Unlucky wrote:Master Gunner wrote:Lyinginbedmon wrote:Victoria, British Columbia.
This with the crew just 'cos, well, they're doing what I dream of.
That or Tokyo Japan just for the culture. DAMN though Japanese looks annoying to learn, whole new writing\reading system to boot as well as the spoken. Urg. Not to mention the different dialects, which one to pick!?
If you've got a university degree, speak English as your native language, and are fairly good at English language grammar and composition it is obscenely easy to go live in Japan. You don't really need to know any Japanese, any English language school you sign up with will help you with basic things (like muddling through rent and the like) and in most urban areas you can get by with pointing, a few words, maybe a phrasebook. I've seen it done. My friend's husband has been living there for almost three years and he speaks about ten words of absolutely abysmal Japanese.
Also, Japanese dialects are really not that distinct. Learn standard Tokyo Japanese and you'll be understood everywhere. "Dialects" in Japanese are a lot like accents in English.
I lived in Japan for a year. While I do miss it... my sleepy neighborhood in Shiraitodai, Satrudays in Ikebukuro, the magnificent public transportation... what I don't miss is the loneliness and lack of reading material. You're less likely to get lonely as a boy, though, hehe. If you have a degree and are serious about wanting to go to Japan, PM me. I can put you in touch with the various services my friends used to get their jobs.