# Niigata Prefecture Expats



## TheHitchcocks

I have accepted an offer to teach English in Japan in the Niigata Prefecture (city yet TBD). Any expats in this area that might have some tips regarding arriving and living in the area? Any shared experiences would be helpful. Thanks in advance!

Michael H.


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## myrrh

Just to make sure this is not another drive-by post, can you share a little bit more about when you'll be starting and what kind of teaching position? Thanks.


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## TheHitchcocks

No problem.

I will be working for Nova teaching English K-12. We just received word that our CoE is confirmed and we have to reply to the company by 5Jul18 with our suggested start date. We're thinking around the beginning of August but haven't finalized our decision yet. Any information about the area, particularly regarding cost-of-living and such, would be greatly appreciated.

My wife would like to work while we are there, as well. What kind of opportunities are there for expats? She has a TEFL certificate but no college degree. She's a professional photographer and speaks a little Japanese (more than me).


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## myrrh

Niigata City is a great place, with lots to see and do. There's a very large population of foreigners, and most (to my knowledge and I go there a lot) are extremely helpful and friendly. I have several good Japanese friends there too, and indeed, have found the Japanese in Niigata to be very welcoming...something not always true in Japan.

That said, the large number of foreigners in Niigata City may mean that your wife will initially struggle to find work. I don't think she will be able to find paid employment as a photographer, and without advanced Japanese fluency, she probably will not be able to find office or customer service positions either. This leaves English conversation instruction...and there's a lot of competition locally for these positions.

Note that as she will be on a dependent visa, she will need to go down to the Immigration Bureau and file an "Application for Permission to Engage in Activity Other than That Permitted under the Status of Residence Previously Granted" before she can begin employment. (The form is available at the Immigration Bureau, and can also be downloaded from the Ministry of Justice website.) Furthermore, unless she gets a separate work visa for herself, even with permission she will be limited to up to 28 hours per week for work hours.

If you live outside of Niigata City, chances are you will be in an extremely rural area. This will somewhat improve your wife's chances to find work--less competition--but I would still caution against this choice. The levels of English ability outside Niigata City tend to be very low, making getting assistance in English challenging. If your Japanese is not excellent, you may feel isolated...particularly during the infamously long and brutal Niigata winters. (Once you get away from the coast, snow amounts increase dramatically. I have repeatedly witnessed up to one meter fall in a single day.) This may sound fun and even romantic to you now, but after 3-4 months of this, the romance may die...a cold death. Be warned.


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## JamesInJapan

I've got a few tips and things to consider for you.

Where I live, around Osaka, all of the Nova branches and franchises, and for that matter all other big English schools like ECC and Berlitz and so on, have all migrated their teachers from monthly salaries to pay-per-lesson with some amount of hours you have to be in the office per day or week.
If that's the kind of gig you are signed up for, it is likely the per-lesson wage is like 1400-1600 yen.
They might pull some shifty sneaky nonsense like saying "Oh it's 2000 yen per hour!" by which they mean 60 minutes of work, but a lesson is 40 minutes, so you get even less than 1400 yen.
If that's the case, I strongly recommend you look for a private Eikaiwa. The vast majority tend to pay a lot better.

If you don't mind being trapped in a room with kids that don't understand your crying begs to stop what they are doing, teaching kids is great money, tonnes of demand for it.

As for your wife. She will do a lot better than you in the Eikaiwa world. Women are high in demand, and do really well. Not having a degree hurts with the ability to get a work visa though. But she might be able to find a company willing to attempt a sponsor regardless.

I have personally employed over 20 teachers, 4 have been women. They all kicked ass, were in huge demand by so many female students (the majority of students are women), and the only problem I had with all of them is they didn't stay in Japan long. This is a culture western women tend to equate to a pre-sexual-revolution western world.

I don't know much about the Hokuriku region or culture, and Niigata is far enough north that it may even be more similar to Tohoku. I've heard they get real winters there, like with below 0C and snow and all.

If you use Nova to get a work visa, the visa is not locked to one company, you can jump to another eikaiwa and once you have a steady salary it is a LOT easier to extend a work visa than it is to get one in the first place.


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## TheHitchcocks

So far, Nova has been direct about the pay, stating 1200 to 1700 yen (weekdays), depending on the instructor's experience. Of course, I have an MBA and 20 years of management/teaching experience, so I'm planning on keeping my ears alert for other opportunities. Thanks for the tip re: my wife. 

Our biggest concern now, is housing. Since I'm bringing my wife, Nova cannot offer housing. We'll have to lock down our own place. I understand this is somewhat nightmarish. I've been gathering resources and did find a real-estate listing for rentals in Niigata, but any tips anyone can provide would be quite welcome.


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## JamesInJapan

I'll be honest.
That pay is pretty abysmal. 
I'd expect no less than 2000yen/hr for people with experience.
Private English school should pay around that.

When I first came to Japan I did the cafe lesson scene, it isn't ideal, but it pays a lot more if you organize yourself well.
At first I did 3 days a week at an English school that sponsored my work visa (like you), and on 2 other days I lined up 6 students back to back at a cafe. I bought one drink for myself every hour or 2, and just camped a table in the back corner. I told my students it was 55 min lessons for 3500 yen.
That worked really well, it took a few months to get it all set up with students in one location and no breaks between them, but once I got it going it was a respectable 21,000 yen minus drinks and train for 6 hours of work (plus 20min commute to the cafe).

Technically, people are supposed to declare this income. And it helps to do that if you are trying to show that you are making enough money to get a work visa renewed.
If a spouse is not intended to be working though, this is one potential avenue.

Given how very few foreigners there are in Niigata, you may actually find it a lot easier to do something like that than I did.

Regarding housing, the first place I lived was owned by a delightful Chinese woman who absolutely loved talking with other foreigners. So I lucked out there, I actually got a place where I was welcomed in preference to Japanese people.


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## TheHitchcocks

JamesInJapan said:


> When I first came to Japan I did the cafe lesson scene, it isn't ideal, but it pays a lot more if you organize yourself well.
> At first I did 3 days a week at an English school that sponsored my work visa (like you), and on 2 other days I lined up 6 students back to back at a cafe. I bought one drink for myself every hour or 2, and just camped a table in the back corner. I told my students it was 55 min lessons for 3500 yen.


It sounds like your experience is much like my plan. I'm taking a huge cut in pay to do this, but we want to get to Japan for a few years and this seems the best route. 

How did you advertise your private services, if I may ask? Did the students pay you cash? I would love to set up my own services as soon as I can. Thanks for your thoughts so far. Really helpful!


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## JamesInJapan

There are a lot of cafe-lesson websites that serve to introduce students to teachers.
They are generally free for the teacher, the student pays to use the homepage to get the contact info, and then they pay you cash on location, you set your own prices and conditions using their homepage.
Once you get a few people going, word of mouth can be very helpful.
I used to use one called Enjoy Lesson I think, but that was like 10 years ago, who knows if that is still popular =/ 

At the time, I had one of my Japanese friends do a search on Google and Yahoo (a lot of people here use Yahoo for some reason) for private cafe lessons, he told me what homepages came up in the top 5, and I looked for the English version of those and registered.

You said you have an MBA, and experience in management, this could be good to get started in the business sector.
Do some old-fashioned canvasing and see if places that seem like they do business internationally would be interested in you coming to their company to teach their staff in groups. I did that for one engineering firm for a few years.

Teaching daily conversation and travel English might get you 3000 to 3500 yen per lesson, but teaching groups of business people with a prepared plan is 5000+ depending on group size and degree of specialization.


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## TheHitchcocks

James;

Thank you for all the helpful information. You've given me quite a bit to get started once we arrive!


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