# Tokyo



## disasterbater (Apr 14, 2008)

I am not 100% sure this is the right forum to place this in but...heres my story, I have been in this industry for about 3 years now (since I was 16 I have been working full time in kitchens) and am about to finish my 18 month culinary program from Connecticut Culinary Institute with some classes at the Italian Culinary Institute For Foreigners and a 4 month internship in Italy (hopefully in Alba!). Afterwards my plan is to learn as much as possible of other cultures and cuisines by traveling and applying my craft as a cook. I am having troubles locating a restaurant in Japan (Tokyo preferably) to work at for about 6 months in Dec. when I have finished in Italy. Does anyone here have any websites,ideas,connections to try and find a place to work?


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## jenni1912 (Jun 27, 2008)

Can people who are not Asian be taken seriously in Asian resturants? Does anyone have experience with this?


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## oleglipkin (Jul 1, 2008)

Why not first try to contact a good-quality Japanese restaurant chain like Tengu. they might be interested as they cook both Japanese dishes and Western ones. They have restaurants in several major towns. You might need to speak some Japanese, though.


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## pineapple (Jul 10, 2008)

Sounds like a good idea, but I think that it would be nearly impossible to find this because of the following reasons:
1 - Work Permit. But of course there will be a few places which will turn their eye away from something like that.

2 - As far as working in a Japanese restaurant...How good is your Japanese? 99% of the non-Japanese people I have seen working in restaurants here have a very good grasp of the language. Typical Japanese staff can barely string 5 words together in English so you can imagine what would happen if you were in the kitchen.


But there is a sushi school in the LA area which I came across and as you are all ready experienced, they offer a 5 day course which looked reasonable.

You might have better luck trying to get on with one of the quality Japanese shops in the states or study Japanese very hard before getting here. 


And just to add a bit more, there is a Japanese cooking school for foreigners and I think it is a year program. Before entering you need to speak/read Japanese and to have passed the language proficiency exam.
Here is the link nakamura-s.com/foreigners.html maybe if you contacted them via email they could help.

Good luck!


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