleeping...That fuckin' hurt, and was a terrifying way to be woken up...). This was only during my short time in Osaka though. During my 1 year studies in Tokyo, my apartment was fine, if a tad on the expensive side. As for the food, I already explained that in an earlier post further up in this thread, so check that. Other things I can add is that I don't eat sushi, and I like neither takoyaki nor okonomiyaki, and while I definitely like ramen and katsudon, I got kind of fed up with eating it all the time (I miss ramen now though). Still love yakisoba though. I'm weird. If only I had more money while I was there, I could have gone and eaten yakiniku and stuff.

Thank you for this topic! I was very interested to read your posts about the trip.

You're welcome! Glad you liked it!

Please, write as many as you can about studying in Japan. I am also going to go for studying to this country. Thanks in advance.

You mean like general tips, and ups and downs, about studying there, or stuff like that? Well, some things really depend on where you end up studying. Like for example, I studied at a well known language school in Tokyo, which is very expensive, but other schools, and other places in Japan, might be significantly cheaper. Same with living costs. Tokyo is pretty costly. I tried to save up before going, but had bad luck with finding a full-time job, and after 4 years I eventually gave up and decided to just go for it and move to Japan, but I would definitely recommend saving up as much as possible before going, if you can, or look into schools in other places. You don't mention if you're going to study Japanese, or if you're going to study something else over there. If it's the latter, I guess your options are more set in stone. Regardless, where you end up impacts a lot of stuff. There are lots of dialects in Japan as well, some of which are significantly different from standard Japanese, so that's something that might pose a challenge depending on where you end up, if you're learning, or have learnt, standard Japanese. Other things, uh...I dunno, depending on where in the world you're from, many places in Japan might be really hot for you in the summer (obviously not a problem in Hokkaido).

If you meant like actual tips on studying (assuming you're talking about studying Japanese, I don't know what you're going to study), that's different from person to person, so it's harder to say. Some people in my class struggled with speaking and listening, but were great with reading and writing. Others, like me, were the opposite. Some were bad at everything. Some were good at everything. I was really good at speaking and listening, one of the best in my class(es), but I was god awful at kanji, and wrote very slowly, even when writing just hiragana. In general I studied really hard, more so than most, during my first three semesters, but I didn't practice kanji nearly as much as I should, especially considering I was bad at them, and inevitably I paid the price, as it got harder and harder to keep up. In my fourth and final semester I must admit I was fed up, and got lazy, and studied significantly less. But anyway, what you need to stay on top of depends on what you're good at. But I definitely recommend doing your homework, and practicing those kanji (write them a lot over and over, don't just read them and attempt to exclusively memorize them that way, like my lazy self did). Of course, the amount of homework you get really depends on the school you're going to. They vary a lot in difficulty and intensity. Some schools are very relaxed, and you may not even get any homework at all. Needless to say, my school was not like that at all, and was fairly strict, and gave us lots of homework, which they would be pretty demanding about us doing, despite us supposedly being adults free to make the choice on whether or not to do the homework, ourselves. Obviously with some students who just didn't give a fuck, the teachers gave up, and it also varied a lot depending on the teacher you got each semester (my teacher in the third semester was really strict), but in general they would nag you quite a bit about doing your homework. I did all of mine the first three semesters, but got lazy in the last one, as mentioned. The homework is very good practice, and helps you learn a lot though, so obviously they do it like that for a reason. In my school, we had tests in all categories (speaking, listening, reading, writing) for each level/semester, and if you got less than 70% overall at the end of that level, you would be allowed to retake the test you failed, but with a new test, a week after. If you were still lower than 70% after that, you had to spend the next semester retaking the previous level before being allowed to move on. If you failed again, you generally wouldn't be allowed to continue.

[Steve_12]

Thank you for continuing to leave interesting reviews!

[Rokudaime]

Thank you for continuing to leave interesting reviews!

You're welcome! Glad you liked 'em! (^_^)

[Steve_12]

Good luck to you in the future!

[Cypher Attic]

I find your description of Japanese bread hilarious because perfectly describes most American bread. I mean, we have whole grain and stuff but as far as I've heard most people think American bread is super sugary.

[Steve_12]

In general, I'm usually very suspicious of unfamiliar food)

[Araya's Dry Cleaner]

Japanese bread is an adapted food. The texture is probably closer to the native buns rather than the coarser, denser European bread.

It is not just a Japanese thing, go to any Chinese, Filipino, or Vietnamese bakery over here and you will see. It is an Asian thing.

They treat bread more as a dessert or snack rather than a daily staple food.

[Rokudaime]

Japanese bread is an adapted food. The texture is probably closer to the native buns rather than the coarser, denser European bread.

It is not just a Japanese thing, go to any Chinese, Filipino, or Vietnamese bakery over here and you will see. It is an Asian thing.

They treat bread more as a dessert or snack rather than a daily staple food.

Indeed. Which is pretty rough for a Norwegian like me, who's used to eating bread as a staple main food item, 2-3 times a day, every day.

[Rokudaime]

In case anyone from countries where bread isn't a staple diet are wondering exactly what the heck I've been talking about all this time, here are some pictures demonstrating the difference between Japanese and Norwegian bread:

Japanese bread 1:

Japanese bread 2:

Norwegian bread 1:

Norwegian bread 2:


As you can see, there's a pretty huge difference.