*LOACH*

Thanks mate, will probably go for the ALT job - even though I do get lots of holidays with it I also get less pay during those months. Probably be good to have experience at both ALT and Eikaiwa for long term job prospects. (I have a bit over a year of Eikaiwa). Can I ask which company you are an ALT with? .....PM me if you prefer Yeah I went snowboarding in Takasu this January - awesome place. Sadly I am not an ambiturner when it comes to snowboarding, took most of the day before I could turn right without using my face as a snowplough.

Any advice on which job you would choose: Eikaiwa job (Shizuoka) ALT (assistant language teacher) (Gifu) Pay and working hours are virtually the same. Apartment may be better in Shizuoka but not confirmed. ALT job - big company, Eikaiwa - small company Thanks in advance

I definately wouldnt risk it either but I thought they were non interference, from what I have been told. I realise the value of mates stories is not so high but I did have a mate who lost an idler guide or pulley (cant remember which) while driving so the timing was gone and he didnt have any valve/piston contact. That was on an RB30 SOHC though so it might be different (head was shaved a fair bit though so standard RB30s must have heaps of clearance).

Says to change your timing belt every 100 000kms. I beleive all RBs are none interference engines so its not the end of the world if it snaps but still you probably wanna change it if you dunno how old it is.

How did I get a job here? I dont fit any of those prerequisites?? Mr Keets will back me up - I am ugly, have an Aussie accent and am dumb as a....well I am not really smart enough to think of a humorous and appropriate metaphor so lets just assume I inserted one

I dont think it really works that way. With the massive turnover of teachers and the amount of resumes companies get when they advertise for jobs I am pretty sure they cull all non native speakers straight away. It doesnt matter how good your English speaking or teaching ability is if you arent a native speaker it will be much more difficult to find a job, you wont be able to get an interview to demonstrate that ability. Have a look at the positions advertised for English teachers - I cant remember one ever saying anything other than must be a native speaker. That doesnt mean it is impossible to work in Japan just work on your strengths, if you are a native speaker of another language you may have more luck finding work as a teacher of that language. Although no other language is as popular as English as a second language there is still a market for other teachers especially Chinese and Korean. Also there are plenty of schools that teach more than one language so if you were promoting yourself as a native Chinese speaker but had good English speaking skills as well it would be much easier to find a job. From what I have heard CELTA and ESL courses arent always a good thing to have as some of the bigger eikaiwa companies want you to teach by their method. In addition to get a highly regarded CELTA or ESL qualification costs thousands of dollars and is quite intensive (you can do the online courses etc which are cheap and quick but they may not be of any value at all). Anyway that is my 2 cents and may not be worth even that

Toyoake-shi next to Midori-ku Nagoya, not exactly close to Irago but if you find yourself around Nagoya drop me an email [email protected] to meet up for a beer or whatever.

Thanks elrodeo666, yeah I am Aussie so I will get it done and buy a vehicle as soon as my bank stops doing a Futenma on me - ie dropping a massive load of unwanted mess on it. Another rate rise - 2 rises in 7 weeks - love your work. Anyway thanks again guys and sorry for hijacking your thread Boosted Mayhem

Thanks mate will do. Do you have a link for the cap club by any chance? Saves me from spending ages from trying to read what all the search results are on about.

Thanks. You should try to get your post count over ten by answering questions critical to the forum, the motoring community and the world in general. So how was the weather in your area today?

Thanks mate, check your inbox for a PM when you get a chance

Money - banks keep raising the interest rate on my mortgage in Australia - rent can only do so much. *talks to right foot* soon my pretty, soon you will feel cold steel. Damn that is cheap for an MR2 - does he ever sell Cappucinos, Beats or Vivios - I like Kei car tax exemptions. And there is nothing to stop you from whacking a twin turbo LS1 in there after you have a Cappucino- well nothing except I will have to have the accelerator and brake pedal in the drivers footwell, the clutch pedal in the passengers footwell and I will have to straddle the gearbox while yelling "yeehaa" as per Dr. Strangelove. Also my International license ran out last month (I still have my Aussie one though) can you get one while here or do you have to return to your country to get it?

Aichi-ken, I struggle daily with the emotional burden of having no car in this country to do skids in or modify. The mama chari is better than nothing but its a single spinner and you can only get so much top speed increase by changing the front basket.

You might not have a lot of luck not being a native speaker if you want to teach English. Jobs are really hard to come by at the moment, I was looking for somewhere different to work at the start of the school year (when most jobs are advertised/filled) and only got one job offer even though I applied for many, have a years experience in Eikaiwa, speak a bit of Japanese, have a long visa and am a native speaker. Another guy I know applied for a job and there were 4000 applicants, admittedly it was for a great job but still it gives you an idea of the competition there is nowadays with the economy being so bad in Japan.

That time of the year is an awesome time of the year for festivals mate. Depends where you are planning to go and what type of things you are interested in seeing as to where people will recommend.

If you are on Facebook do a search for a group. There is a tuning workshop in Nagoya owned by an Australian/American or something or other. His workshop organises track days (I think in Shizuoka but I cant remember and I dont have Facebook anymore) and he might be able to point you in the right direction for the area you end up moving to.

I absolutely agree with this, I have been here for a year and the amount of times I go somewhere all ready with what to stay in Japanese and just get talked at in English, conversely even though I have studied heaps since I have been here there are still times when people will will talk to me in Japanese for several sentences and I wont have a clue what the meaning of one of the words is, makes studying Japanese for a short trip a waste of time. Learn how to say hello and thank you and people will appreciate it. Any more is for living here. In which case I highly recommend learning hiragana even if you never want to write as it really helped me with pronunciation and forming words.

15 - Rear wiper 16 - as elrodeo666 said 17 - Skyline sound system 18 - Katakana is airbags, I havent learned those kanji yet though sorry

Thanks enormously mate. Will do my best.

Awesome thanks for the info. I looked the website up on google but if the one I found is it, then it looks like it has been down for a while. Does [email protected] sound like an addy you used to contact them?

yeah it was awesome in that matt black, I really liked the RX7s and old Z cars too. There were many trikes on display aswell, dunno why, I havent seen many on the road in Aichi - uncountably large amounts of done up bikes with what sounds like open exhausts though - so loud makes a Harley sound like a Tesla

See ya round mate

more pics

Thanks for the reply Gust as it helped convince me to go, it was great with quite a few cars that were at Osaka but many that werent. Here are a few photos, sorry about the quality. I am no Beer Baron or Mr Keets. Some would probably say even a mountain gorilla recently removed from its natural habitat could have taken better shots by randomly punching the camera. Also sorry about the size I only went this morning and am putting them on at the work PC. Will put some more on a bit later- including some Skylines

Is anyone going to Nagoya Autotrend this year? Any one been before? Is it worth going after Osaka Automesse or is it going to be pretty much the same stuff but in a different city? Cheers