My Experience Working with ALTIA Central

Recently, I had a few people reach out to me via reddit about comments I had posted regarding ALTIA Central. I figure it's because it's peak job hunting season for the spring intake of ALTs, so with that said... I want to take some time here today to write about it for others who may be curious about this dispatch company.

I figured that I've been out of this company long enough to not be recognized by current employees, there's not that much information on them, and it's been awhile since I blogged on ALT life.

And since I started a review series of LCCs, seems fitting to start reviewing ALT Dispatch Companies too I guess. /shrugs

I assume you're here because you know who they are and what they do, so I won't get into it. If you want to know about Teaching in Japan, I have a whole other blog post here that I suggest you read. I'll dip a bit into the interview process, but I feel like it's a pretty generic Interview so there's not much to talk about. I also did mine in Japan, so I'm sure the process is less laborious than doing the interview overseas. So I will focus in part my experience on the job & with the company.

If you have any other questions afterwards, please give me a shout via my social handles. I'm very active on twitter & instagram, and I'd be happy to answer some specific questions.

To Start...

In an attempt to keep myself semi-anonymous, I won't reveal exact timelines of when I worked and where exactly my placements were. All I will say is that I worked for them more than 5 years ago (so do keep in mind that my experience may be dated & inaccurate to the current status of the company).

As for location. Although the majority of their placements are in Aichi, I was one of their first few folks working in Osaka Prefecture for them.

And I worked for ALTIA Central for 2 years, just so anyone is wondering as well.

(If you were a higher up in the ALTIA chain reading this, hello! It'll be like a guessing game for you - ain't that fun?)

Interviewing with ALTIA

Like I said, I interviewed in Japan after finishing a contract here.

The process was pretty straightforward. I submitted my resume & cover letter via email upon finding their job posting. They invited me to their Osaka Branch Office for an interview, and after a week or so, I received an email that they were interest to hire me. The rest was history.

Before the interview, I was told I needed to submit a lesson plan on a topic of their choosing. They emailed me the information when they invited me to the interview and I submitted my lesson plan within the week.

During the interview (which was super chill and more informal than not), they went through the lesson plan with me. Not in detail, but for parts that needed some clarification. They asked questions basically asking me to justify why I did the activities or plans the way I did. There was no demo lesson and I was not asked to do one on the spot.

After that, because I had indicated that I can speak SOME Japanese, they tested my Japanese with one of their Japanese staff members. If you can speak conversationally, this will be a breeze. If you don't... well, then don't lie about your Japanese ability.

The Other ALTs

Once you're hired, you will be asked to attend their orientation session. Every new hire regardless if you have experience as an ALT or not MUST attend this several-day-long orientation session. They were held in Nagoya if I remember correctly (or maybe this was the PD Day session... hmmm) when I worked for them, and I was full reimbursed for my Shinkansen from Osaka. My hotel room was also fully paid for.

You will meet all the other "new ALTs" here.

Obviously, they won't all be working in the same area as you, but compared to my previous experience of Orientations - ALTIA really had it packed down. It was helpful, insightful and overall mostly just a networking workshop baked into one. More on that later, but I just want to say that you will VERY LIKELY be meeting a lot of experienced ALTs here.

In the past anyway, ALTIA mostly hired from within the country. So most people aren't just fresh out of college, and doesn't have their mind completely hardwired on partying, drinking and fucking girls/guys every weekend. I met mostly people who had at least 2 or 3 years experience on their belt (I had only one year at the time so essentially I was the baby here), married and generally older folks.

Compared to all the ALT drama I experienced at my previous job where everyone was essentially "fresh off the boat", one-upping each other and trying to prove themselves worthy to literally no one - I never encountered any ALT drama during my time here at ALTIA. Everyone was friendly, minded their own business but was also willing to hand off their ALT wisdom if you asked the right questions. I really had a good time in this regard.

The Orientation

I met one overseas new hire during my orientation, and I was told they had to do one extra day of orientation (like a pre-orientation). Everyone else had to be there are 3 days, if I recall.

One of the bad things about this orientation is its focus on teaching Elementary School (ES) students. Problem was, a good number of us only had Junior High School placements. So while they do try very hard to make workshops on teaching more general, I still felt that there was a huge focus on Elementary School (ES).

Each ALT gets a set of materials that will be sent to their home via delivery services.

Yep, there's A LOT of materials that ALTIA lends you to help you with your job. A box full of flashcards, digital storybooks that supplement the elementary school textbooks and CDs with songs (also for ES)

I also did not meet anyone there who did not know which city they were going to be working in. I can't recall if we knew exactly which grade levels and which school(s) we taught at, but I did meet a group of people who were still definitely working out how to divide up the area of their city...? I'm not quite sure. But at the orientation, I didn't ever felt worried I would have no job since I knew I had a placement and we were at that point, well acquainted with our supervisors.

Yes, each area has a "supervisor" (who are or were ALTs at some point) that manages you. Each supervisor has multiple areas they look after, so he/she might be working with several groups of ALTs and getting them settled in. Along with supervisors, there was also a General Manager (who are Japanese). Supervisors worked under the General Managers, and the General Managers are the ones who takes care of things with the Japanese public schools. They negotiated the contracts with BOEs, and basically do all the things that need to be done in Japanese.

I will tell you now: Your experience at ALTIA is largely impacted by who your General Manager and Supervisor are.

Supervisors & General Managers

As I mentioned already, each Supervisor is in charge of several cities of ALTs. General Managers have a similar role, but they work with the Japanese school. In short, you will see your Supervisors much more than your General Managers.

The only time I ever interact with my General Managers is when we need to go to a new school to greet the staff, teachers and principal.

Your Supervisors are your direct line of contact for work-related issues. If you need to take a day off, or need to excuse yourself from school due to emergency, you need to contact your Supervisor. If your Supervisor if busy, you reach a Supervisor - any Supervisor. If you have problems at the school - for example, a trouble class or trouble with a teacher - you are encouraged to reach your Supervisor for advice. If the trouble does escalate, or if you simply have any personal problems at your school, your Supervisor will be the one coming to your school to visit & chat with you in person.

During my time with ALTIA, I had really kickass Supervisors and a General Manager who really knew how to work the gears of the school to keep everything peaceful & drama-free.

I always felt like my Supervisors were working with me, not against me. When I had some trouble in my personal life, my Supervisor worked with my General Manager to ask the school to excuse me from work. I still needed to justify why I need the day off, which was quite a process... but I was never denied a day off. I felt that I was being trusted, and everyone I worked for genuinely cared for my health over my work.

I did hear that some ALTs in a different city had a Supervisor who was generally difficult. This Supervisor always asked a lot of questions about why that ALT needed that day off, and while it was always approved, the ALTs under this Supervisor had more negative experiences due to this.

In short, I definitely got lucky here. And I think this review of ALTIA would be miles different if I had different Supervisors and General Managers.

Additional Tasks & Events

Being an ALTIA ALT, you are expected to attend the following:

1) PD Day (mandatory)

2) ALT Observation Day(s) (quite mandatory)

3) Summer Camps/ Other Events (volunteer; highly recommended)

PD Day is where all ALTs need to attend mandatory workshops. This will 100% happen on a weekend, and you need to attend them. They usually offer two session on two different weeks, notified by email farrrrr in advance. There is literally no excuse for you to not show up.

Yes, they are quite dull... but it's sort of a good excuse to hang out with some of your ALT friends here and bring up any grief you have with your school to your Supervisor. So there's that!

One thing I quite enjoyed during my time at ALTIA is the "ALT Observation Days". They are a bit annoying for the ALT being observed, and it is a bit of a hassle to have to leave your school to go to that ALT's school, but generally I valued the discussions I had with my fellow ALTs and Supervisors. A good Supervisor will tell you that this is NOT an evaluation of your abilities as a teacher. Your Supervisors are going down a checklist to make sure you are being effective, and checking to see if you are using some techniques that ALTIA Central teaches - but you aren't graded to be used against you in the future!

The checklist and the "evaluation" is only for discussion purposes.

After the ALT finishes the lessons, all the ALTs come together to talk about that ALT's class. What they did well, what they can improve on and what are things we noticed in the classroom that might be helpful to talk about (to help other ALTs with their classrooms).

I generally liked these discussions, and everyone often have some interesting insight due to their different experiences. I came from a previous job where these Observation Days were basically "I am here to judge your abilities, and grade you base on only that one class and nothing else" type of thing - so it was really refreshing to see this take on Observation Days.

Again, I suppose this is a situation that might be soured if you have some assh*le ALTs and a bad Supervisor... but, this wasn't my experience at all.

Your Board of Education (BOE) may sometimes want to run English Camps during the summer, or a Recitation Contest, or they may have an English Interview Test they want to conduct and need some ALTs to run those interviews. These are all work outside of your contract, and your Supervisor will generally ask you to volunteer your time for these extra events.

If you work in a big cities with several ALTs, you might not all need to go to these events. Your Supervisor may ask for volunteers, and you generally take turns taking on one or two of these events over the course of the year.

Now, if you're a one-man show... generally, it will be less voluntary. But if for any reason you cannot make it, your Supervisor will generally ask some nearby ALTs to help you out. These extra events were compensated by cash cards that we were able to use at Supermarkets, Convenience stores, etc. So it is paid volunteer work.

I highly recommend volunteering for these. Your eagerness CAN HELP you get first pick of schools next year if you re-contract with ALTIA.

Contacting the Staff/Supervisor

One thing I generally enjoy having the perk of working for dispatch company is having company staff who speaks both English and Japanese to explain & help you through some bureaucratic adulting. Like translating your city hall mail. Or visa renewals. Nowadays I work in a mostly Japanese environment so I'm kind of expected to do things on my own... (ah, adulting)

During ALTIA, I was always able to get a response within 48 hours by email if I needed to figure out what my city hall wants me to pay.

I did take quite a few days off from work. Contacting my Supervisor can be a hassle because as an ALT working for a dispatch company, we can't just contact the school directly to say we cannot come in. We need to call the Supervisor, the Supervisor calls the school and then the Supervisor calls you back to confirm it. Having this middle man just slows down the process. While I never had an issue where the Supervisor forgot to call the school, a fellow ALT friend did have this experience. The school ended up being quite chill about it afterwards, but this whole thing could have been avoided if ALTs called the school directly...

A problem in general with all dispatch work, I suppose.

It's also quite annoying during extreme weather warnings and god forbid, an earthquake. When there is a typhoon and school is cancelled, we often have to wait for Supervisors to call us back about our work for the day. I lived the closest to my city at the time, but the other ALTs in my city lived quite further. They would often run into train troubles. If school was cancelled in the end, it works out for everyone... but sometimes school is not cancelled and the ALT would still have to somehow get themselves to work during train delays and train cancellations.

Pay & Reimbursements

I'll be straight with you - I was paid less than 200k a month after taxes. It sucked.

(your contract may pay more because there are different types of contracts)

But it was for a trade off. I had LOTS of days off, which makes finding extra work easy. It allowed me lots of time to travel as well. Working with this base salary was okay for one or two years. But this salary is impossible without another part time job. Especially if you ever run into health emergencies and other type of emergencies that require money to solve. You would have to live EXTREMELY frugally to be able to save any money with just this salary alone. I was quite frugal, and still struggled by my second year with no other part-time supplements.

You are allowed to work part-time elsewhere. ALTIA has no restrictions on this. You just need to make sure you get approval from immigrations, so it has nothing to do with ALTIA.

The good thing is, they do pay every month THE SAME SALARY.

There are no prorated days. Even if you only worked one week in March, you still get your base amount.

When I worked at ALTIA, there were no limits to transportation reimbursements. To my knowledge from friends who still works at ALTIA, they told me that reimbursements are now capped monthly.

ALTIA does gives small allowance to ALT for any year-end celebrations you end up going to with your school. If you get invited by your school to go to their year-end party, and the school asks you to pay out of your pocket, you can ask your school for a receipt to get them reimbursed by ALTIA up until 8000 yen.

Final Comments

Overall, I really had a good experience with ALTIA Central when I worked for them.

My number one thing with them is that they were always very transparent with me. On their website, they list where all their positions are and whether they are available or not. You know exactly what you are getting into, and if it's not what you want, they tell you upfront and you can still sort of know what else they have in store for you.

However, to my understanding - quite a few things have changed. Staffing changes, pay rate changes, etc etc. It is very possible that your experience will be VERY DIFFERENT from mine. So please take whatever I experienced or heard with a grain of salt.

I still hope this helps someone out though, so let me know in the comments or in my socials if you have any questions regarding the company.

Buffets in Japan

Many travel blogs & website like to advertise specialty restaurants. Ramen restaurants. Sushi restaurants. Curry restaurants. Afterall, most countries likes to show how their chefs train years and years to perfect a skill and its history - like a 100-year-old tempura shop, or a chef who trains for 20 years to perfect some kind of noodle dish/soup.

There's nothing wrong with that, of course. If you're looking for a VERY SPECIFIC food, you know that you can't go wrong with a trained chef and years of history.

However, especially when you're travelling, sometimes you're hungry and just want to fill your stomach with all the food. You might also find yourself in a situation where you might just want a good selection of veggies, fruits and other fresh salads for one meal - which tourists in Japan often complain it can be difficult to find since many famous Japanese fast foods are carbs & meat-heavy.

Buffets & All-you-can-eat (AYCE) restaurants can be a saving grace for your trip, but they may not be such an obvious option when you're just wandering about in touristy areas.

But AYCE restaurants are more common than you think in Japan.

Hotel Buffets

Hyatt Regency @ Okinawa Seragaki

Most hotels you stay at offer a simple breakfast buffet option at the lobby. In its simplest form, it will probably be some toast and cereal, plus an small assortment of juice, tea and coffee. Some hotels may offer some hot foods like eggs and ham, and even some salad.

At bigger chain hotels (often western chains), they will definitely have a more elaborate & full buffet set up. Some may even have cooking stations that serve freshly cooked omelettes, etc. Of course, those buffets are often at a premium cost - but if you're looking for some variety and to have a more balanced travel diet, this is a good place to get your fill.

VIKING (バイキング)

In Japan, buffets are called バイキング (baikingu). You can find out more information about the history and here. So if you aren't finding any buffets in Japan, it's probably because you aren't looking for the correct terminology. Vikings in Japan are your typical buffet set up - there are different offerings and stations of hot foods for the choosing.

Prices will range depending on the selection, quality of food, and the amount of selections they have. Most vikings average at around 2000 yen, with a decent selection available (of course the quality will not be the best).

I've been to places that charge around this price and they usually have some pretty neat things like a waffle machine or a soft serve ice cream machine. Just tiny perks that you don’t find in normal buffets back home. Some buffets may have some limited edition themes - like a strawberry-focused dessert option, or matcha special. Those don’t usually cost extra either, which is a nice touch!

There is usually a time limit for these places of around 2 hours.

食べ放題 and 飲み放題 and “Drink Bars”

TABEHOUDAI (食べ放題) is usually another term they use for “AYCE options”. Takehoudai and Viking are both used synonymously to mean the same thing.

However, Japanese food options will opt to use the term Takehoudai and not Viking. You will see tabehoudai used a lot with Yakiniku (like the restaurant “Gyukaku”) or Shabu Shabu. At these places, you usually get your unlimited servings of food by ordering via a server at the restaurant. There may still be a vegetable station for you to pick up some salad and raw veg for your Shabu Shabu hot pot for cooking, but you will still need to flag someone down to top up.

Some restaurants like Gyukaku for example, may have an iPad for you to order from. It’s helpful for you to cut out the middleman.

NOMIHOUDAI (飲み放題) might be another Japanese Term you come across while restauran-surfing. This isn’t limited to buffets. Many restaurants have this option, especially at Izakaya style dining. This just means it’s an option to drink unlimited alcohol (for a limited amount of time).

Some more family-friendly restaurants like Saizeriya or Gusto will have something called a DRINK BAR (ドリンクバー). This is unlimited soft drinks! This is NOT for alcohol. If you like an unlimited alcohol option, you want the Nomihoudai (which usually includes soft drinks). But if you just want unlimited soft drinks, you want to ask for a Drink Bar.

Sushi AYCE in Japan??

Sushi rolls like these are all very western and you won't find these here.

I get this question a lot from friends visiting. AYCE Sushi is a huge thing in Canada, and it’s usually pretty affordable and sometimes the quality is pretty damn good too.

However, AYCE Sushi really isn’t that much of a thing here.

They exist, but it appears more as an “add-on” option at a Yakiniku or Shabu Shabu AYCE restaurant. Or a sushi station at a buffet (but even that can be a rarity itself). A chain called Shabu SAI for example offers (pre-COVID) a shabu shabu & sushi AYCE course. I rarely ever see a stand-alone AYCE Sushi restaurant because 100yen sushi shops are so common here, and Sushi is so readily available for cheap at Supermarkets.

I would love to see if someone find an AYCE Sushi here, but I feel like it’s unnecessary.

Meal Sets with VIKING

Kamakura Pasta is a chain restaurant that offers "bread viking"

Another variation of buffets is restaurants with set meals that offer one or two items that’s AYCE. For example, there is a chain pasta restaurant that offers AYCE bread for an extra 300yen.

Another restaurant I know has lunch sets that offer AYCE assortments of appetizers with no extra cost. These lunch sets are often set in stone what they will offer you, so don't expect being able to change anything on these menus. They often contain some type of protein and some pasta or rice. Be sure to look at what they're offering before you walk into these places, especially if you have dietary restrictions.

Salad and soup bars can sometimes be found at western type chain restaurants. They're usually advertised as family-friendly which can be a good option for big groups travelling together.

Sweets Buffet

Swissotel in Osaka offering a Halloween Sweets Buffet

This is actually quite popular in Japan, and there is a chain restaurant called "Sweets Paradise" that is the most well-known by folks. They offer a huge assortment of mostly desserts, plus some palette cleansers that works to fill you up.

A lot of hotels will open up their buffet portion in the afternoon for "sweets vikings". They're usually really a treat to go to since they are themed based on the season.

The most popular regular sweet vikings are Halloween and Christmas. Other times of the year, they might feature a fruit that's in season or something that represents that season.

Have you tried any buffets here in Japan? What are your experiences and thoughts compared to buffets back in your home country???

Honest Review of LCCs - Skymark Airlines

Last time I started this Low Cost Carrier review series with Peach Airlines, so I will now continue with the next one - Skymark Airlines!

I recently took this flight between Okinawa and Kobe and Naha. At the time of writing this, Skymark is doing a huge campaign with Pokémon under “Flying Pikachu”. It’s a travel campaign in Okinawa with lots of Flying Pikachu memorabilia and decor. Anyway, point is - they have a plane that’s decorated with flying Pikachu!

All the Flying Pikachu goods everywhere... T__T

They definitely had me there!

But even without the campaign, I will just say it now - Skymark is the best experience I’ve had in terms of LCCs, so I might not have much to say in the matter here haha.

The Good:

To be honest, EVERYTHING are pretty darn good.

Let's start at the beginning of the journey though. Upon arriving at the airport, I fully expected to just go to an automated check-in machine and you select you didn't bring dangerous shit, then the tickets just print out - and voila, TICKET. Your seats have been decided by god.

Nope. You can select your seats upon check-in, with no extra cost. We bought the lowest tier tickets and we were pleasantly surprised that ALMOST ALL the seats on the flight were available for the picking. The screen has the plane divided by three sections (front, middle, end) so it's sort of a nice visual to decide where in the plane you want to sit. It also clearly indicates with seats cannot be reclined so you can choose wisely. I really liked this!

And of course, best part - the tickets had flying pikachus on them! Teehee...

Can you spot the Pikachu???

Now, onto the flight itself. My goodness, you guys - it was the most leg room I’ve ever had on LCC. I cannot remember a time when you can slip a handbag down under the seat in front of you without having to awkwardly maneuver your legs so you can do that. You really don't need to do that. There is so much space!!

Dat leg space! *chef's' kiss*

What's even better is that they have charging ports! I took two flights with Skymark recently and they both had charging ports. Some might have them under your seat, while the planes equipped with newer seats have them in front of you. It's super convenient if you're taking a flight midday and you need to charge your phone before getting to your destination.

You can also ask for blankets if you need them to cover your legs or something! :)

Snacks are provide on all flights, and free drink service on slightly longer flights. Due to COVID19, they only serve hot coffee now. But I reckon more choices will return once the situation gets better later on. I'm also not really sure where the cutoff between yes drinks and no drinks is, but we did not get drinks during our one hour flight, while we did with a three-hour flight.

Oh, and they gave out masks along with the snacks.

If you wanted more of the KitKats and masks, they were available for the taking as you disembarked the flight. Which I thought was a nice touch!

The other thing I really liked was that if the flight is not crowded, the flight attendants seem to be able to use their discretion to move passengers into empty rows. This could possibly be more practiced due to COVID19, but we did see a cabin attendant approach a passenger asking him if he wanted to move to an empty row since they were available. He obliged. It seems like every group (whether solo, pairs or groups) were able to get their own row since our flight wasn't too crowded. And I thought was a good thing, especially during COVID19.

Another cute personal touch is that each plane has a cute little symbol on the wing. Some have stars, or hearts, or something else. I thought that was just kind of cute, and nice!

It has a cute heart on it! Awww...

Pretty cute huh? ;)

Be Aware:

Since there really isn't much bad, I renamed this section as just things to keep in mind and be aware of. As I did think there were some not-so-amazing downsides to taking Skymark.

We had some piss poor weather in Miyakojima, unfortunately...

We had a situation which caused a delay on our first flight. It's not so much the delay that makes it a bad thing. Delays happen ALL THE TIME. I get it. But the way they dealt with the delay made us really scratch our heads. Normally, a delay is caused by a previous delay from the same route. Or just something that happened in your own route. However, the delay that happened with our flight was because of another route, because they wanted to shorten the delay of another route. So now not one route, but two routes are delayed. I just found it is such a roundabout way of solving a problem that ended up causing more problems elsewhere, if you know what I mean. It seemed unnecessary.

I kind of get why it was done, but... hmm yeah. I suppose I wanted to share this as a caution that it might happen if you end up taking Skymark.

Anyway. Let's talk prices.

They are an LCC, but their flights aren’t always cheapest. There are some flights that might just cost a little less than an ANA or JAL flight, but there are also days where they might end up being much cheaper than Peach Airlines when they're on the pricier ends (think like 8000 yen range). So they are more of a mid-range type flight. Which makes sense given their service and in-flight comfort!

Bottom line is, definitely shop around before committing.

This isn't so much a bad thing either, very standard LCC practice - but their carry-on limit is 10KG. This was Peach's original limit as well, and plenty of budget airlines have the same limit. So keep that in mind!

One last thing that's very much just a personal pet peeve is that they only fly out of Kobe Airport. Getting to Kobe Airport can be a bit of a journey depending on where you live in Kansai. Nothing wrong with the airport itself. It's small, it's practical. But since I don't live in Kobe it is quite a distance for me. There are not express trains that directly go here like they do with KIX (the Haruka with JR). Getting here is pretty straightforward though. As long as you can get yourself to Sannomiya Station, the monorail is only about 20 minutes one-way.

-- Also one interesting thing I noticed was that the Stewardess can choose to wear pants. I’m not sure if it’s a seniority thing or not, but I definitely saw some ladies wear pants instead of the pencil skirts, which I thought was really nice.

Before I go: a personal tip if you're into exploring Airports - Skymark flies exclusively into its own airport if you're flying into Miyakojima. They don't use the Miyakojima Airport on the main island. Rather, they fly out of Shimojishima (it has bridge/road access from Miyako!) and ho boy... their airport can easily be a Resort Hotel of its own!

That's a couch out there surrounded by the pond. Unnecessary luxury, folks.

It's not a huge airport by any means, and the Arrivals building looks nowhere like this - but the Departures Hall is worth exploring if that's your thing. I might write a review of its own one day on it, but for now...

Thanks a lot for reading and see you next time!!