Luwyn writes in: Hi, I hope you can help direct me to some Chihuahua breeders in Japan as their websites are incredibly difficult to find online! Is there a Japanese Kennel Club, or a national Chihuahua Club? Thanks very much!

Answer:

Hi Luwyn. Sorry but I lost contact with the breeder that gave us the gift of Lulu. The breeder lives in the country side about 8 hours from my town and I haven’t seen her since. I know she doesn’t have a website. I hope you can track one down! Be prepared to spend a lot to get a genuine Chihuahua in Japan along with the paperwork. You could always import one from your country, but then you’d have to teach her Japanese.

Attack of the Japanese Chihuahua! Watch out!

Note: I don’t teach English and I don’t work for a Japanese company so I was hesitant to answer this. But I figured… what the hell… so my answers below are based on what I know and have learned from others, not from experience. Another post, Americans working in Japan, might be of interest to you.

Question Part 1:

Zac writes in – I’m 20 years old and I want to teach English in Japan. My family has done it in SE Asia for years. My question is what do I need to do? I know being an American you have to have a bachelor’s degree go do work of any kind. Sorry for the vague question.

Answer Part 1:

Hi Zac. Without a 4 year degree your options seem limited, but it’s still possible to teach English. I know a guy that has a 2 year degree who taught English for years at a variety of smaller companies and made a decent living. He came to Japan without any work lined up and found work within the first month. He stayed for a few years, but then returned to his home country so I can’t ask him any questions about it. Also there’s the idea of doing private lessons at a cafe or at people’s houses, but you need to look into the legality of that yourself. It’s going to take a lot of searching to the work you’re looking without a degree, but with persistence you might find exactly what you’re looking for.

Teaching English in Japan

(photo from flickr)

Question Part 2:

Steve, thank you very much for the info it did help a lot, but i was under the idea that you had to have a 4 year degree to apply for work visa of any kind?

Answer Part 2:

You need an employer that will give you a work visa. I’m not sure about the 4 year degree requirement but as I said, the guy I knew only had a 2 year degree. If you go on a tourist visa (90 days I think), then find a job that will give you a tourist visa, you just need to ask if you can change your visa status or else you leave the country for a day and come back on the new visa. I don’t teach English so I’m not sure on all of the details. I did see this online…

To get a work visa you need:

• a valid passport;
• an application form;
• one passport-size photo; and
• a certificate of eligibility issued by the Japanese Immigration Bureau (your employer must apply for the certificate).

More info that might help you
mofa.go.jp – Visa types in Japan
ESL employment – teaching English in Japan (requirements, etc)
How to teach English in Japan + many useful links

Maybe my friend got the work visa because of his experience of teaching abroad already. You might look into teaching English in Korea as well. Busan (or Pusan) is a popular spot, and for $200-300 you can take a round trip ferry to visit Japan to get your sushi on.

Here’s an interesting quote from Gaijin Pot – (Living, working or visiting Japan? Not without a visa!)

You normally need to show that you have a relevant college degree to be able to apply for a working visa. However if you can show that you have a certain number of years relevant work experience you are also eligible to apply. You can also be eligible if you have a degree from another higher, relevant educational institution. Each visa and industry has different requirements.

A lot of sites contradict each other. But I think it’s possible.

More links to help you on your journey to information:
Yahoo Answers – Advice on getting a Japanese work visa without degree?
Japan Guide – Teaching in Japan Without a Degree
Yahoo Answers – is an online bachelor’s degree good enough for a work visa?
Yahoo Answers – Entry-level job opportunities in Japan?
3yen.com – Is a bachelors degree necessary to teach in Japan?
thunderguy.com – Japan visa types
JapanForum.com – jobs in Japan question about requirements etc
Escape Artist – Living in Japan

Also as Cornelius pointed out in the comments, it’s possible to self sponsor your own work visa. Here are some sites to check out about self sponsoring a Japanese visa. A page from Gaijin Pot says:

Self-sponsorship is very possible: especially if you are already living in Japan and have steady work. A self-sponsored visa falls under the working visa category and you will therefore need to show that all requirements for a working visa is met. You will have to show that you are guaranteed the minimum income required to support yourself in Japan. For example, contracts from 3 companies promising you payment may be required. Free consultations are available at immigration offices in Japan and will they help you prepare the necessary documentation. Self-sponsorship may require some leg work and extra paper work but might be the best solutions for you!

Also with a self sponsored visa you’re going to need to prove that you have large savings or steady income that is good enough to pay for your living expenses. Here are a few links about self sponsored visa in Japan:
tokyo.japantimes.co.jp – The definitive guide to Visa and Immigration in Japan - Check out the section “Self-sponsorship and Investor/Business Manager status”
jiosu.com – Work for yourself by self sponsoring your visa
ESL Cafe – self sponsored visa
Gaijin Pot Forums – Self sponsorship Japanese visa
Self sponsored visa application in Japan – successful!

Good luck with your quest to move to Japan!

He talks a little about the application process, hiring process, some visa info, and links to a great resource NAFjobs.org

If you want to learn more about government jobs in Japan, check out his post “Jobs in Japan”!

Falling asleep on a train

(image source here)

moars is designed to be used with students. This is not an iPhone app — the students use mobile web-based browsers to take quizzes and surveys. Even though the system is designed to be used with Safari on iPod Touch or iPhone, students have accessed the system from other mobile browsers.

Click here to check out MOARS (Mobile Audience Response System)

Another site teachers might find helpful is “captur.me” which is more low tech.

PaddleCaptur is a simple tool that teachers can use in their classrooms to help them capture the class’ understanding or opinions in an instant. Each students has a paddle-shaped flash card. When the teacher asks a question, she also provides up to four options for the answers. Students all use their Captur paddle to give their answers…

Check out the Captur website here.

Being an American, what amazes me about hanami is how people can reserve a spot in public place and people usually respect the reservation. Somebody will go to the park early and block off a section for their group with string and a note saying “reserved [this date] at [this time]“… and there usually isn’t any problem. Talk about courtesy! That’s like having nosebleed seats at a football game and not moving to the already reserved front row seats that are empty. In the U.S. after a while we’d move down to those awesome seats until the person who reserved those seats showed up, if ever.

Each person usually bring something to the party such as drinks, snacks, food, bento, and last year I made pizza at home and brought that . I always have fun at hanami parties because brings a mixture of friends together. Here’s a photo of a sakura tree in full bloom. For more pictures of the beautiful cherry blossoms and hanami action, check out Ben Does Japan where he goes to Kyoto to check things out.

A Friend's Chihuahua Loving the Sakura

Directly on a website like Weather.com the weather forecast seem accurate, but I want to see weather on my Google homepage without having to click around. I think the main issue is there’s not enough information about the day displayed. For example, here’s today’s Google widget. It shows today as partly cloudy and tomorrow as a rainy day, but it’s probably going to rain between 11pm-3am.

Last week I found a Japanese widget in English that shows weather from Yahoo Japan. So far it’s been awesome! It shows the weather changes through out the day for today and tomorrow and then gives an extended forecast. Here’s a screen shot so you can compare it to the Google widget weather. I like the 3-hour window of information.

It has a lot of locations and options to choose from and can display Celcius or Farenheit. It also reads the language you’re using for Google and automatically choose English or Japanese for you. If you use Google as your homepage, I recommend this widget. You can find it by searching “pinpoint weather japan” or by visiting this site for more info.

1. Debit Card and $100 - Many people say bring cash because many places don’t accept credit cards. This is only kind of true. I say bring $100 and your debit card instead. At the airport you can minimize  exchange rate fees by changing only $100 into Yen. This way you’ll have cash on hand and can buy some things from the vending machines and pay for transportation when you arrive. Major stores will take a debit card if it has the Visa or Mastercard logo on it. To get money, you can withdrawal using your Visa or Mastercard from almost any Japan Post Office (no ATM fee) or 7-11 (~250 Yen ATM fee). Very fair exchange rates are set each day by Visa or MasterCard, and depending where you bank you’ll be charged 1% from Visa or Mastercard, and 1% or more from your bank. And you’ll have a withdrawal limit of $500 USD per day most likely. And many major stores will accept credit cards as payment.
2. Deodorant - It gets hot and humid during the summer, and sometimes public transportation cranks up the heat in the winter. To stay dry, you should bring some antiperspirant/deodorant. I haven’t seen it for sale that frequently in Japan. When I did buy it in Japan I had to go to a few pharmacies until I found a Ban Rollon for about 500 Yen. It’s small and lasts maybe 3-4 weeks. Costco sells Speed Stick deodorant (non antiperspirant) but I don’t think it works very well.
3. Hand Sanitizer - I haven’t seen this for sale in Japan. You’ll be touching a lot of things including doorways, bus or subway handles, money, and then it’ll be time to eat! Sometimes it’s hard to find places to wash your hands. Many bathrooms are missing two things… soap and paper towels. When you go to a restaurant they’ll usually give you a wet towel, but I think bringing a small bottle of hand sanitizer will help you stay healthy and give you a piece of mind.
4. Handkerchief - There’s usually no towel or air dryer in the public bathrooms, and you might need it to wipe sweat from your face in the summer. Something cheap is fine. When you’re in Japan you can hit the shops and find a nice one for 500 yen or a Burberry or Calvin Klein for 1000 yen or less.
5. Digital Camera - Sure, Japan is known for electronics and gadgets, but they’re not cheap. I find that many things in Japan cost the same or more than in the US. And all Sony products have only Japanese language menus. When you’re capturing memories, it’s better safe than sorry.
6. 3 Prong Outlet Adapter – Almost all outlets are 2 prong only. So if you have any 3 prong electronics like your laptop, bring an adapter. You could buy one here, but you’re exploring Japan so why waste time looking for one?
7. Over the counter allergy meds - Seasonal allergies? Allergic to dust, or anything else? You should bring some Clariton or Zyrtec. It’s not sold OTC here, and the OTC meds are expensive and cause drowsiness.
8. Aspirin - You should bring a small bottle of aspirin or Tylenol. It costs maybe $1-2 in the US for a travel size. If you need to buy it in Japan it’ll cost you around 700 Yen for 20 aspirin pills. If you need to buy some here, look for “Bufferin” or ask for it by the brand name.
9. Earplugs and Facemask - I recommend this because walls are thin in most buildings, so it might be hard to sleep at times.

How much does it cost?

$60 a year is what I pay ($5/mo!) for “Unlimited Country“. You can also choose to pay monthly for $5.95.

Photo courtesy of {link:http://www.flickr.com/photos/theshadowknows/2995004692/}lamont_cranston{/link}

What do I get for $60 a year?

• 1 US phone number (add additional numbers for a fee, great for separating personal life and business)
• Unlimited calls to USA and Canada landlines and mobiles
• Voicemail – works even if I’m offline
• Send SMS – but I can’t receive them
• Call Forwarding – I can forward calls to my mobile or other phone for a small fee
• Caller ID – I can control what displays on other people’s phones when I call them
• Skype to Go – This is great! I get 1 land-line number in Japan that I can call. This number connects to 1 contact which can be changed weekly. Great for doing business on the go, using it as an emergency number, or calling anybody. I use it to call my brother in American when I’m traveling.
• Free Skype to Skype – This is basically calling and chatting with another PC user.

I use my notebook PC, headphones I already own, and a microphone I bought for 1000 yen at Bic Camera.

And now, the story of how I discovered Skype…

When I first moved to Japan it was a huge deal because I was going to be doing business in America while living abroad, so I brought my Vonage router and phone with me on the plane to keep in touch with clients, friends, and family. It was pretty bulky, and I’d rate the sound quality a 6/10. It was great for a while because I had a working US phone number in Japan with unlimited calling which seemed insanely cool, but it came a price… roughly $40 a month. Then one day something terrible happened, my Vonage router stopped working! I freaked out and needed to find a fast solution. I remember my wife used Skype for free Skype-to-Skype chatting from the US to Japan, and I saw how cheap the phone service was. For the cost of 6 weeks of Vonage, I could have an entire year of Skype? It seemed to good to be true, but I need a phone fast so I signed up. Then I logged into Vonage and redirect the phone numbers to my new Skype number.

I’ve been using Skype for about 9 months now. I’d rate the Skype sound quality a 9/10. I experience poor sound only when I’ve been using my notebook a lot and things are running slow. A quick reboot fixes the problem. It’s great that I can use it almost anywhere as long as I have an Internet connection. And now they’ve released an iPod Touch / iPhone application so I can use Skype on my iPod Touch anywhere I can get a wifi connection such as my home, or even Seattle’s Best Coffee in Tenjin. It’s not available for the 3G wireless network, but if it was I’d get a  free iPhone in Japan for sure.

For a cheap monthly or yearly fee you can call unlimited to the U.S or Canada from Japan, even to Korea from Japan, or your originating country if it’s listed on the Skype website. International calls are pretty affordable too. Skype gets my vote for one of the best tools to make your life abroad easier.

Free iPhone in Japan

White Plan : 980 Yen
You can call anybody on the Softbank network for free between 1AM and 9PM. If it’s after 9PM, or if you’re calling a non-Softbank phone, the cost is 21 every 30 seconds. (I currently have this.)

White Plan Family Discount : Free
This is an add on of the white plan. You can call family members for free if they have a White Plan and are under your account. (I currently have this, it comes in handy and it’s free.)

S! Basic : 315 Yen
This is like an Internet connection fee. You have to have it if you want to 1) Use the Internet and 2) Want to have an e-mail address for sending MMS/Text. It’s important because you can’t send a normal SMS to non-Softbank users. (I have this too.)

Packet Flat-rate Full : 1029-4410 Yen
I spoke to a guy at Softbank and he said you can use unlimited Internet for up to 4410 a month. If you use less than 4410 Yen a month, you’re charged less. But if you have an iPhone, I bet you’ll be using the packet plan a lot.

Handset Cost : 1280-1760 Yen
This is a monthly fee for 24 months. The 8GB is 1280, the 16GB iPhone is 1760 a month. “But Steve, you said FREE!?” Well, they don’t want you to run off with the iPhone, so to make the iPhone free Softbank applies a discount.

Monthly Discount : 1280 Yen
This is for 24 months. You are actually paying full price for the phone, but this discount cancels out that price, making it free. It brings the 8GB 1280 Yen cost to 0, and it makes the 16GB only 480 Yen per month.

Tricky monthly phone charge and discount.
It’s tricky because even though it’s a 2 year contact, they don’t start billing you for the physical phone until the 3rd month. This makes it 26 months total until you’re done paying off the phone.

The final price estimate
8GB : 2324 – 5705+ Yen per month
16GB : 2804 – 6185+ Yen per month

In the end it costs more than the price estimate because you’ll probably call more than just Softbank users, but this gives you an idea of the price. If you cancel, you are charged a cancel fee of 9975 Yen and you must pay for the remainder of the phone. So if you get the free 8GB iPhone and you cancel on month 12, you owe for the remaining 12 months + 2 months (because they didn’t charge you the first 2 months). So you owe 1280 x 14, or 17920 Yen in addition to the 9975 cancel fee. OUCH!

I thought about getting the iPhone, but I already have a phone which I’d have to pay the remaining 9 months on. Lame. I already have a 16GB iPod Touch. It’s nice, and with all of the Apps available I’ve completely replaced my Palm PDA. I think I’ll just stick with the iPod Touch for now.

For anybody curious, here are some Softbank iPhone commercials.

1) Negative Foreigners Online

Allie nailed it on the head in this comment: “A lot of other foreigner-in-Japan sites seem to be based on cynical observations of what sucks about living here…”

I was interested in seeing what life is like for others living in Japan and I wanted to compare their experiences to mine. Although there are a handful of great “foreigner in Japan” blogs out there, I found a lot of people talking as if Japan sucks, the world is against them, and there’s nothing they can do about it besides complain and have a pity party. I saw that a lot of things happening to me have happened to them as well, but they had quite a different and negative spin on the matter. Negativity can easily spread and can get harder to combat when it’s around you. So I’d stop reading certain sites and go searching for others because I still wanted to read and learn more, but the new sites usually ended up being negative too. I got some negative comments on my blog, some bad emails here and there, and a few bad comments posted on other sites. Sure, I’m a big boy and can take criticism, but this and the other events I’ll talk about all added up.

The result: I started to become negative, and I started to see it reflect in my posts or drafts of posts, and in my real life. I also started to write in a less personal and more generic way.

My solution: I kind of “unplugged.” I started posting about food, lots of food. I can’t really say many bad things about food, especially the delicious and wonderful food my wife made. Before I stopped posting, I stopped reading news about Japan. I stopped reading Japan blogs all together. From time to time I’d check out a few in my blogroll/links section on this site. Instead of blogging I started working more to take my mind off of things.

2) Douchebags in Japan

First I want to lay this out there. Do you live here, and am I talking about you? Well if we have hung a few times, the answer is no. Now back to the topic. That’s right, I’m talking about the ‘strange in a wrong way’ unpleasant foreigners living in Japan. If you’ve met a few foreigners then you might know what I’m talking about. When I first moved to Japan I only hung out with Japanese people… who spoke 90% Japanese. It was a challenge because my lack of Japanese didn’t help keep things flowing. I was starving for some good English conversation, dinner with friends, drinks, some adventure, some fun, so I started socializing with other foreigners who I met at parties, or the gym, at the bar, or randomly here and there. I thought they were all pretty much not awesome. The not awesome people included a lot of socially awkward people, a lot of negative people hating their life or where they live, some people jealous of me or my career or my awesome wife, a few people that were quick to judge others, and some old timers that were dicks. So I backed off from meeting new people for a while. The bad thing about this is I’m sure I missed out on some good friendships along the way because I overlooked a few people. But I felt there was minimal return for the time and energy I was putting into socializing and being a nice guy. Even a simple hello on the street or a nod along the way was rarely returned. Talk about depressing! I’ve been doing sales and marketing for as long as I can remember, I am good with new faces in the U.S., I am good with Japanese people, but not the native English speakers in Japan?

The result: I felt like I was getting kicked down every time I tried to stand up. So the more new people I met, the more reluctant I was to stay positive and open minded. I got sucked further into the negativity hole without realizing it. I was confused at times because I felt like there was some problem with me but I didn’t know what it was. I felt like an outsider. To add fuel to the fire, I started to think I was relating more with the negative blogs I read (which I wasn’t).  And I didn’t get it… until now.

My solution: Not all people I met were unpleasant. I think that I took my first few months of negative encounters the wrong way and too personal. Let’s face it. Life is full of douchebags, so I shouldn’t have been so quick to judge and I should have read the atmosphere better so I could adjust quicker to my surroundings. And that’s what I’ve done. In the last 6 months I’ve strengthened my current friendships, I’ve met a lot of new good people, I’ve made some great friends, and I’ve been pretty active in Japan and traveled abroad a few times. I’ve even had some successful get-togethers at my new townhouse.

3) Busy Working

I tried to work more and more to get my mind off of things. Apartments can be pretty small here in Japan so my office was my laptop in the living room area. Since my work is always in my face, I seemed to work on and off throughout the entire time I was awake. I started to feel overwhelmed so I stopped posting quality on this site until it came to a stop. The point was to work hard, work long, and keep my mind busy. I thought I was multitasking my work but instead I was just distracting myself when I was at home, doing things in 12-16 hours I could have done in 4. When I wasn’t working I was spending that time with my wife and few friends. On I side note, I thought working from just my laptop would be totally sweet. And even though it is sweet, sometimes I get pretty caught up and need to make phone calls to the US and take care of some business. I realize that I prefer a desk or station area when I’m living somewhere, and a laptop when I’m traveling.

The result: I was stressed out because home and work lives were too easily mixed.

My solution: I started to hang out with friends more often. And even though I stopped blogging, I started an offline journal because writing relieves my stress. I find that kind of funny now because it’s like I never stopped writing about things in Japan, I just moved it to a personal level without noticing until now. I also started studying Japanese vocabulary before going to sleep. This helped me get my mind off of work and other things.

4) The Apartment Downtown – Not Enough Sleep

When I moved to Fukuoka, I lived right in the middle of the action in Daimyo. It was great at first. According to Yahoo Maps (I think it was Yahoo), in a 15 minute radius of walking I had almost 500 ramen shops (or maybe shops that also sell ramen?), over 1500 izakayas, and countless other restaurants and shops. For the first 3-4 months I rarely ventured out of a 9 block section of town because everything was there. That’s kind of cool. But it was the loudest place I’ve ever lived. From what I’ve seen, most apartment walls are pretty thin in Japan unless the building is a 0-5 years old. Even then, you have to specify ‘quiet’ when apartment hunting to weed out the thinly built units.

Because I was in the middle of the action, a few problems came up. At night, most of the people walking around are there for a night on the town. A few times a month on my way back home from shopping or eating, I had to avoid puddles of puke. I even caught some guy peeing by the doorway of my apartment. The weekends and holidays are filled with drunken people and inappropriate salary men partying it up while taking advantage of the “all you can drink” dinner specials.

There were busy restaurants, karaoke, and bars in the front of my building. In the back, it was filled with the back of other apartments and the back of many restaurants. Many places would close around 6AM so the back of the apartments would echo with groups drunk people yelling, laughing, and singing and overly loud restaurant staff obnoxiously greeting everybody that entered or left. I like greetings like that, just not when it sounds like it’s in my bedroom. A few months after we moved in, loud construction started on a nearby building. When it was 75% finished, construction started on one directly behind my balcony.

The result: I rarely got a good stretch of sleep. The noise interrupted my business phone calls. It was loud from 8pm to 6am because of the restaurants, then loud from 9am until 5pm because of the construction. It sounded like people were yelling in my living room and jackhammers were in the bedroom.

My solution: We moved into a newly built townhouse away from downtown.

5) The Apartment – Too Small

I mentioned before that my last apartment was small. It was a 1LDK. From my understanding it means the number 1 is a bedroom, and then LDK means living area, dining area, and kitchen. The kitchen is a tiny area to cook, not it’s own room. So DK are usually together in one room. The size was about 6 tatami for the bedroom, a little bigger living room, a little smaller dining-kitchen area, and I think an above average bathroom. Entry ways were small sized. I’m 6’2″ (190cm) and the entry ways between each room were only 6 feet tall or less. Besides that, the apartment is an okay size if I just lived there with my wife, but I had nowhere to escape to because I often worked in every room on my laptop.

The result: I cracked my head once a twice a week for a year when I moved between rooms.My posture became worse because I wanted to avoid hitting my head. I really needed something to seperate my life from my work. I meantioned earlier that I like having a desk or work station where I live. A few reasons include the need to file  documents, have a printer and scanner, and the need for office supplies. With such a limited area to work and live, I had to be organized all the time and move business items around or put them some place when guests came over. That was a problem because closets are small and full of clothes so there was no place to put anything.

My solution: We moved into a bigger place. Our new place is western style with no sliding doors or tatami, and I have my own room as an office. Just like back in the US. It’s nice and now it’s easier to enjoy life when I’m not working.

6) No Internet

We moved near the beginning of November. When we moved I needed to switch Internet providers. This decision resulted with no Internet until February. There was some confusion with the order, new construction was needed, and then I overlooked a paper I had to send in. It wasn’t fun. Since I’m in a new townhouse that requires new construction to get Internet, nobody in the area had wireless that I could use.

The result: I spent 5-6 days a week at MediaCafe Popeye, an Internet cafe, and plugged my laptop into their Internet. It cost around 1,180 yen for 5 hours if I clock in before 8am. Drinks were free so I drank way too much coffee and Coca Cola. I spent time commuting, and maybe buying an iPhone would have been a good work around. Talk about stress! If there was a big issue that needed attention, I would have to run to an Internet cafe on the spot. A few times I had to take the 10 hour deal for 2360 yen.

My solution: I kept a strict time schedule to maximize my hours online at the Internet cafe. I also used some friends Internet from time to time and hopped on some free wifi at a coffee shop. Eventually things were sorted out and I got Internet installed at home.

Life is what you make it and should be enjoyed to the fullest. It’s important to focus on the positive aspects of life and learn from any misfortunes along the way.

I am back.

Update: Jyankee is right, it’s a shoe store! And I happened to find a small sized location.

Besides the last picture, the quality isn’t bad for a 2 megapixel camera phone.

Here are a few sea snail videos from Youtube, bleh.

Some questions people have asked include… how did I learn Hiragana? How do you make friends, find a job, contact friends and family, get around without knowing Japanese, buy clothes that fit, money, food, health, taxes, bugs, boredom, and so on. By the way I will write up something about Hiragana soon.

Maybe this picture I took will explain some things…

Beware of the Yukata Yanki!

(She's actually holding a water bottle... shhh our secret)

1. It was in front of a chain restaurant entrance trying to get me to enter
2. It sounds like I was bartering with them for a while
3. 5% is a discount, not a bargain, and no where close to a final bargain

Now here’s what a Final Bargain should look like, up to 70% off, hellz yeah!

Japan Today has an Olympics section in English. Reporting news daily on what’s going on. It helps keep me updated on what’s going on.

Wikipedia has an updated page about Japan at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

If you read Japanese, then maybe Sports Navi is the place to be. It has TV schedules, news, medal counts, etc.

The news at yahoo.com isn’t very Japan related, but the Japan medal count has pictures, if you click on a persons name.

This year I think Volleyball is one of my favorite sports. I saw part of Japan vs China game the other day and the spikes were intense, people were falling backwards after a hit, people were diving all over the place, it’s an amazing sport.

photo credit: xiaming

I’ve always wondered how much Olympic athletes get paid, so I did some searching. The financial support varies from country to country, so I’ll be focusing on Team USA since that’s the team I’m most familiar with.

I read the PDF file from TeamUSA that has a lot of details about reimbursement and income. Here are the main money makers.

Gold Medal: $25,000
Silver Medal: $15,000
Bronze Medal: $10,000

Here’s a basic breakdown of what each US Olympic Athlete gets for the 2008 Beijing Olympics :

• Competition & Camp Expenses (airline – United VIK, room/board &
  accreditation fees)
• Monthly Stipends
• Performance Incentives
• OTC Resident Program
• Elite Athlete Health Insurance (EAHI)
• NIKE Apparel

This is only what the country is giving athletes. Monthly stipends range from $250-2000 per month, so I’m sure a lot of athletes have jobs while they’re training. And there’s a lot more money to be made with endorsement deals and bonuses too. Speedo is awarding a $1 million bonus to Michael Phelps if he ties Mark Spitz’s 1972 gold medal record of seven gold medals in a single Olympics (from CNBC), and 21 year old Usain Bolt from Jamaica received a $1.8 million bonus from his sponsor Digicel for breaking the 100 meter race world record back in May (link to picture).

I know not everybody is getting rich, but just like any other sport, it’s interesting to see who is.

You can read more about the Olympics Team USA at TeamUSA.org. You can also see the current Beijing overall medal count here and here’s the count sorted by Gold medals. co(Image above is courtesy of M@rcopako)