Hello! I’m planning to start working for AEON (an eikaiwa) in Japan soon, and was just offered a position from them in Kurashiki, near Okayama. Does anyone know anything about the area/ what it might be like for a foreigner living there? Any advice on whether or not I should accept? Thanks!
2 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
—
**Moving to Okayama/Kurashiki**
Hello! I’m planning to start working for AEON in Japan soon, and was just offered a position from them in Kurashiki, Okayama. Does anyone know anything about the area/ what it might be like for a foreigner living there? Any advice on whether or not I should accept? Thanks!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/movingtojapan) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I used to live in Okayama city (8ish years ago) and visited the historical quarter in kurashiki a few times. I don’t know what it’s like to live in kurashiki, but I loved it to visit. The historical quarter is a beautiful traditional area that’s especially interesting when seasonal events are on. It was one of my favourite places I visited actually. Looking at Google maps though, turns out kurashiki actually encompasses a much bigger area than I realised, so I don’t know what the area you would be placed in would be like. For what it’s worth, I really liked living in Okayama. It’s a fairly small city but with a few nice sights and some conveniences (a big mall and a decent library), and is in quite a good spot for visiting other places in Western Japan. It’s not big and bustling, some might consider it more boring than bigger cities, but to me, it just felt like a nice place to live. Foreigners were less common than in Tokyo but I definitely wasn’t the only one. Back then, there weren’t too many foreign tourists visiting Okayama/kurashiki that I noticed/remember, so you do stand out a bit more. Maybe more people visit now though.
As for whether you should accept or not, I couldn’t tell you. Eikaiwa work isn’t for everyone, but I assume you’ve already looked into it and decided that you’re ok with it. The location sounds ok though. Okayama is imo a nice prefecture, and kurashiki isn’t far from Okayama city itself. Depends on your specific location and how close to the station you’d be I suppose.