The pay was potentially three to four times what I could get here. A work visa was easy enough to obtain. In fact, the embassy didn’t even require you to have a job offer or a place to live, as long as you told them you were going there to teach English.
I stayed in Tokyo for the first few days, but found it too busy, polluted, and overwhelming. Even a colleague who was from New York City felt the pace there was more frenetic than in Manhattan. Instead, I chose Osaka, a very large city, but smaller than Tokyo. I was very pleased with my choice as Osaka is only a one-hour train ride from Kyoto and Nara, the two famous historical cities.
A Japanese friend I had met the previous summer was attending university in Osaka. He invited me to stay in the dormitory he was living in, which was a two-story building with about sixteen bedrooms. My room was one bedroom with a straw mat tatami floor, upon which lay my futon mattress for sleeping. We all shared a paid telephone in the hallway, a basic kitchenette, a cold-water shower facility, and a Japanese-style water-closet, which means it was a squat toilet. The rent was much cheaper than a regular Osaka studio apartment and it was nice to have a friend living in the same building. To bathe in the winter months, I had the option of two neighbourhood bathhouses (sentō) to choose from. I found this to be very relaxing, similar to an Estonian saun, as the water and steam was so very hot, and I was already used to a communal bathing culture.
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