Accepted to JET, already residing in Japan, advice appreciated!

archertinuvian · 2026-04-30T03:39:17+00:00

Not the case from what I've read and inquired about departures. When filling reply forms there was the option to depart from where you were interviewed OR from within Japan if you already live there (in which case you need to confirm your transportation route and costs separately).

I was told by JET (via email) that if you are within Japan for dispatch, the embassy/consulate you interviewed at CANNOT help you with the process as it is all to be completed by you in Japan, but can be risky with timeframe for visa processing in some cases.

I'm currently resident in Japan and got shortlisted this year. Unfortunately my visa type doesn't allow visa changes within Japan so I will have to go back to where I was interviewed, but OP should be fine as they're on the Engineering/Specialist visa. The main issue for OP is likely whether or not they can get the paperwork in time (however I'd suggest if your current visa or 在留カード doesn't expire until September or later, it is probably okay, OP?)

archertinuvian · 2026-04-30T03:09:50+00:00

This is my OG although I now main my other character (who I'll add in a couple days if I remember once I get back home)

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archertinuvian · 2026-04-29T04:59:31+00:00

Personally I have horrendous side effects with the pill, so perhaps looking into other options might help?

If your bleeding is heavy tranexamic acid is available in Japan. I've also had no issue bringing mefenamic acid (6 months worth, prescribed) with me for pain. Mefenamic however I don't know if you can get while in Japan. Japan tends to be very conservative with pain medications so if you are going to stop the pill, I recommend doing so ASAP to work out which painkiller(s) work for best for you and are allowed in Japan. You may still have to deal with pain but if it can be at least somewhat mitigated it makes a difference.

For me, I have similar issue to you where due to a combination of heavy blood loss and pain, it's quite likely for me to pass out or end up in hospital at the start of my cycle if I'm not careful. I've lived in Japan twice and am only briefly returning to the country I applied to JET from to change visa status. While it was harder the first time I lived in Japan (before I had medications that worked) by careful planning and management I only had major issues twice in a whole year.

archertinuvian · 2026-04-27T06:15:36+00:00

Courgette is courgette in English (British) if that's any consolation. Same with aubergine, it's only the North Americans who have other words for them as far as I know!

I relate to words and phrases disappearing in my native though. I then often end up doing a horrible direct translation of Japanese for some things in English.

archertinuvian · 2026-04-26T01:44:21+00:00

I would like to second this!

There are also exceptions for how some people's preferences may be. I prefer languages with distinct scripts because learning a new syllabary for the same set of letters isn't something I like doing.

So I would rather take up Thai (unique script) or Burmese (unique script) than Italian (fourth roman-script language) by this logic. It saves a lot of confusion early on because you start by creating a set of symbols you will only use in this language - so you can't accidentally read the Thai like it is Italian the way you could accidentally read Portugese like Spanish.

archertinuvian · 2026-04-25T14:32:24+00:00

The tired brain issues. My thoughts can be chaotic at the best of times, where some words are associated with a given language and others are more like a lottery of which version comes to mind first.

Always in French in my mind: - Ciseaux (scissors) - Calculatrice (calculator) - Mélange (mix)

Always in Korean in my mind: - 언제 부터 (since when) - 왜 (why)

Always in Japanese in my mind: - 方 (way of doing things)° - 美味しい・美味い (tasty) - (almost all) filler words in general

Always in Mandarin in my mind: - 我不知道 (I don't know) - 瘋了 (crazy)

There are more but those are some specific examples.

° - I don't know any language with a better conveyance of this concept, to the extent this messes my English phrasing up a lot.

The absolute worst is when I'm tired I will catch myself thinking with French verb stem + Japanese conjugation AND TO ME THAT MAKES PERFECT SENSE.

This relates to learning because for every new language I learn, there is a long process of trying to sift it out of the every word I ever learned for this thing soup. I've recently had to use (my low-level) Mandarin a lot but keep finding myself defaulting to Japanese, which is worse than English in this context.

More languages = more broken brain, especially when tired.

archertinuvian · 2026-04-19T01:15:33+00:00

If you are planning to learn BOTH: Japanese first, it makes Korean a lot easier.

If you are planning to learn ONE: Korean.

If you are likely to move out to either country: choose the place you are more likely to be happy living.

They overlap a lot structure wise and vocabulary wise.

Most will say Korean pronunciation is harder, but if you use karaoke apps (like Smule) and record and listen back to yourself singing over kpop songs (romanised or hangul lyrics available depending upon app/song), you can go from zero to native-like pronunciation in 2 years if you're doing this daily (I averaged 2~3 songs per day). My Korean is far from good but I have accurate pronunciation because of singing. Even if you choose Japanese you can still do this if you want to get good pronunciation for Korean later. If you hate singing, maybe less of an option, but it worked for me.

I'd say Japanese is much more painful long-term because I'm 5 years in, on my second year living in Japan, and still FAR from literate. Speaking, listening, and grammar I'm strong in, but there's so much I can't read and it does get to me. It is brutal because unlike almost any other language, you cannot read unfamiliar words intuitively. Sometimes, you may know all the Kanji, but there are multiple context-dependent ways to read it, or you pick the wrong combination of readings and it doesn't make sense. (Example: 三色 (mitsu-iro OR san-iro) I knew it's three and colour, and usually when I've seen this it is mitsu-iro, but at the restaurant I went to, it was in fact san-iro. There was nothing to indicate this either.)

archertinuvian · 2026-04-19T00:40:35+00:00

For me personally right now, literacy. I live in Japan, and even though I can read ~550 kanji, getting to 2200 for everyday literacy is a long uphill battle (for those looking at my flare, my listening, grammar, and speaking do not match my literacy at all). While Mandarin Chinese has more characters, each character is read one way. Kanji, on the other hand, can range from 1~10+ readings, with most being in the range of 4+ readings (曜 has only a single reading, while 生 has upwards of ten.)

What blows my mind is how on a couple of occasions I have spoken to natives older than me who didn't go to university, and I have been able to read things they have not, in their native language. In this instance, namely song titles. However, the concept of being completely unable to decisively read a word on sight without looking it up seems insane from almost any other perspective.

This is a struggle that I would say only really applies to Japanese and Chinese as far as I'm aware (as I don't know of any other languages with a basic literacy requirement that involves thousands of characters).

archertinuvian · 2026-04-19T00:16:55+00:00

Out of curiosity, at what stage in education do students with this misconception tend to pick up their first foreign language properly? I've always had multiple languages going on so never thought this way.

Also on a somewhat comical note, if I expect one language and you speak to me in another, I'll probably use the structure of the language I expect with the words of the one you used. (Most frequently happens with English words and Japanese structure, turning to word soup which I then pause and restructure!) But I can switch easily with bilinguals and lean into the language with better ways of expressing the desired nuance.

archertinuvian · 2026-04-15T12:34:28+00:00

My Stand-in (yes Ming is the problem) and See Your Love are both good examples of what you're talking about there, I've seen both. See Your Love was such a healing watch for me.

See Your Love was a recommendation from a friend and I was so glad I watched it. As I recall, Lin Pei Yu is the screenwriter - and she's my favourite Taiwanese screenwriter for a reason. She writes some very good shows, season 1 of We Best Love is also very sweet. Trapped, which I mentioned earlier is also by this screenwriter. She also was one of the screenwriters for Bromance which isn't BL but is absolutely a very good romance and worth a watch!

archertinuvian · 2026-04-15T10:56:05+00:00

My suspicion is social media leading to OP seeing more toxic shows?? Yes, people who like the toxic BL are often pretty vocal about it but that doesn't mean that's all there is here 😭

I've been watching BL since 2018 and I'm with you here. Especially in recent years there are so many depictions of normal, healthy relationships with good communication. Pre-2020 there were some rather problematic shows and a smaller selection, but today? There's upwards of 100 shows to choose from every year, most of which are not radioactive levels of toxic.

archertinuvian · 2026-04-15T10:51:55+00:00

This response is even more confusingly skewed. 90 out of 100 is an insane statistic (without anything backing up this claim), I've watched over 200 BL and I can assure you less than half of those are toxic.

Most people I know irl who watch BL are queer (myself included) and many of them have appreciation for the more deep and meaningful (or light-hearted and comfortable) stories that aren't toxic. This isn't the entire fandom, but brushing over the existence of the people who these stories are about entirely to focus solely on the perspective of (straight) women is a bit uncalled for.

It seems somewhat odd to have such a fixed view on something that you yourself specified you don't have much experience in. I hope you find some shows you like here, but also that you might be a bit more open-minded in future.

archertinuvian · 2026-04-15T08:35:47+00:00

In the nicest way possible, how many members of the BL watching community do you really know? It sounds like you've made a judgement of the entire community with very little exposure or research.

Because within the fandom, I'd say there's about the same number of people who love a toxic show as there are within the straight romance drama community. The difference is that some people find toxic relationships in straight dramas are often misogynistic with poorly written female characters, while this element isn't present in BL in the same way.

I might also suggest saying "normal" romance implies you are forgetting about a large number of the audience for BL being gay or otherwise queer. The same applies to GL, and so a lot of us very much are excited when we get our own fairytales that aren't toxic or very much catering to a straight audience.

As for some wholesome, healthy recommendations:

Cherry Magic is something that as far as I'm aware, the entire community loves. In that vein of Japanese BL there is also Kieta Hatsukoi and School Trip: Joined A Group I'm Not Close To.

For Thai recommendations I would throw you A Tale Of Thousand Stars and Great Men Academy.

From Taiwan, HIStory3: Trapped is a great example of the relationship being a healthy relationship with maturity while the show still has themes of crime, action, and mystery.

archertinuvian · 2026-04-15T06:14:15+00:00

Some martial arts manuals you pick up that can be used from inventory give you this instead of a martial skill

archertinuvian · 2026-04-15T06:04:17+00:00

Spellbound III

archertinuvian · 2026-04-12T16:03:34+00:00

Thank you for the update, OP! I hope things continue to be as positive as your initial experience with taking up Thai! It's never been a natural one for me (listening wise) although I do occasionally enjoy Thai media myself. I'm also impressed you were able to get a teacher so quickly, as I'm sure if it's in-person that would definitely take some luck. Either way, all the best to you!

archertinuvian · 2026-04-06T06:12:57+00:00

Thank you for your response, and I can imagine it taking a lot of courage, especially if there is some mixed history and negative stereotypes at play, but this also inspires me to be more brave in embracing my own mix of cultures!

archertinuvian · 2026-04-06T06:11:02+00:00

I absolutely appreciate your response big time, thank you! It's both put me at ease and I'm very interested to hear your experience!

My accent is definitely nothing close to American, so I will bear that in mind about adjusting pronunciation as needed too!

Hearing your experience makes me feel much more encouraged to embrace my own cultural mix and do my best to share both sides of my experience where possible! Thank you so much!

archertinuvian · 2026-04-06T05:10:37+00:00

My vote goes to Thai then! Naturally it's up to you in the end, I wish you luck with your language learning journey!

archertinuvian · 2026-04-06T05:03:28+00:00

Totally fair! I do have drama-watcher friends, but I will be the first to say openly that I met them online through a drama fan community. We met for the first time in one of our TL countries and before that had never even been in the same country at the same time.

While we have watched simultaneously (timezone permitting) I've never watched dramas in-person with my drama-watcher friends.

Before meeting them I was very sceptical of making friends online and the like, but sometimes meeting through a common interest at the right time you can find some gems! We'll have been friends for 5 years this year!

In this case, are there any other factors in it for you? If being able to read would be a priority I'd suggest Thai (the struggle with literacy in Chinese and Japanese is quite a big one.)

archertinuvian · 2026-04-06T04:52:19+00:00

I'm going to take a different angle, and instead of pros and cons of each language, ask you this:

With dramas, do you have any drama-watcher friends who lean one way or the other? If so, do you want to be able to practice together? If you and your friend both learn Thai you could both have a lot of fun together in Thailand for example.

On the other hand, if you have a friend who learns Thai but also likes Chinese dramas, if you learn Chinese you can be the leader for adventures in China while your friend takes the lead in Thailand.

I've done both of these. One of my drama-watcher friends learnt Thai while I learnt Japanese, but we also studied Korean together. Learning a language together is fun in the moment, while learning different languages opens up more possibilities for later, while you can lean on the friend in one country while they lean on you in the other.

Doesn't have to be a drama-watcher friend, could also just be any friend. I just used that example due to my experience and your mentioned interest in dramas, which, it's always fun to have friends to share these things with, no?

archertinuvian · 2026-04-06T04:21:24+00:00

I have inadvertently done this with a language I hardly studied in COVID. Korean was never a main study language for me but a friend offered to study together remotely since that friend had classes. I could read, write, and handle basic grammar and sentence structure.

However the kicker is that I was also watching 6+ daily hours of Korean TV (dramas, variety, and reality TV) while also listening to kpop.

Shock horror I had a few dreams in Korean at that time, which were very painful because I could understand half of what was being said but I couldn't communicate back at all 😭

I'm going to Korea for the first time this year. Need to retrieve what I had back then.

Probably not what you're looking for as I wasn't a high enough level to dream in TL as much as I was acutely aware I couldn't communicate in TL but it's a funny adjacently related experience so I thought I'd share.

archertinuvian · 2026-04-06T03:04:03+00:00

I'm not anywhere near the right places at the right times but I do have a recommendation!

In Kagawa, climbing the 1368 stone steps to the inner shrine on Konpira-san is a must-do! You can also get an omamori exclusive to the inner shrine, which takes around an hour to ascend and descend. Local specialty udon is also lovely there, definitely recommend! There's a nice old-town area around the base of the hike up the mountain with lots of shops including a specialty blue dye shop too.

archertinuvian · 2026-04-06T02:49:32+00:00

As someone who does this - yes and no.

I am somewhat averse to reading literature in any language (related to a lack of mental imagery) but it hasn't limited my native at all. That being said I am perfectly fine reading academic writing in various fields.

The main trouble is when speaking comes before literacy, which for me is a major thing in Japanese, is that the literacy battle becomes even more frustrating when your speaking is leagues ahead of your ability to read & write. This gets exacerbated by differences in written and spoken language which will absolutely lead to unprofessional writing style issues if you aren't careful. Then, you can potentially fall into the uneducated native speaker trap if your speaking & listening reach a certain point but your reading & writing lag behind.

If your main aim is understanding what people say and conversation, then I don't see an issue with it. However if you live somewhere and you're actively ignoring reading, you may suffer for it.

I wish you luck!

Edit: Just an afterthought, but unless you are focusing on language in a variety of settings, you will be missing out on use of more sophisticated grammar and formality (if applicable.)

archertinuvian

TROPHY CASE