Hi all,
A bit of background, I'm an Australian national (26M) looking at taking a gap year in Japan during 2026. I currently have well over $40k AUD (or 4M JPY) saved which I plan to use up to $25k of (2.5M JPY) to live off during the year by living in sharehouses and/or cheap accommodation in exchange for labour (eg farmwork). My two primary aims is for immersion into Japanese culture (including learning the basics of speaking Japanese), as well as to take a brief break from my current occupation as I have been working in the same industry (pharmacy) for almost 9 years and am looking for a novel way to break up the monotony.
I currently have minimal Japanese (only know hiragana, katakana, brief phrases and N5 level speech and comprehension but am working towards N4), and have a Bachelor of Pharmacy with 9 years of experience in community pharmacy (4 years as a registered pharmacist), no other qualifications or experience (other than 1 year at a pizza shop). I am planning on taking any part time job purely just to keep myself busy throughout the year.
- For those with experience with WHV in Japan, how did you find the experience overall? For cultural immersion purposes, would you recommend trying to improve Japanese even slightly before arriving? I have also considered enrolling in a Japanese school during the year to help with fluency, keeping myself busy and also partly for the social aspect.
- How likely am I to land a job beyond ALT? Despite being an Australian-born, I am Southeast Asian by ethnicity (i.e. black hair but slightly darker skin by Japanese standards), so I fear/wonder if 'Western styled establishments' (e.g. Irish pubs) are out of the question. However, I am open to doing any work including restaurant work (e.g. waiter, dishwasher, receptionist etc.).
Thanks for your input!
by The49thRonin