Moving to Japan (Officially)

To inject a personal post into a personal blog, it's time I mentioned that I am actually moving to Japan in the very near future.  As in Sunday.  ... Which is in a couple days.  Holy crap, where did the time go?

Applying for a Japanese Work VISA

Applying for a Japanese work visa involves a trick any alchemist would be proud of: transmuting a CoE (Certificate of Eligibility) into a VISA (Very Impressive Script of Actuation).  Okay, visa isn't actually an acronym, but you do need a CoE before you can get a working visa for Japan.

Click 'read more' to unravel the secrets of the secrety things!

The Cost of Moving to Japan

I did a post a little while ago which showed the cost to get to my then-current point of Interac's placement process.  The post was largely uninformative and probably a large disappointment to anyone thinking they could actually learn something.  Fortunately, I have decided to make it up to any and all future ALTs by creating a brand new chart!  So if you're thinking about applying to Interac and you're curious about how much money you need, from start to finish, look no further!

JET vs Interac: An Objective Comparison

When comparing JET vs Interac, there are many different factors to take into account.  For the curious, enterprising ALT, I'll give the short answer:  If money's your game and you're feeling lucky, apply to JET.  Or go to Las Vegas.  Is there really a life changing difference between JET and Interac?  No.

In the first collaborative post between myself and The Sushi Complex, read on for the full comparison between JET, a government-run ALT provider, and Interac, the representative for private ALT dispatch companies!

A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower (Henshall)

In preparation for Japan, and hopefully in an effort to avoid culture shock, I've decided on a collection of books to help me understand the country in which I'll hopefully be spending the next several years of my life.  I narrowed the important aspects of Japan down to only four:  History, Culture, Etiquette, and Politics.

For history, I chose Henshall's brief book A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower.  I needed a book with a good balance between detail and brevity, and Henshall seemed to fit the bill!  After finishing, I had a good understanding of Japan (probably as good as any Japanese major remembers a few years out of school, heh).

Interac Deferral: The Aftermath

The new count down has started--and this one will be a long one, I'm sure!  I just got an e-mail from Interac asking if I am still interesting in working for them in the Spring 2012 semester.  I obviously accepted!  You can check this post from time to time for changes as I will update this with every major milestone.

So if you accepted a job with Interac but got deferred, here's what you'll be looking at!

The Sushi Complex

The Sushi Complex: I am a foreigner. And according to one of my second grade students I am from Foreign. To him, Foreign is a country because all that exists...

A little one off update to anyone who may stumble across this page: My good friend Lauren recently set up her own blog. Not only has she already spent a year teaching in Korea, she has now moved on to Japan! I find her to be insightful and hilarious, so you might want to visit her blog until I move to Japan in March!

Happy reading!