HOW DEY DO DAT?!

With my visa application materials under review and my plane ticket in hand, I am (mostly) ready to leave the country. It's been a hectic few weeks, and I'm looking at a few more before it all pays off. It's been educational, to say the least. To those of you who wish to follow a similar path, here are the steps I have taken and the obstacles I have encountered.

Oh, and if you don't have a passport, start working on that now. Click here to get started.

When Jessica and I began the process of finding a job in Japan, the first thing on our list was to revise and clean up our old resumes. Our new resumes include everything you would expect to see on a CV (curriculum vitae, same dif), with a couple of minor changes.

Adding the United States' country code (+1) to all telephone numbers listed in the document is a great way to let potential foreign employers know that you are worldly enough to acknowledge the difference in dialing numbers internationally versus domestically. It's a very small thing, and likely won't make a difference in ultimately getting the job, but it looks good.

It is also a good practice to list not only your secondary and post-secondary education (high school and college) but your primary education as well, including elementary school and junior high school. While this is not nearly as important in the American job market, the Japanese education system has given particular significance to every level of schooling. Also, your employer will want to know that you have completed all of your schooling in an English-speaking country.

Oh, and no personal references. Act like a pro; keep it professional.

After polishing our resumes, a well-worded if standardized cover letter was next. In this, basically just sell yourself like a product to your potential employers. Play up your goals and strengths, no matter how minor. Everything counts. When you're all done, just plug in the name of the school you're submitting to. Example: "I am an ideal candidate for the position of English instructor at [insert school here] because blah, blah, blah..."

Perhaps I haven't been too clear as to why standardizing your cover letter is so important. Consider this: Jessica and I contacted at least 50 schools, submitted resumes and cover letters to 40 or so of them, filled out follow-up employment applications for three of them, and were ultimately interviewed and offered jobs by only one school. Keep in mind that we were trying to get hired as a couple, which is twice as hard. Let's do the math, assuming you're trying to get a job by yourself: 50 applications, divided by the two of us. That still comes out to one job offer in 25 resumes and cover letters submitted. And finally, my point: do you really want to write 25 unique cover letters for each school you apply to, only to get one job offer? Didn't think so.

Also, many schools will request a waist-up, professional attire photograph and a scanned image of your passport I.D. page (and possibly your driver's license) with your application materials.

Now you're probably wondering how we contacted the schools in the first place. Well, friends, e-mail is just magic like that. Although Jess and I used many online resources to find schools to contact, we discovered that most of them were a waste of time. The two greatest aides in our job hunt were these two sites: All About Teaching English in Japan and O-Hayo Sensei. AATEJ is really great for all of your FAQs. They have an answer for almost everything. They also have job postings, but we've found that Ohayo Sensei's twice-monthly publication is a much richer resource for finding fresh job openings. Between these two sites, you will find a job.

For us, being contacted for a Skype interview meant getting the job, as we were pretty much offered the jobs in the interview. However, this will not always be the case. If they want to interview you, then they think they want you; it's your job to prove them right.

So, now that you've been interviewed and hired, what's next? Our next step was to gather materials for our work visa application. This included 3 x 4 cm photos of our faces, color copies of our passport I.D. pages, and notarized color copies of our university diplomas (where the notary has written "This is a true copy of the original which I have sighted this date."). If you are like me and have yet to actually graduate college upon reaching this step, a signed statement from your school's registrar stating your pending graduation date, as long as it is within the visa processing time, will suffice. A degree is required for all foreign long-term visa applicants. Please note that if you are unable to have your diploma in-hand before leaving the country, a second document from your school's registrar will be required, stating that you have officially graduated and will receive your degree when it is ready. All application materials are usually sent to the hiring school, and they will submit them to immigrations on your behalf.

Now that you have applied for your visa, you don't just wait for it to show up in your mailbox. What you will receive upon successful application is a Certificate of Eligibility. With this, you must travel to the closest Japanese embassy (we are fortunate enough to have one in Nashville) and trade your certificate for an honest-to-goodness work visa. With this and your passport in hand, you are ready to go to Japan!

I hope this has been helpful. I'm always willing to answer questions if you shoot me a line. I tried to tackle the big stuff and some of the confusing stuff, but keep in mind that this is one experience. I imagine my next post will be the first from my new home in Tsukuba! Wish me luck!

THE HILLS ARE ALIVE

My first "favorite band" was The Beatles. I had decided this at some point in seventh grade. I suppose the peer pressure of actually embracing a band as my own had reached a tipping point. I recall at one point claiming Nickel Creek and Electric Six as my two favorite bands. Clearly, it's gotten more complicated since junior high.

Nowadays it would be hard to pick favorites. Instead, I'll give you the five bands I listened to the most in 2009: Grizzly Bear, Mates of State, Animal Collective, Anathallo, and Minus the Bear. Maybe my tastes aren't as eclectic as I wish they were, but that is quickly changing.

Ever since Jess and I finally got serious about getting a job in Japan, I had no intention of stopping at just getting employed. In the past six months or so, I've done more historical research, learned more Japanese, watched more films, and listened to more music from Japan than I have in the entirety of my decade-long infatuation (embarrassing proof circa 2002) with the country.

Most of you out there are probably familiar with Japanese movies and television on some level, whether you're into the great samurai westerns from the 50s and 60s, or you're just an otaku. Either way, Western perception of Japanese visual culture is generally more favorable than their view of Japanese music. High sucrose bubblegum pop is probably what you have in mind, and you're not necessarily wrong. That dreck is legion over there. Here's a song (title means "Ponytail and Scrunchie") that reached #1 on Billboard's Japan Hot 100 a few weeks ago:



Dreadful. This particular group, AKB48, contains three groups (A, K, and B) of 16 girls each. That's a 48 member strong pop group, folks. They perform atrocities like the one above at daily performances in Tokyo's Akihabara district, sort of like Penn and Teller in Vegas. Or Garth Brooks.

I am happy to say that while this garbage exists, so does some really fantastic music.



This is Happy End, and they certainly make me happy. The song is "I Want to Hold You," the first track off of their 1971 album, KAZEMACHI ROMAN (Windy City Romance). Rolling Stone Japan was kind enough to rate this album as #1 on their first-ever list of the 100 greatest Japanese rock albums of all time, way back in...2007. Actually, if you have seen LOST IN TRANSLATION, you've already heard your first Happy End song! Rejoice!



Sound familiar?

These guys are the band apart, an indie group from Tokyo.



I loves them.

And to top it all off, here is YMCK, an 8-bit electronica group. Note the sick groove that kicks in at 0:15.



I could sit here all night and post music, but I'll leave you with this tiny sample instead. Here's a list of some of the other Japanese bands I've discovered recently: Asian Kung-Fu Generation, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Mr. Children, eastern youth, Number Girl, Maximum the Hormone, and POLYSICS. And there are so many more to discover!

By the time I actually get to Japan, I'll have a nice tall list of bands I want to see live!

ANTICIPATING JAPANESE T.V.

Okay, I'm lame. I couldn't even wait a whole 24 hours to post another blog.

Of all the ancient wonders and cultural enlightenment I am sure to experience while in Japan, nary a one do I anticipate more than Japanese television. During my 2006 visit to Numazu, I discovered that in a country with more eclectic television than you can shake a stick at, the variety show was still king. I especially love the American celebrities who show up from time to time and act completely awkward. I was fortunate enough to watch Daniel Powter appear on SMAPxSMAP, a variety show hosted by members of boy band SMAP, a group that has been together since 1988. Like every musician who appears on SMAPxSMAP, Mr. Powter was subjected to the rank and file awkward interview, topped off by having to share the stage with SMAP to perform his single, "Bad Day." Just so you understand how bad this is, SMAP really can't sing at all. Americans should feel fortunate that their *NSYNCs and Backstreet Boys could actually form harmonies, cause these guys wouldn't know where to begin, even after 22 years.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any clips of Daniel Powter's SMAPxSMAP episode. BSB is another story - here's a video of them performing "Shape of my Heart" with SMAP way back in 2000.



See what I mean?

On the other hand, American celebs can do really awesome things with Japanese T.V. Here's one of a series of commercials that was airing while I was in Japan. They feature Tommy Lee Jones selling Boss Coffee, one of many brands of canned coffee sold in Japan.



Great stuff. The coffee's not bad either.

And just for kicks, here's "Weird Al" Yankovic on a variety show back in 1984. Note the brilliant prat fall Al takes at 1:25. The rest is pretty awkward.



In any case, when you bring western celebrities into eastern media, something funny is always bound to happen. I'm so happy I will be there to witness it firsthand.

BABY STEPS

Well, we've been hired. An eikaiwa in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan has been kind enough to offer Jessica and I jobs teaching English. As we understand it, we will be instructing students aged six through adulthood. Jessica and I have been working on this for quite some time, and we are elated to finally get employment offers and begin our adventures in the Land of the Rising Sun!

From what we've learned, we know that Tsukuba was built specifically with scientific research in mind, making this relatively small town a super concentrated hub of progress and technology. Because so many researchers travel to Tsukuba from outside of Japan, there are more western accommodations than your average Japanese city. Jessica and I expect this will facilitate our transition to a Japanese lifestyle, which is paramount to our success in teaching and living abroad.

In preparation for this new venture, I have personally gone Japan-mad. Having memorized the entirety of hiragana and about 30 or so kanji in the past two weeks, my mind yet yearns to learn more. I just can't get enough of Japan right now, and I'm not even in the country yet! I've filled my Netflix instant queue with films spanning the entirety of Japanese cinema history, and I've discovered quite a few bands and artists that have already usurped some of my favorite musicians of all time, which I'll talk about in greater detail in a future post.

The transition is long and slow moving but necessary. We are currently preparing documents for our certificates of eligibility, which we will provide to the Japanese Consulate-General in Nashville in exchange for our work visas. In case you are interested in pursuing a similar path, there will be a future post detailing the entire process (from our experience, of course).

For the time being, we are moving back to our parents' homes in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. While there, we will work to save a bit more money, spend time with our families, and make the final preparations for our departure. We expect to say farewell to the U.S.A. in the first week or so of September.

The goal of this blog is mainly to keep our friends and loved ones privy to our exploits in Japan. We hope to cover many different topics ranging from Japanese entertainment (books, movies, music, video games, television) to informative articles on how you can follow in our footsteps and make the move to a fascinating new world!