I was in Okinawa for 6 months and I loved it. I want to move somewhere in japan when I get out of the military. Of course I'll learn how to speak Japanese in school first. I was reading that finding a job and gaining your citizenship there is quite difficult. Have any Americans or other foreigners ever moved to japan? What was your experience like?

E/ also, is being able to read and write Japanese curial? Because I saw a lot of English sub titles under just about every road sign etc

This post was edited by jimtheflow on Jul 15 2012 02:12pm

it's amazing in japan.
their technology are farther advanced than the u.s.

For sure it is. What was the transition like moving from (?) to japan?

I dunno man i think it's better off living in the states. well the economies bad, (well its bad all over the place). So unless you want to dive into a culture and learn a new language I suggest taking your ass back to the states.
Nothing personal. If you want to teach English in Japan, that's fine too imo. I'm sure there alot of job openings but it will be tough. U should really dig deep and find what you want to do as a living, and what drives u to become a better person.

This post was edited by Chikin9gari on Jul 16 2012 09:39am

you should be somewhat fluent in japanese before you move (you'll need to be able to read/wright aswell). Japanese is a pretty easy language once you get past a few tough barriers, but it takes time to learn it.

The english subtitles you saw were just there for tourists, you need to be able to read hiragana, katakana and almost 2k kanjis to live your everyday life there. Like I said, the language takes time to learn... but really, it's not as hard as it looks like once you get past a few months of learning, it just requires a bit of work every day.

You might find this interesting:

http://www.jetprogramme.org/e/introduction/index.html

many of the people that are accepted in the programme end up staying in Japan

nvm

This post was edited by zarkadon on Jul 19 2012 03:31pm

I'll be applying to the jet programme this fall I think about it everyday.

Learning hiragana and katakana is the easy part. Memorizing 2000 kanji has proven to be hard and I can gather that it takes a few years (it's the same as learning whole words in english).. I'm only at about 100 at the moment and started teaching myself in the fall.

yeah, hiragana and katakana are easy to learn but kanjis are a pain in the ass, mainly because a same kanji can be pronounce in many different ways, unlike chinese where 99% of the hanzi (kanjis) have only one possible pronounciation.

The tons of exceptions in japanese and the different levels of formality the language has, are also pretty annoying. But other than that, it's a pretty simple language; I find that asian languages start off hard but then become a lot easier, while the western ones are the opposite because there is a lot more gammar.

gl with your jet programme application, I'm considering applying for one too in a couple of years

You should definitely do it! Out of the people I know who have done it, all say they would do it again/want to do it again lol

If you're curious about it, you should check out myargonauts on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/myargonauts?feature=results%5Fmain
He has a TON of useful information about the jet program. He's an alumni who ended his 4th (or 5th?; whatever the max is) with jet last semester and now teaches english at a university in Japan. You can also add him on facebook. If you have any questions he's very resourceful and always gets to them!

This post was edited by getinchopper on Jul 20 2012 08:03am

thanks for linking me to him

I have stuff to do on this side of the world for the next 3 years, I want to apply then, but 3 years from now is a bit far away, so things might come up or change... meanwhile I'll continue learning japanese, just in case