So I did have an early review near the end of December here. Now that it is all done and dusted, I want to look back at the experience through the 4 months that I stayed and worked at Rusutsu.

December

This was definitely the craziest month of all. A new work, a new language(to some degree), a new place to live, and a bunch of new people to meet. On top of that, There was not as many staff during this time. everyone probably only got 1-3 days off in the whole month. But since everything was so new, I did not find myself minding too much.

January

The japanese winter vacation ended early January. So we got a week or 2 quiet time until the Chinese new year(winter vacation for those countries that still celebrates it). This was the month when I was a little depressed. Because I could speak mandarin, I was scheduled to work 8-10 days straight without a break. But my roommates were getting many days off. Also did not help that I was sick during that time. This was when I realized how they make the shift schedule. The concept of having a day off every x days of work was not present. I did not really need the money from working there. But most of the time, I was only able to enjoy the snow after work.

February

I booked 2 weeks off in February to meet up with friend for travelling. Looking back, I am really glad that I did that. Rusutsu is a ski resort in the mountain and not really much to explore around it. So I was able to visit snow festival in Sapporo, Asahiyama zoo, and other attractions in Hokkaido that required more time to travel. I even got to fly to Kyushu to meet with some of my favourite people. On the work side, it was slowing down gradually with occasional burst of customers.

March

Seeing how things have slowed down by March, I requested for even more days off in March. The pace of live slowed down and I got to enjoy snowboarding with friends, travelling and exploring. everyone was more relaxed. But also, people were slowly starting to leave the resort, as the season was coming to an end. So there were a lot of farewell going on.

April

The resort completely closed to customer on April 2nd. But I stayed until April 5th to help with the clean up. Since it was our final days in Rusutsu, we were pretty loose. Having hotpot in the hallway? checked. playing hide and seek in the hotel after dark? checked. Hanging out on the balcony until 4 am and catch an 8 am bus the next day? For sure.

In the end…

Looking back, the ski resort experiencing was definitely what I had in mind. I got to meet people from very different world and culture. I got to practice Japanese with the Japanese staff, whom were used to work with foreigners. It was definitely not what I would have experienced should I stayed with my original job.

Does it cost money? absolutely. But how much you spend is depending on you. I had some saving, and there was national travel support program from Japan. So I was fortunate enough to have more freedom when I travel.

Do I have regret? The only regret is probably not practicing Japanese enough during my stay there. Now that I am traveling in “real” Japan, I feel the need to improve my Japanese skill to have meaningful conversation with others.

Thank you for reading the article. Hopefully this can help shed some light on what it is like with working holiday in Japan. If you have any question, Please let me know and I will answer to the best of my ability.