i'm planning to move to hawaii next july with my japanese wife and japanese stepson (from her previous marriage). i currently live in japan and have been here for about 5 years teaching english. to be clear (since everyone asks), i am not affiliated with the military at all.
i'm pretty concerned about the move for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the horrible economy. i'm also worried though because my only real employable skills are that i've been basically an esl teacher (without a license-not needed to teach english in japan) for 5 years and can speak japanese (i'm taking the highest level of the japanese proficiency exam before we move). i also have a bachelor's in philosophy degree.
i always hear that people with japanese ability can find easy work in hawaii, but my guess has always been that this is mainly in the tourism fields, and with the world economy doing worse and worse AND new restrictions having been placed on japanese tourists going to america, i'm worried that if most of the japanese-required jobs really ARE related to tourism, my japanse ability won't get me very far after all. so i guess i'm really asking if my japanese will still be considered an employable skill, and if so, what kind of jobs might i look into with it having a lack of other employable skills.
my wife also speaks english and is really outgoing and bright, so i'm sure she'll be able to find work easily (she'll have a green card), but probably nothing to "bring home the bacon" since she doesn't have a college degree.
we've considered moving other places, but because of her and my stepson's cold-induced asthma, cold places are out (like colorado, where i'm originally from). so hawaii, with its yearly warm climate and huge number of japanese and japanese-americans, seems ideal in some respects. further, neither of us has ever been into the fast-paced, move up the corporate latter kind of lifestyle, so a laid-back place like hawaii seems like a perfect fit. plus, we're both pretty thrifty to begin with and like getting stuff second-hand whenever we can, so we don't lead very affluent lifestyles.
and people always tell me that hawaii is expensive to live in, and i believe them, but japan is also incredibly expensive a lot of the time, not to mention the incredible waste of money spent staying warm in the winter in a country with no insulation in the walls that i won't have to worry about in hawaii. but i digress... oh, also, we'll be bringing about $50K in cash (well, in the bank; not $50K on the actual plane!) with us when we go, which we're assuming would help us get by at first. also, i'll be 29 and she'll be 31 when we move. our son will be 7.
anyway, any advice or help would be appreciated. we know it's gonna be tough and that it's a bad time to be moving to an already-expensive place, but we don't really have much choice (other than to stay here, which neither of us wants to do). also, we're planning on oahu, but after what i've written, if anyone has suggestions for other places, feel free to tell me. thanks!
--jeff
Perhaps he should be over here getting advice.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/hawaii/503862-moving-hawaii-japan-questions-concerns.html
