Jump to content
SAU Community

Q & A about moving to Japan/teaching in Japan (cont. from Rezz`s photo diary)


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 154
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I lived in country Mie-ken (west of Nagoya, near Suzuka Circuit :D) in a town called Iga-Ueno for a year contract job teaching kids English back in '00/'01 and for my first job in Japan... it was good. It was REALLY boring during the week/weeknights, and on the weekend I'd go back to Osaka to meet friends... well practically every weekend. But on the bright side I could save about $11,000 that year (the exchange rate was fookin good back then!) and I got over my phobia of speaking Japanese out loud.

I was the only gaijin in that town for about 6 months, and was told by one of the obasans (old ladies) that I was somewhat of a celebrity, I was often brought up in conversation??? Wierd, but it really hardened me to the reality that Japanese STARE at you again and again, it's in their genes.

Yeah, you get used to the staring...besides, it does kinda make you feel like a celbrity ;)

Fortunately for me, my area is being rapidly developed...and what was once a very rural town with absolutely nothing in the way of things to do/entertainment, is now becoming a busy city. In September, my town and 2 neighbouring ones will merge to become a BIG city (relatively speaking, it'll be around 1/50th the size of Yokohama or something like that) but big for Yamanashi.

So I expect it won't be long before I have to endure traffic lights spaced at 50m intervals! :D

How are the older generation in the country to gaijin? Are they mistrusting, or are they like all old folk and welcoming and fuss over you? :D

And what was the speaking jap phobia about? Just self-concious about speaking it? ;)

I was a bit like that... but I see my jap lecturer in my normal work day here at the uni, so we always greet each in nihon-ga and have a bit of a chat...

Small side story... we were all chatting about anime one day, I brought in a usb drive with Macross Zero, Area 88 and a few others... in the break, one of the other students played a bit with the piano in the lecture room... the sensei came over, sat down and said 'I wonder if the fingers remember...' and belted out the entire Astroboy theme song... ;)

The amusing part is he's this dumpy quiet little guy, you wouldn't pick him for a musician...

all of my neighbours are senior citizens...indeed, I and my family are the youngest group in my immediate area. When we first moved in we got a bit of a cold reception...not unfriendly, but not exactly "a welcome to the neighbourhood" kinda deal either. I think we were the first group of gaijins to move into the area. Starting up a school, promoting it and pitching it as a "benefit to the local community" seemed to help...

With time, most of them have warmed up...and now they're quite a friendly bunch. We're always invited to local events (which isn't always such a good thing since many of them involve "community work"! :)) and my eldest son often hangs out with the neighbours in their garden.

Being one of very few gaijins in my area, and working at just about every yochien there is, has meant that over time I and my family have become somewhat well known. Now it's almost impossible for me to go out without bumping into someone whom I know, or more commonly knows me. It can be fun, but tiring at times...now I've gotten to the point whereupon walking into the local supermarket I've started counting the seconds before I hear "ディビット先生!!" shouted out by some kid :(:)

My 2 yens worth.

wah, my hiragani/kanji reading is terrible, no idea what that means... I'll assume it means 'Get out, you damn gaijin!' :)

Supermarkets... that's one thing I cannot wait for... shopping, the new food products, the drinks, the candy, the fast food, bento boxes.

My stomach is almost as much in charge of me as the upper brain and lower brain. :(

It says "deibito sensei" , or in English: "David Teacher" :)

I find going to supermarkets entertainment in itself :) The only downside, the bill when you get to the checkout! :( Food in Japan is expensive, especially fresh fruit....

and cereal. Can't recall the last time I ate cereal for breakfast!

Cereal's expensive? Gawd... one of my main addictions in life is cereal... http://www.emptybowl.com is one of my favourite sites. :(

I figured that fresh produce would be expensive... especially those bloody square watermelons... $150aud for one. :freak:

http://www.teachinjapan.com/

Nova apparently will take your preferences into account and try to get you close to where you want, if a position is available.

I want to live... er... everywhere. I'd like to try a bit of everything... maybe two years, one in the boonies, one in tokyo. :(

OK just to be a little different from every one else posting...

I live in Osaka and find that this whole dont lock doors and no crime thing just aint the case. I used to live in Richmond Melbourne which is pretty bad for crime. And I think its about the same here, if not worse. :(

Nova will employ you as part time IF you have atleast one year of tertiary education, that is either uni or TAFE.

As for Nova and your preference Pffft put down where you DONT want to go coz that way you wont end up being there!! LOL

Nova take into account where you want to go... but for example I requsted to work near a placed called takenotsuka on the outskirts of tokyo near saitma prefecture and I am living in Chiba 1.5 hours from where I requested.

I asked to be placed in Osaka, greater Osaka, Kobe, Nara, Kyoto anywhere near Kansai. I end up in Kochi about 6 hours away on another furken island!!!

edit* BTW I forgot to mention they didnt tell me this fact till one week before I was leaving and had already quit my job and booked my airline ticket. NOT HAPPY JAN!

I also have work mates who wanted Tokyo and are in Osaka. I think your preference is pretty far down on their list of whats important. You can transfer though but it usually takes some time.

Akeenan you were damn lucky!

Streeter you're in Kochi? It says Osaka as your location, and me and Troy wanted to hook up for some car fun, but it seems you have to go to great effort to get here?

Kochi is Shikoku right? Damn, tough break if you wanted to work in Osaka... :)

I started in Kochi on Shikoku Island about a year ago. Its not such a bad place but as I think you mentioned in one of your other posts about country towns/areas it is really dead during the week and to get any real action you need to head to a big city (which is easier said than done when you are on a small island!!) lol

but I am now in Osaka and have been for the past 4-5 months. Alot more fun here but must of really lucked out with the area as crime is pretty bad here :)

Right, cross off Osaka's crime areas then.... are there any truly horrible places to avoid in Japan to live? At the moment, I'm pretty much ready to live anywhere, because it's all Japan.

Streeter, what kind of crime is it there? Anything and everything? Dangerous to walk the streets at night?

Umm to tell you the truth some pretty horrible stuff happened just recently and I would prefer not to go into it :)

I feel safe as I am about 6 foot and about 75kg... LOL I know that aint big but it is for here, plus being a gaigin you are labled as a bit of a looney.

But yeah lets just say my wife doesnt feel safe at all anymore. :(

not to mention I have had a heap of stuff stolen from my car, and before you assume I was leaving valuables in the car I am talking about unbolting and stealing my bride seat!!! RRRRr

also my scooter got its ignition key all mashed coz some prick was trying to pick the lock. Luckily they failed but still now the ignition lock is all screwy :)

worst thing is all of the crime I have experienced is with in a 200metre radius of my house! the car and the scooter where parked at home!

And yeah Osaka has the highest rate of theft etc in Japan... or so the cops say :/

Kerist... I'm 6'3" and 110kg, people might be frightened of me. :jk:

Hmmmm... I thought (mistakenly it seems) that japan was fairly mild for crime, that it was safe to walk the streets at night, etc.

lol no joke... they will be scared. If I wave at little kids they some times burst into tears!! hahahaha

I dont think you will have to worry about muggings etc but I wouldnt leave anything lying around in Osaka thats for sure!

On the other hand... maybe there'll be some kawaii girls who like big gaijin. :)

It's a shame there's crime at all... must be western influence on younger generation... I mean you always had the Yakuza, etc... but from all reports they weren't/arent' as... animal... as some of the people we have in australia. Did you guys here about the guy who tried to rob the security guard here last week? 25 year old went at a 42 year old woman with a RSL/local pub's pokies takings with knuckledusters... she's blind in one eye, fractured skull/eyesocket, etc... she shot him, and now the family of the dead guy wants revenge. Just crazy.

But anyway, yes, japan. I can't wait to go. Even a bit of crime won't spoil it for me. As long as there are vending machines with drinks and food I've never seen, weird engrish everywhere, and R33 GTR's that cost $20k aud and can come back with me under personal import... then I'm perfectly happy. :)

Speaking of which, was doing somework in the car today, found some wadded up paper in the dash, turned out to be an Autobac's small shopping bag. :(

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Well, that's kinda the point. The calipers might interfere with the inside of the barrels 16" rims are only about 14" inside the barrels, which is ~350mm, and 334mm rotors only leave about 8mm outboard for the caliper before you get to 350, And.... that;s not gunna be enough. If the rims have a larger ID than that, you might sneak it in. I'd be putting a measuring stick inside the wheel and eyeballing the extra required for the caliper outboard of the rotor before committing to bolting it all on.
    • OK, so again it has been a bit of a break but it was around researching what had been done since I didn't have access to Neil's records and not everything is obvious without pulling stuff apart. Happily the guy who assembled the engine had kept reasonable records, so we now know the final spec is: Bottom end: Standard block and crank Ross 86.5mm forgies, 9:1 compression Spool forged rods Standard main bolts Oil pump Spool billet gears in standard housing Aeroflow extended and baffled sump Head Freshly rebuilt standard head with new 80lb valve springs Mild porting/port match Head oil feed restrictor VCT disabled Tighe 805C reground cams (255 duration, 8.93 lift)  Adjustable cam gears on inlet/exhaust Standard head bolts, gasket not confirmed but assumed MLS External 555cc Nismo injectors Z32 AFM Bosch 023 Intank fuel pump Garret 2871 (factory housings and manifold) Hypertune FFP plenum with standard throttle   Time to book in a trip to Unigroup
    • I forgot about my shiny new plates!
    • Well, apparently they do fit, however this wont be a problem if not because the car will be stationary while i do the suspension work. I was just going to use the 16's to roll the old girl around if I needed to. I just need to get the E90 back on the road first. Yes! I'm a believer! 🙌 So, I contacted them because the site kinda sucks and I was really confused about what I'd need. They put together a package for me and because I was spraying all the seat surfaces and not doing spot fixes I decided not to send them a headrest to colour match, I just used their colour on file (and it was spot on).  I got some heavy duty cleaner, 1L of colour, a small bottle of dye hardener and a small bottle of the dye top coat. I also got a spray gun as I needed a larger nozzle than the gun I had and it was only $40 extra. From memory the total was ~$450 ish. Its not cheap but the result is awesome. They did add repair bits and pieces to the quote originally and the cost came down significantly when I said I didn't need any repair products. I did it over a weekend. The only issues I had were my own; I forgot to mix the hardener into the dye two coats but I had enough dye for 2 more coats with the hardener. I also just used up all the dye because why not and i rushed the last coat which gave me some runs. Thankfully the runs are under the headrests. The gun pattern wasn't great, very round and would have been better if it was a line. It made it a little tricky to get consistent coverage and I think having done the extra coats probably helped conceal any coverage issues. I contacted them again a few months later so I could get our X5 done (who the f**k thought white leather was a good idea for a family car?!) and they said they had some training to do in Sydney and I could get a reduced rate on the leather fix in the X5 if I let them demo their product on our car. So I agreed. When I took Bec in the E39 to pick it up, I showed them the job I'd done in my car and they were all (students included) really impressed. Note that they said the runs I created could be fixed easily at the time with a brush or an air compressor gun. So, now with the two cars done I can absolutely recommend Colourlock.  I'll take pics of both interiors and create a new thread.
    • Power is fed to the ECU when the ignition switch is switched to IGN, at terminal 58. That same wire also connects to the ECCS relay to provide both the coil power and the contact side. When the ECU sees power at 58 it switches 16 to earth, which pulls the ECCS relay on, which feeds main power into the ECU and also to a bunch of other things. None of this is directly involved in the fuel pump - it just has to happen first. The ECU will pull terminal 18 to earth when it wants the fuel pump to run. This allows the fuel pump relay to pull in, which switches power on into the rest of the fuel pump control equipment. The fuel pump control regulator is controlled from terminal 104 on the ECU and is switched high or low depending on whether the ECU thinks the pump needs to run high or low. (I don't know which way around that is, and it really doesn't matter right now). The fuel pump control reg is really just a resistor that controls how the power through the pump goes to earth. Either straight to earth, or via the resistor. This part doesn't matter much to us today. The power to the fuel pump relay comes from one of the switched wires from the IGN switch and fusebox that is not shown off to the left of this page. That power runs the fuel pump relay coil and a number of other engine peripherals. Those peripherals don't really matter. All that matters is that there should be power available at the relay when the key is in the right position. At least - I think it's switched. If it's not switched, then power will be there all the time. Either way, if you don't have power there when you need it (ie, key on) then it won't work. The input-output switching side of the relay gains its power from a line similar (but not the same as) the one that feeds the ECU. SO I presume that is switched. Again, if there is not power there when you need it, then you have to look upstream. And... the upshot of all that? There is no "ground" at the fuel pump relay. Where you say: and say that pin 1 Black/Pink is ground, that is not true. The ECU trigger is AF73, is black/pink, and is the "ground". When the ECU says it is. The Blue/White wire is the "constant" 12V to power the relay's coil. And when I say "constant", I mean it may well only be on when the key is on. As I said above. So, when the ECU says not to be running the pump (which is any time after about 3s of switching on, with no crank signal or engine speed yet), then you should see 12V at both 1 and 2. Because the 12V will be all the way up to the ECU terminal 18, waiting to be switched to ground. When the ECU switches the fuel pump on, then AF73 should go to ~0V, having been switched to ground and the voltage drop now occurring over the relay coil. 3 & 5 are easy. 5 is the other "constant" 12V, that may or may not be constant but will very much want to be there when the key is on. Same as above. 3 goes to the pump. There should never be 12V visible at 3 unless the relay is pulled in. As to where the immobiliser might have been spliced into all this.... It will either have to be on wire AF70 or AF71, whichever is most accessible near the alarm. Given that all those wires run from the engine bay fusebox or the ECU, via the driver's area to the rear of the car, it could really be either. AF70 will be the same colour from the appropriate fuse all the way to the pump. If it has been cut and is dangling, you should be able to see that  in that area somewhere. Same with AF71.   You really should be able to force the pump to run. Just jump 12V onto AF72 and it should go. That will prove that the pump itself is willing to go along with you when you sort out the upstream. You really should be able to force the fuel pump relay on. Just short AF73 to earth when the key is on. If the pump runs, then the relay is fine, and all the power up to both inputs on the relay is fine. If it doesn't run (and given that you checked the relay itself actually works) then one or both of AF70 and AF71 are not bringing power to the game.
×
×
  • Create New...