Teaching English in Japan Blog

The Teaching English in Japan blog Let's you...

Know whenever any new web pages are added to All About Teaching English in Japan.com

Alerts you to any new Japanese lessons we post

Keep abreast of any time/money/grief saving tips we come across to make living and teaching in Japan more enjoyable

Keeps you up to date with any job openings we come across

Saves you money by letting you know when any TEFL course and Japanese courses get discounted

To subscribe to the teaching English in Japan blog (no e-mail necessary), right-click on the orange RSS button (right below the nav bar) and then paste the URL into your RSS reader. Or click on the My Yahoo! button or My MSN or Add To Google button if you keep a personalized home page there.

Find Teaching Jobs Abroad

Find Jobs in Japan on our Teaching Jobs Abroad Page. Full-time & Part-time Listings for Jobs All Over Japan.

Permalink -- click for full blog post

TEFL placement company - Get qualified and a job in Japan quickly

Not sure how to break into teaching in Japan? You might consider trying TEFL placement programs

Permalink -- click for full blog post

We All Know Jet Lag's a Drag But Starving
Yourself Before the Big Trip Just Might Just do the Trick

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Starving yourself before a long flight may help prevent jet lag, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

Normally, the body's natural circadian clock in the brain dictates when to wake, eat and sleep, all in response to light. But it seems a second clock takes over when food is scarce, and manipulating this clock might help travelers adjust to new time zones, they said.

"A period of fasting with no food at all for about 16 hours is enough to engage this new clock," said Dr. Clifford Saper of Harvard Medical School, whose study appears in the journal Science.

He said a person from the United States traveling to Japan must adjust to a 11-hour time change.

"Because the body's clock can only shift a small amount each day, it takes the average person about a week to adjust to the new time zone. And, by then, it's often time to come home," Saper said in a statement.

Saper and colleagues knew that when food is scarce, animals are able to override their normal biological clock to improve their chances of finding food.

Studies have shown that mice fed only during the time when they normally sleep shift their body clocks to this new schedule. "They would be awake and alert and ready to go an hour or two before a meal was due to appear to have maximal chance of getting the food," Saper said in a telephone interview.

"This is built into the brain. The problem is, nobody knew how it worked," he said.

He and colleagues set out to find this mechanism. They used a group of mice that had been genetically engineered to lack a master gene called BMAL1 that regulates the body's clock. They put this gene into the shell of a hollowed-out virus that acted as a vector to deliver the gene only to brain cells they were interested in studying.

When they put it into a small region of the hypothalamus known as the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which serves as the body's primary clock, the mice adjusted to a light-based schedule for waking and sleeping, but not eating.

"If you don't wake them up they will starve to death," Saper said.

However, when they restored the gene only in a section of the hypothalamus called the dorsomedial nucleus, which helps organize waking and feeding schedules, the mice adjusted to the eating schedule, but not daylight.

Saper said when food is scarce, this second clock can override the body's primary clock. He said these same clock genes are known to be in all mammals, including humans.

While skipping meals ahead of a long flight or night shift has not been proven to work in humans, it may be worth a try.

"I'm certainly going to do it the next time I go to Japan," he said.

Teaching jobs in Japan. Rejected by Geos, Aeon etc. Here's Another Option.

Tips for finding teaching jobs in Japan. Tips for how to use photographs on your resume and advice on writing your self-introduction letter.

Permalink -- click for full blog post

Work in Japan. What's it really Like? No bull. Just the facts

Work in Japan. Is it really work? More myth busting on working in Japan as an English teacher.

Permalink -- click for full blog post

Work Abroad as an ALT! What you need to know before you go.

Work Abroad and Teach in Japan as an ALT. The Basics on What to Expect Working Abroad as an ALT.

Permalink -- click for full blog post

Ex-NOVA Teachers File Complaint About Getting Laid Off by G.Communications

About 20 foreign language teachers formerly employed by NOVA Corp. filed a complaint with a labor standards inspection office here on Friday, claiming that they were illegally fired by the companies that took over the failed language school chain.

�Unfair dismissal!� chanted the former NOVA teachers as they joined a prep rally held by [Tokyo Nambu sister union] the General Union in front of the Osaka Chuo Labor Standards Inspection Office in Osaka�s Chuo-ku on Friday before they filed the complaint with the office.

Nagoya-based G.communication Group bought out NOVA after it filed for protection from creditors in October last year, leaving NOVA under bankruptcy proceedings.

However, G.communication Group fired about 800 former NOVA teachers at the end of December, overturning an earlier agreement in November that the company would in principle hire all the former NOVA teachers who wanted to work for the new employer, according to the General Union.

Furthermore, the company refused to renew employment contracts for about 200 other teachers, leaving more than 1,000 teachers unemployed. The dismissed teachers claim that the company violated the Labor Standards Law.

�The company violated the law in that it did not sign employment contracts with the teachers when they started working in November. The company�s dismissal procedures also breach the law in that it notified the teachers of their dismissal via e-mail and without notice,� said a representative of the General Union.

Free online tv. Free movie download. 60,000 titles to choose from

Free online tv. Want to watch free movies online? Try Graboid for over 60,000 movies and tv shows, all streamed or downloaded to your PC.

Permalink -- click for full blog post

G. Communication Reneges on Jobs for Nova Workers

Up to 800 foreign language teachers formerly employed by NOVA Corp. will not be hired by the failed English conversation school chain�s new owners.

Officials at Nagoya-based G.communication Group said they are looking into finding employment for around 200 ex-NOVA teachers with affiliate companies, leaving the remaining 600 or so unemployed.

G.communication Group bought out NOVA after it filed for protection from creditors on Oct. 26, leaving the failed conversation chain to go through bankruptcy proceedings exactly one month after its collapse.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20071225p2a00m0na009000c