illustration in tokyo

[katakori]

i just arrived in japan and my network is not as good as it could be (like it was at home, i mean).
although most of my work is web-based design, and i kept most of my clients from overseas, i would like to find new ones here in tokyo.
but finding new contracts in the illustration business is quite a puzzle for me, i realize now... i never had to look... word of mouth was working fine till now. except in tokyo of course nobody knows me, and there are a lot more competition it seems...
anyone has any advice on where to show my portfolio, who to contact, where to place an ad, how to set up freelance etc. ??
thanks.

[GomiGirl]

What exactly do you do? Scope etc....

[katakori]

well, that's precisely my problem : i am not specialised. i do whatever people want me to do... (apart for the completely obvious sexual treats, of course)

i do not have a formal education in graphic design or illustration. but having being drawing all my life, and self-teaching the net since the beginning of the web (mosaic, netscape 1, photoshop 2.5, all that...) i managed to touch a little bit of everything, including geek stuff (i'm learning server admin the hard way), and off-line graphics (flyers, posters, cd design...)

so to answer your question in a short way, it's not so much what i do but more what i would like to do. which is illustrations (drawings) for pretty much any medium/support. from books for children to magazines, from ads for beer to flyers for a cafe. i am interested in pretty much anything because it's my nature, and because most of my activities so far have led me to discover new things rather than specialising in one field.

does that answer your question?

on a larger scope, i don't understand why the job section here on FG, and the one in tokyoclassified are not more populated. do foreign people have no problem finding jobs here? or is it that if they're here it's precisely because they already found a job before they came...?