Anyone lived and taught English in Japan?

Question:

Just looking for people who might want to share their experiences, pros and cons, housing, pay etc

Answer:

At least for me, it is not a very rewarding job. Adults often take classes as a result of their company sending them. Various degrees of motivation result, but generally poor. Then there are other adults who seem to do it as a hobby. Varying results, generally not good as they lose interest when it becomes apparent that the process is long and usually difficult. Then there are kids. Most often pushed into the classes by their parents. Obviously this isn't ideal. You can get a few kids who really want to learn though, but they're usually mixed in with students who don't really care about learning.

Pros, well, if you are good at teaching you can make almost 500,000 yen/month. At the larger schools the better teachers get the lion's share of the lessons. But you put in a lot of time making that much money.

An alternate is to open your own school after gaining the skills required. I make as much money as I used to make working for a school, working about half the hours, and with no commute time. But then I take potential losses every spring when kids start junior high school, begin club activities and quit English. Time to find more students.

Overall it's a job. For me, most of the time it's about as interesting as watching paint dry. But as long as you can actually teach and keep a professional look on your face while doing it, you can keep your job.

I'll leave housing for someone else.