fashionhayley

A lot of my friends and co-workers were also female hosts. However just to make it clear with hosting there is no sex involved, you get paid to sit and talk to men (and women) and make sure they drink a lot of expensive champagne and feel good about themselves. Japan has a strange tradition of paying people to talk to you and entertain you ala a Geisha. I had a lot of students who would just pay to have a chat because its a bit of fun for them. I felt a bit guilty because they are paying $100 to talk to me for 40 minutes, but they seemed to have fun. There is an interesting blog of a former female host (and alcoholic) Geisha, Interrupted. she has also written a book about her experience called Bar Flowers. The girls I knew who did it seemed to like it. I love the male hosts, who decided they should all have hair like Rod Stuart? Hilarious.

So in short

Gaba = easy job to get, shit pay, unpaid training great central location, don't sponsor visa, don't hire outside of Japan (although I think they are starting to hire from Brisbane soon)

ALT = mostly you can get an ALT job in Japan with no experience but you need a degree. They will sponsor your visa. ALT means Assistant Language Teacher at a primary school or high school. Somtimes hire in Australia. The JET program is a good program but you will end up in the countryside for 3 years teaching ALT...but its a good foot in the door.

If you get offered a job here in Australia go over, take the sponsored visa and then change to the job and location you want.

Does all this make sense?

Gaba are the only company who hire non native English speakers to teach English, so yes you can get a job at Gaba, anyone can! They are desperate. But they are the worst company to work for and they are not allowed to sponsor visors (they got banned from doing it because of dodgy sponsoring, as in they falsified degree certificates etc) Anyway if you go over to Japan on a working holiday visa, get a job at Gaba and get settled then find an ALT job or another eikaiwa job (eikaiwa means a school like Gaba or Nova or Geos or Berlitz) and then that company will sponsor you. That is the only way to guarantee you will be where you want to be, because you apply for a particular opening in that area. The Gaba experience will help you get the sponsored job. For Gaba you don't need experience in teaching. If you are hired in Australia by Berlitz or who ever hire in Australia now you also don't need experience. Also you don;t need experience for a lot of ALT jobs, having a degree is enough.

Um CryMeARiver that isn't true. I was on a working holiday visa and my tax was only 1.4%, I have my pay slips right here.

Books- Generally if you get hired in Australia they say you will go anywhere but you can put in a preference for a major city. I was the only person in my group of 20 new recruits from Melbourne who got their preference though.

However once you are in Japan you can apply for a transfer and move, or just move and get a different job. You can change jobs easily even though your company sponsors your visa they don't own you, so if you find a better job in a better location and they will sponsor you then do it. I think you can have 3 months in a block of not working for the company who sponsored you.

Oh and if you are on a working holiday visa you can just move, you don't need to be sponsored and if you just go over to Japan on that then you will get a job at Gaba and Gaba is only in major cities.

I'll be there on and off from January 2009 for 6 months and then forever from the end of 2009. I miss it so much but mostly I miss my friends, and my students. Can't wait can't wait can't wait.

I don't know about IMAX. Is the new batman out there yet? Normally movies come out a few months later there than western countries, maybe because they need to do subtitles and even dubbing. If it was out and they want to see it in English (no dubbing in Japanese) the best place to go would be the cinema in Roponggi at the Mori building. If they go on a Wednesday it is ladies day and ladies get half price tix. Also that cinema has the biggest screen in Tokyo and it seemed IMAX size anyway, at least to the TV sized screens at the cinemas in Shinjuku.

Himeji-jo is only a day trip yeah but its great.

Nara is amazing, your right K2. I loved my time in Nara, it was my fave spot in Japan outside of Tokyo.

I'm planning my April trip to Japan where I'm taking my mum and sister on their 1st ever o/s trip right now. They are super excited and so am I. We are doing 7 days in Tokyo and 7 days on the JR rail pass to Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, Himeji, Nara and Hiroshima and a few other spots. The new jetstar flights to Tokyo are so cheap so I'm paying for that for them and I'm paying for their JR rail pass (well my scholarship money is paying for them) My mum wants to see all the old stuff and museums and my sister wants to see cool shops, bars and fashion. I'm not sure how all that will go, my mum won't want to come with us always but she also is too scared to wonder around Tokyo on her own (she is slightly deaf and this is her first time o/s and she is older so it might get too much) Hmmm. Who knows but its still exciting!!!

I totally want to go to the cinema now. Is Tuesdays still $8?

When? Nara is AMAZING. You should also go to Himeji, because Himeji-jo is the most beautiful castle in Japan. Its near Osaka.