Hey guys, welcome back to my Channel today
I'm going to be answering some of the most frequently asked questions that I get regarding living in Japan
moving to Japan, going to school here, and just things regarding
my experiences after living here for about 15 years now
I hope there's something interesting in this video for you
If you are planning on moving to Japan in the future yourself
or if you're just curious about what life is like here in Japan, so let's get started
I get asked this question all the time
"Is there any way we can live in Japan without teaching English?"
so teaching English is usually the profession of choice
for foreigners that come to live in Japan, just because it's a job that you can get here quite easily
even without any Japanese skill whatsoever
But actually I really recommend trying to get a student visa if you're interested in studying anything even just the Japanese language
You can get into a Japanese school, like a Japanese language school here
you'll get a student visa and you'll be able to live in Japan,
study Japanese and you will have the ability to work part-time if you apply for it
So that's the easiest way that comes to mind
For you guys to be able to live here without having to teach English
It is possible to get jobs in other fields, but in most cases obviously Japanese skill is going to be required
So as for jobs you can get without any Japanese skill
it's pretty limited and most people do start off as an English teacher and kind of branch out from there
after living here for a few years
Probably the second most commonly asked question I get is "Is it possible for a foreigner to get a job in Japan without a degree?"
So as many of you probably know
in most cases
it's required to have a
Bachelor's degree to get a full-time working position here in Japan. As for being able to get a job without a degree
it's actually not getting the job that is the hard part, many places will hire you without having a bachelor's degree
but it's getting the
working visa
which gives you permission to stay in Japan for a long period of time and to work a full-time job
That requires the degree. I do know one person
In all of my experience here in Japan
I do know one person that was able to get a working visa without a degree
But they did have lots of experience in their field
That is one way to get around it
If you have years of experience
In the field of the job that you're applying for, it could be possible to get a visa without that degree
However, if you are from a country that has the working holiday visa
it's very simple to get that visa and you don't need any degree whatsoever
That was the first visa I ever used when I came to Japan and I lived here for a year
But you're only allowed to work part-time on that visa, you can't have a full-time position
But that is how I managed to spend my first year in Japan. I'm very lucky as a Canadian we have that visa
Americans don't have that option, unfortunately
So again
I would suggest that you come over as
a student and kind of get used to living in Japan that way and if you decide you really like it
you could always finish your degree or do a whole degree at
a Japanese university like I did, which was a pretty cool experience
"Best onsens for new travelers coming to Japan in the future." Okay. I really recommend the Hoshino Resort chain
it's a chain of
Onsens all throughout Japan and each one kind of has its own theme. If you guys watched my vlogmas my day one vlogmas
episode was at one of these Hoshino resorts in Aomori
and it was apple themed because Aomori is famous for apples and
just the way they've designed their resorts it, they're just so beautiful
They're so nicely done and it's common to be able to rent a room that has a private bath in the room
So if you have tattoos
Or if you are just uncomfortable bathing with other people,
which I am in most cases, then it's cool that they offer those rooms with the private baths. They can be a little pricey
so it's more of like a splurgy thing that you would probably just do for one night, maybe two nights
but I really do recommend it and I think it's totally worth the money
"Who is Mark and how did you meet?" So you guys might have seen Mark in my videos
He pops in every once in a while probably because he's my one of my only friends up here in Morioka
Mark's one of my good friends we met about
I think it was four years,
three or four years ago now. I actually made a video about the day we met so if you're curious
about how that all happened I'll link that down below, but I was introduced by my previous boss on an English teaching job
I came up here and I went to visit my old school and Mark was a new teacher there
My boss is like oh you guys should hang out, Mark works at a magic bar, and it's really cool
You should go check it out, and we ended up spending the day together and we became friends
So yeah, Mark is one of my good friends. Not my boyfriend, as many of you think
"What's the hardest part about living in Japan?" I don't find too many things that challenging here actualy,
it's quite comfortable to live here. I don't struggle with the language at all
So I don't usually have any problems in that regard
Probably one of the oldest things I really don't like about living in Japan
is how thin the walls are, and how I can hear every single thing
my neighbors are doing it can just be the quietest thing. They can be like coughing or snoring
I hear their phone alarm go off in the morning. I hear every single conversation they have with their partner
So that's one thing that I don't like because I feel really self-conscious about watching movies
I feel like I have to have the volume down super low and I don't like that
So yeah
that would be the one thing. Kinda related to my last answer "Are people in Japanese apartments pretty
respectful as far as noise from neighbors goes or is it pretty much like the rest of the world where it is varies from person
to person?" I would say in general people are really respectful and quiet here because everybody knows that the walls are always so thin
In all my time in Japan,
I've only lived in one apartment that had thick enough walls that I didn't have to be like super careful about making noise
So, yeah, in general people are very respectful about it
But like I said, even though my neighbors aren't being particularly noisy, I can still hear every single thing that's going on
"We all know how much of a cat person you are,
do you think you'll ever get a dog too?"
I've never really had the urge to have a pet dog. If I was ever gonna get a pet, it would be a cat
100% but if for some reason
I felt like I really wanted a dog. There is one breed of dog that I've fallen in love with recently
I watched vlogs from a girl that lives in Vancouver. Her name's Melissa Merk and she has this adorable Aussie
I think the breed is called Aussie. The colors of the dog are just so beautiful. So that would be the dog
I would like to have if I did ever get a dog, but honestly, it probably won't happen
"What villagers are you current looking for in-game?" If you don't play Animal Crossing, this comment doesn't make any sense to you
But this is in reference to Animal Crossing the video game I've been playing a lot recently. I want Lolly
That's all I want in life. If I can get Lolly in my game, I will be forever happy
"You said you want to leave Japan in five years or so, in what country do you see yourself living?"
So yeah, I don't know how long I will stay here in Japan, but I don't want to stay here forever
I know that. I know that I don't want to settle down here and buy a house or anything
So in the future, I would like to move somewhere
where I don't speak the language 'cause I love learning new languages and I just love learning about new cultures, so it would probably
end up being somewhere in Europe. I thought it would be really cool to live in like Germany or Hungary,
Sweden
Honestly any place like that. Somewhere completely different that I haven't experienced before.
"Which has been your favorite video to shoot and why?" I would say
I have lots of fun times with my friends. I love the ones when I'm filming with my friends, but probably my favourite
experience in Japan that like translated into a really pretty video would probably be the Shimanami Kaido
Not many people watched that video and it was such a bummer
It was such a hard one to title because it was all just really about the scenery which isn't really, you know
intriguing or clickbaity in any way, but if you haven't seen that video, please do go watch it
the Shimanami Kaido is
a very beautiful area of Japan that I highly suggest you visit on your next trip here if possible.
"Are the tourist traps like Shinjuku, Skytree, etc worth seeing or are they overrated?" Honestly
all the like super famous touristy spots in Japan, I do think they're worth seeing. I don't find them like overly
touristy or cringy or anything? They're all really nice
And I think they would be worth your time, except for maybe the temple in Asakusa
I feel like they've made it just so touristy and like all the the souvenirs and stuff
they sell up near the temple just aren't really, like, quality
items and they're not things that you would normally see for sale in Japan. So it just feels very fake and like
fabricated
Sensō-ji temple, that's the name
Yeah
I wouldn't really recommend
going there but Asakusa itself is so beautiful and there's so many cool, like, traditional shops and
streets and tea shops and stuff, around that area
So the area itself is awesome, but maybe yes
Sensō-ji temple, not my favorite.
"Are a lot of the prebottled teas unsweetened. And what is your go-to favorite?"
So if you see a tea like this in a convenience store or a vending machine it will
not be sweetened. Green teas are never sweetened here in Japan, which is pretty cool because
overseas, you'll notice that lots of the green teas are sweetened. I feel like it doesn't need it.
You really get used to drinking it without any sweetness and it tastes a lot better
So yeah
Any of these green teas are never sweetened, lots of the black teas even, aren't sweetened. If there is one that has sugar in it
It will be clearly labeled
My go-to favorite at the moment is the soy milk tea that recently came out
I've been waiting for a soy milk tea for years. Milk tea was always my, like, go-to drink
Every time I bought a drink from the combini, or a vending machine
it would be milk tea and ever since I stopped eating dairy
I've really missed milk tea
But they brought it back now in a soy milk version and it tastes just like the original. It's amazing
"How is Morioka during Fall?" Morioka is probably at its peak during Fall
If you are planning to come up and visit the Iwate area I highly suggest you do it in the Fall because the leaves
are just amazing. I'll link a video down below that I did exploring the Hachimantai area,
which is a very mountainous area, near my house. They have hiking trails and the views up there are just spectacular
"Do you plan to get any more tattoos?" I don't have any planned
however, I'm so happy with the last one that I got that I really want to get another one from her
She's just such an amazing artist and even though I don't really have one in mind that I really want
I probably will think of another one to get
Just so I have an excuse to go back to her and get another piece of her art because she's just so freaking cool
"What's the worst thing that's happened to you while living in Japan?"
Okay, this is kind of funny because actually my, like, worst experience in Japan ever, happened during my first trip here, like
ages ago. I think I was 16 or 17 at the time. I was at my home stays' house. We were walking
behind the house. They had a huge
farmland, full of like rice fields and
we were walking through the rice fields and I got stung by a Japanese Hornet, the ones you hear about
and everybody tells you to avoid because it can be deadly and
extremely painful and I've gotten stung by probably every bee, wasp,
hornet, under the moon. Living in Canada, it's very common
to just go outside in bare feet when you're a kid and run around and that resulted in me getting stung by everything
But the Hornet is definitely on a new level of pain. It was crazy
It hurt so freakin much, but the pain quickly
disappeared and turned to like absolute shock and horror as
my homestay mother, like, instructed for me to lie on the ground and
proceeded to suck on my foot.
Didn't see that coming, didn't know what was going on. I didn't speak Japanese at the time so I couldn't ask her
what the hell she was doing. But when it was all over
my homestay sister who spoke a little bit of English
explained to me that the Japanese Hornets can be very dangerous and some people die from their sting
So my mom, my homestay mom,
was trying to suck the poison out of my foot so that I wouldn't have a horrible reaction to it
And I don't know if it's because she did that, or what, but I was fine, like besides the pain,
nothing horrible happened to me. So thank you awesome Japanese homestay mom
That was just like the most memorable
experience ever in Japan. I don't think I'll ever forget that day
"I'm planning a month-long trip to Japan. Once the world has gone back to some form of normality
Would you recommend Morioka as a place to visit?"
Um, yes,
especially if you're gonna be here for a whole month, that gives you plenty of time to explore Tokyo and
even go down to southern Japan for a bit and still have some time to come up here and see the north
I feel like it's always last on everybody's list, but it's so beautiful up here
And especially if you're here during the hot months of the Summer it is so much more comfortable up here
It's about 3 to 4 degrees cooler and less humid
And there's just so many pretty places to see, so yeah highly recommend
you come to Morioka, but not only Morioka, please explore the whole area. There's lots of beautiful
coastlines to see up in northern Japan along Aomori and
Iwate, so see the coastlines, come to Morioka, climb the mountains at Hachimantai. There's tons to see up here
So, yes, definitely, please come.
"What has been the most effective way for you to improve your Japanese language skills?" So I haven't been
studying Japanese for a long time, but back when I was trying to improve my language skills,
like the number one way would be to hang out with Japanese people. So, make some Japanese friends
I was so lucky at the time. I worked at a place that
toured Japanese exchange students around the city
So I met so many Japanese people and we kept in touch afterwards by
writing letters back and forth to each other, which was an amazing way for me to practice my Japanese
But now you guys have Twitter and all these cool things that I didn't have that then. So try and make some friends online
Chat with them,
in DMs, or just back and forth on Twitter, or on Instagram, leaving comments on their post
It's like such a cool way to practice your Japanese and just practice some basic phrases
So if you can make friends in person
that is the best, but now that you've got all these tools online that you can use, social media is an awesome way that I
would recommend to practice Japanese.
"What was your favorite experience meeting a local or unique person in Japan?"
I've been super lucky and I've met lots of cool Japanese people during my time here. Probably my favorite
relationship that I built up over the years was back when I was in university
I used to tutor English, and I was tutoring this high school boy and his mom was like
"Oh, I have a friend that would also like to take English classes from you.
Can I introduce you?" and it ended up being this lady in her 70s whose husband had recently died
and she was living alone in this huge house out in the countryside and
she invited me over to do English lessons with her once a week, and we actually became really good friends. She was super cool
She was an artist, her house was amazing. It was kind of like really modern. She was a sculptor,
so there are just these amazing sculptures all throughout her house. She had this gorgeous japanese-style garden
and yeah, we became really good friends, and she would take me out for road trips. We'd go out for lunch together
We'd do, like, barbecues in her backyard. Yeah, that was probably my favorite experience getting to know a local here in Japan
I need to go visit her. She lives down in Chiba Prefecture
so if I'm ever down there, I will certainly go say hi to her.
"What was your first night in Japan like? Where did you stay? What did you eat? etc"
All right going back to that homestay where I got swing by the Hornet
So my first night in Japan was there this farmhouse with my homestay family
There was a sister, a brother, a mom, a dad, and
grandparents as well. And they lived on a farm. They had cows and chickens and
I don't remember what we ate the first night,
but I do remember when they were giving me a house tour and we came to this room,
it was just a dirt floor and there was a hole in the middle of the floor and
the homestay sister was like "This is the toilet"
and I just started laughing cause, like, I thought she was kidding
She wasn't kidding. That was the only toilet in the whole house. It was just a hole in a dirt floor
I don't know why they didn't have a more modern toilet. I don't know if that's just a thing with farmhouses,
maybe they didn't have the proper plumbing system for it, but
Yeah, I remember that for my first night. That's for sure
"What's your favorite memory from when you first moved to Japan?
Was there a moment where you just fell in love with the country or a place there?"
Um, one of the memories
that I think really stands out in my mind because it was so different to what I was used to back in Canada,
was riding my bicycle to school every morning,
through the rice fields. So we lived in the farmhouse which was a little bit out of the way of the city
So it was about a 30 minute bike ride into high school every morning and
I hadn't ridden a bicycle in years
I think since I was a young child, so just riding a bike was new for me again
but the view of riding through the rice fields. It was just so like stereotypically Japanese. I loved it.
It was so pretty and that's definitely one of the things that made me fall in love with Japan
Alright guys that wraps up the Q&A for this time
I hope you learned something, or it was at least interesting to you hearing about my experiences living in Japan
I got so many questions this time that I was unable to answer all of them
So I'm gonna go back and look through your comments again and reply to some of them by typing
So if you left me a question go back maybe I will be able to answer it that way
Thanks so much for watching guys, and I will see you again very soon