JET Jackpot

I think (or hope) I've said it before, but I do believe I hit the JET jackpot with my placement.

When I first found out that I was: a) going to Towada, and b) teaching elementary/junior high, I was a little...worried, to say the least.

It didn't help when my dad did a little research and tried to reassure me with: "It's got an agricultural university, so it must be a pretty big city." (Actually, it's an animal husbandry university, but close enough.) If anything, that had me more convinced that I was going to the inaka (rural countryside)! But since a lot of the questions during my interview were about how I'd cope if I was sent to rural Japan, even though I wasn't thrilled, I figured I could deal with it.

What had me more worried, though, was that I was going to be teaching junior high and elementary school students. I believe I had specifically written (well, checked off) in my application that I did NOT want to teach at the elementary level. I mean, I don't like (little) kids, and I'm a certified high school English teacher, so I was convinced that I would be best utilized at the high school level.

As it's turned out, however, I now believe that I have the placement that is able to make me the happiest, most satisfied ALT I could possibly be.

Towada has really benefited from having one ALT who has stayed for five years. Andy has done an incredible amount of work to systematically improve English teaching in Towada: he has helped to put in place a quota system for school visits; to make it the standard for teachers to send lesson plans one week in advance; to start an elementary school English newsletter; to make soft copies of flash cards and other resource materials for easy sharing; and many other things!

Not only that, but he's been a rock of support for incoming ALTs. When Allie and I arrived, he met us at the airport, took us grocery shopping, helped us arrange for our internet connections and generally made it as easy as possible for us to settle in. And even now, whenever we have any problems or need help, he's there--moving furniture, explaining how to prevent insect infestations, demonstrating the weed whacker, etc. etc.

Another great thing about Towada is that it's conveniently situated next to Shichinohe, where there were (and still are) great second-year JETs who introduced themselves right away and have been great friends. They too were and have been very helpful in answering questions and assisting us whenever we need them.

We've also been extremely lucky in our office co-workers. Both our first and current supervisors have excellent English and have put a lot of thought and energy into making life and work in a foreign country go as smoothly as possible. Our other co-workers are also great about trying to talk to us (in English or simple Japanese) and have been very friendly and welcoming.

Personally, I also feel lucky to have come with Allie and Juliet. ^_^ We get along well, and they're both more social/outgoing than I am, which is great because if I wasn't going out and doing things with them every once in a while, I'd probably be a hermit.

Towada City itself is a great place to live. It's small enough to be friendly but large enough to provide some degree of anonymity. Plus it's got great scenery: Oirase Gorge, Lake Towada and Mount Hakoda (not to mention the ever-so picturesque rice fields). The city centre is also conveniently laid out in a grid pattern (owing to it's rice field origins) . There are lots of good restaurants and a decent-sized mall, and there are larger cities (Hachinohe, Aomori) within a reasonable driving distance.

As for the job, I love it. My base school only has 39 students in total and not a single one is a "bad." The previous kocho-sensei (just transferred to a different school this past April) really loved studying English, so we used to have English eikaiwa (conversation classes) with the teachers. As a result, all of the teachers can and do try to use at least a little English with me. Our new kocho-sensei doesn't have the same interest/facility in English, but he's also very nice and very relaxed. He's told me that if I'm late or sick it's OK if I just call the school directly (rather than calling my supervisor/the Board of Education first).

I've also had very good relationships with both of the Japanese teachers of English (JTEs) with whom I've worked. My current JTE and I get along particularly well. She's helped me to find a new apartment, to buy a washer/dryer (along with a fridge/TV), to inquire about various services by phone, and to do many other things. (I'm constantly asking her, and the kokugo--Japanese--teacher, about how to say things in Japanese or the meaning of various words/kanji.)

As a result of my good relationship with my JTE and the school in general (not to mention with my office), I've gotten permission to go on the school trip to Tokyo with the ninensei!! I have to use my vacation days and pay for the trip myself, of course, but I'm nonetheless thrilled to be able to go with them! It will be my first time going to Tokyo Disneyworld, Tokyo Tower, and the Canadian Embassy (hopefully the Embassy'll be at least somewhat interesting, since I think we're only going there because of me)! I really want to get to know the students better on this trip, and I hope too, that we will somehow be able to show them the practicality of learning English on the trip.

Really, if I could, the only thing I would change about my job is that I would be at Kirita full time rather than just 3 days a week. Even so, it's good for me to visit other schools (yes, even elementary schools) once in a while, particularly since those visiting days are usually the only days I have a chance to do any necessary in-person banking (banks close at 3pm!!!) .

The flipside (I don't really consider it a negative) of having a base school is that I have longer hours than Andy or Allie (but not as long as Juliet's), since my regular hours there are from 9am-5pm (but I often go earlier and/or stay later). I also do a lot of marking (pretty much everyday that I'm there) and lesson planning (particularly for the extra English classes I do on my own), but I don't really think of it as a hardship, since it makes me feel more like a regular teacher at the school. Then too, I think a lot of my good relationship with the other teachers comes from the fact that they see me putting in the extra time and effort.

So yeah, basically I feel like I've won the JET jackpot in terms of getting a placement that totally fits me. But I'd like to point out, that it's also a matter of perspective.

As much as I've been raving about how great being in Towada is, I could easily dwell on all the "negative" aspects of the placement:

- because Andy and other ALTs have built up the English program so much in Towada, there are very high teaching expectations placed on us, i.e. we need to maintain the standards already set

- again, because of the high level of the Towada English program, Towada ALTs are a heck of a lot busier than ALTs in many other cities (in the second term, I only had two scheduled office days--the rest of the time I had to go to the office after a school visit and/or after hours)

- Towada is incredibly inconvenient (not to mention expensive!) in terms of travel--there's no JR station, and it's far from both the international airport in Tokyo and Sapporo

- since it's a very spread out, rural city, it's hard to survive (although my predecessor did manage it) without a car--expensive considering the cost of gas nowadays, plus the Japanese system of road and car maintenance taxes

I'm sure if I thought a little longer/harder, I'd come up with more, but again, the point is, I choose to focus on all the great things about living in Towada.

The one thing I've really learned since coming to Japan is that in the classroom or in any given situation, the only thing I can fully control is my own attitude and (re)actions. And really, those are the only things I need to control to determine whether things will work out positively or negatively.

Future Goals?

On the bus ride back from Tohoku Machi (where the aforementioned Chuutairen was held) I was talking with Tomabechi-sensei about my plans for when I (eventually) return to Canada.

I think it's fairly safe to say that, unless something terrible happens this year (here or at home) I'll stay for at least 3 years (i.e. until August 2010). After that, though, it's really a big question mark.

In terms of the job, I think I'd be happy staying for the maximum five years, but there are lots of other considerations.

For one thing, I'd be 29 when I finally returned home, and 29 seems a little old to still be deciding what the heck I want to do with my life.

Then too, I really do miss everyone, especially from MCBC. I also miss having a church where I feel at home and part of the community.

Perhaps most importantly, I don't know if I'd still be growing and improving as a teacher at Kirita if I stayed for a fourth or fifth year. I definitely wouldn't stay if I felt like I was just going to be recycling lesson plans and sticking with the status quo. Plus I wonder if it might be better for the school to get a new ALT with fresh ideas after three years with the same person...

A new consideration (just came up today!) is that I've started thinking I might like to take a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certification course when I go back and go into immigration/settlement related work, or possibly head off to Korea or Hong Kong to teach English (probably at the secondary level)...

Of course, that wouldn't help with the "missing everyone" consideration, but at least it gives me some possibilities for future employment.

Mental Fortitude

I attended the Chuutairen (sports meet for junior high schools around this area--Towada, Misawa, Rokunohe, Tohoku Machi, etc.) for the past three days, and the amount of mental (not to mention emotional and physical) fortitude necessary for such competitions was really impressed on my mind.

Today was the finals. Out of about fifteen (a little more, I think) students who competed in table tennis, only four made it to today: three sannensei girls and one ninensei boy.

All three of the girls lost their first matches, but our ninensei won his first match. He started his second match off impressively, winning the first two sets. He started to have a little difficulty in the third, but it was still very close when things started to go downhill. He started missing some serves and shots and then, I suspect, he realized that his father was up in the stands cheering for him (at least, that's when I noticed his father!).

I'm not overly familiar with table tennis, so suffice to say that he lost the third set 11-8. After that it seemed like he lost his confidence/composure. (It probably didn't help that his father went down after he lost that third set to talk to him during the break between sets.) He then proceeded to lose the fourth and fifth set (and, consequently, the match) by successively larger margins.

Shortly after the loss, he had to play another match to determine whether he would be ranked among the top eight, but his opponent was very strong, and (again, this is my suspicion) he was probably still bummed out from the earlier loss and he lost in three straight sets. It was really heartbreaking (especially since he's one of my favourite students). When he came back, he covered his face with his towel and was (manfully) crying.

I read a lot of sports manga and have watched various sports matches (hockey, softball, etc.) but this is the first time I really felt like I "understood" (in the empathetic sense) just how much athletes put into sports and how much it takes to win and how tough it is to lose.

Anyway, on a more cheerful note, even though I'm pretty exhausted (Sat. got up before 5am, was with the students from 7am-3pm; Sun. got up around 5:15am, was with the students from 7am-4:30pm; Mon. got up around 5:30am, was with the students from 8:30am-1pm, then drove to the office and was there from 2pm-4:15pm), I wouldn't give up the experience for anything. It was great to see everyone earnestly cheering their fellow students on ("Nice shot!" "Don't mind!" "Ganbare!" "Fight!") and I felt that my coming to cheer was also appreciated.

Thankfully my office is very nice, and even though I couldn't get daikyu (substitute holiday for when people work on weekends--all the Kirita teachers and students have Tues. and Wed. off from school, but I'm still working!) for my participation, I got a call from my supervisor tonight saying that I could sleep in and just come in the afternoon. ^_^

First Earthquake

So I felt my first earthquake today--not that this is the first earthquake to happen since I've been in Japan, but it's the first one I know that I felt.

We were all at the sports complex in Tohoku Machi for the junior high school sports meet (Towada, Misawa, Tohoku Machi and other nearby cities) watching the students practicing, when suddenly things started going "wobbly." It took about half a minute before I realized that it was an earthquake. By that time, one of the organizers had started making the announcement for all the students to stop practicing and to sit down to wait for the earthquake to stop.

After a minute or two, the tremors stopped and I didn't think anything of it until I got home and found an email from the Canadian Embassy in Japan, asking me to please reply and inform the embassy of my status.

Apparently it was a pretty big one (about 7.2 on the Richter scale), and it happened in Iwate, the prefecture immediately south (on the east side) of Aomori Prefecture. As I am writing this, the news is that 3 have died and between 65-100 people have been injured. There are also some guests at an onsen (hot spring) resort who have been trapped by a landslide.

You can read more about the earthquake here: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gJansrmqtUW8rGrjDrV5wcggd-tw

I guess this is a warning for me that I do actually need to prepare an earthquake kit (water, canned food, first aid supplies, photocopies of important documents, etc.).