Advice from my predecessor:

After asking a few questions, I recieved the following email from my predecessor:

1) How much is rent and key money/deposit?

Like many rural JETs, you will live in a rent-free apartment provided by the town. So, no rent. No key money. No deposit money. All you will pay is utilities and some small random maintenance fees. In general you won't need to worry about money here --in Sata there's nothing to spend it on except gas and groceries! Unless you're heading up to Kagoshima City every weekend for urban fun, you will save up tons of cash. Over three years I've put away a good chunk of cash without even thinking about it.

2) How much do you want for the car?

Here's the car info: I got it for $2000 a year ago when my old car died. I'd offer it to you for $1500, payable whenever you can afford it. In addition you would pay annual car tax ($300?), car insurance($400?), as well as the dreaded "shaken" inspection($1500?) to make sure it's problem-free.

I asked about cheaper options but didn't have muchluck -- all the JETs around here drive cars. If youhave the proper license you could get a motorbike, but you'll be traveling long distances and over mountains, which (I have been informed) means you'd need a pretty powerful engine. A used motorbike with sufficient engine would probably cost around $2000 (plus tax, insurance and "shaken"). I also asked around about the possibility of getting a super-tiny car (mine is normal American-size but they also have super-tiny ones) but I was told that those are actually more expensive (because they get better gas mileage) and that in any case it would be difficult to find a reliable vehicle of any kind for less than $2000. That said, you are welcome to come here and look around for yourself -- people will be happy to help you and I have a feeling there are definitely bargain deals out there if you can find them. If you don'tbuy my car I can easily sell it back to the shop whereI bought it, so there's no pressure. And that reminds me, whatever you end up buying, you can sell back when you leave, either to the next JET or to a used car shop, so all you really pay are the tax, insurance,"shaken" and the amount the car depreciates in value. So, no need to fret.

3) How far from school is your apartment? Is it possible to ride a bike to the school?

In total you will be working at eight different locations: one junior high school (96 kids, ages12-15), six tiny elementary schools (8 to 60 kids each, ages 6-12), plus the community center where you have office days and teach evening classes for adults. The community center and the junior high are right across the street from your apartment, and one elementary is only a five minute walk. The other five elementaries are farther away: the nearest is a 10-15 min drive and the farthest is 40-50 min. Bicycling would be nice if Sata were flat, but getting to any of these five schools requires going over some decent-sized mountains. On average you will probably walk to work three days a week, but will need to drive the other two. So... you will probably be doing a lot of driving. Your nearest neighbor JET (Michael, very cool guy), nearest 24-hr convenience store, and the Minamiosumitown hall are all in Nejime, a 20-25 min drive. The nearest real city is Kanoya, a 60-70 min drive. Kagoshima City is an 80 min drive + 40 min ferry, or a 110 min drive + 15 min ferry. The ferry ports have lots of free parking so you can leave your car behind, nicely avoiding driving/traffic/parking/etc in Kagoshima City, where there is lots of public transportation for you to use. (Our side of the bay is not so lucky -- there are no rail lines and the buses are too slow and infrequent to be useful.)

4) How does car insurance work?

I'm embarrassed to say that I don't really know. The office here is so good at taking care of everything that I just pay money whenever they tell me to, and it's all OK. If you pay the money when the office asks for it, you will be OK, and the office will do all of the paperwork, etc for you. That said, if there's something specific you want to know just tell me and I will ask them about it.

5) Is high-speed internet available? I want to use mycomputer as a phone and communication device.

Your work computers at the community center and the junior high both have decent internet connections -- I am told the junior high will have ADSL soon. I asked around and found out you could get a fast home connection as well, though it may be expensive($50/month was the estimate I was given).

6) I don’t know Japanese, but I’m very interested in learning. How have you learned Japanese in such a rural place?

Well actually... Because of its remote location, Sata has always requested a Japanese-fluent JET. So I already spoke Japanese before I came here, as did the JETs before me. So everyone has been somewhat shocked to discover that you can't speak Japanese. There's sort of a tense excitement -- they are thrilled that a REAL foreigner is finally coming to Sata, but at the same time lots of people are kind of wetting their pants over "how onearth are we going to communicate with him?!?!" To which I reply: "You'll finally have to learn English!" Yes, the sad truth is that... due to years of Japanese-fluent JETs, virtually no one speaks English: the kids, the teachers, the villagers, you name it. Ms. Saigo, the English teacher at the junior high, is the only fluent speaker as far as I know, though you may discover others. As for learning Japanese, your best bet for formal study is probably the correspondence courses offered by CLAIR -- I know a number of people who were successful with that. If that's not enough and you don't mind the driving, Japanese classes are available in Kanoya. But at the same time I want to say: don't learn too much Japanese too quickly. In other words, make them speak some English! The people here are really nice and friendly, and so as soon as you start speaking Japanese they will be overjoyed and start speaking it back at you... and before you know it the English has gone straight out the window. So I'm very excited about the fact that you can't speak Japanese -- please try to take advantage of it if you can.

7) How many hours a week do you work? I’ve heard that some JETs work very little. I’m worried about this because I’m very active and I actually prefer to work as many hours as possible.

Well, I work very few hours (15?) but that's partly because I like it that way. ;) Still, the amount of English teaching you can do is limited by the small number of students -- usually after three hours of teaching, you've taught all the kids in the school! So if you want to work more, your best option is to spend time with the kids doing other things. For example, when you have open periods you can ask themto put you in other classes alongside the kids, like gym class, art class, etc, where you can have fun and join in the activities with them. At the junior high you could probably practice with various sports teams after school, and I imagine you could probably devise some new evening courses for the community center. But yeah... you will definitely have free time at work, and it's up to you to decide what to do with it-- planning amazing wonderful lessons, making fabulous teaching materials, studying Japanese and trying it out on your co-workers, writing email and surfing the internet, etc.

[7)] Also, how is the team teaching? I’m looking forward to this aspect because I want to learn as much as possible about education in Japan.

My experience here has been that one teacher isusually the "main" teacher and the other is the"helper" -- though this hasn't been bad because in Sata you get to be the "main" teacher most of the time...In fact at elementary schools the "main" teacher is almost always you. Elementary teachers are busy with a million other things to do (and they're not ESL teachers anyway) so you will generally make the lesson plans, materials, etc before your visit and share them with the teacher before class. You will then run the class and the teacher will help you. You have a lot of freedom, which makes it an awesome teaching opportunity. Plus, the kids are great and the classes are small -- the largest elementary class is 12 students! In the junior high school, there are two types ofEnglish classes: about half are Regular classes and half are Sentaku classes. Regular classes, with 20-35 students, are where Ms.Saigo is the "main" teacher and the class follows the textbook. In these classes you are the "helper"teacher, reading the dialogues, helping with conversation activities, making a short game/activity for whatever grammar or vocab they're studying, standing by patiently as Saigo explains stuff in Japanese. The other half your junior high classes are Sentaku classes. (Sentaku means "elective" but it's the school that "elects" to take it, not the students.) In any case, I'll be leaving you more detailed info about schools, students, teaching, curriculum, etc, which will be waiting for you when you get here.

8) What are a few things that you would recommendbringing?-

-Deodorant. Lots of it. Japanese deodorant doesn't work.

-Any medicine/vitamins you take regularly. Also, if you wear contact lenses, bring a supply -- they can be expensive and annoying to get here. (And be careful of wearing contacts any where near Sakurajima volcano-- volcanic ash and contact lenses do not go well together.)

- Your state driver's license plus an International Driver's License.

- Gifts for your coworkers here. Ideally these should represent your home town/state/country in some way. One good option is boxes of nice local candies --preferably ones that don't melt or go bad too easily. You could bring a box for the people at the community center, a box for the town office, a box for the junior high teachers, and if you really want to make agood impression, six more boxes for the teachers atthe six elementary schools... so... nine boxes in all? It may sound like a lot but it will make them happy,especially if the boxes are wrapped or come in nicelooking plastic bags.

- Stuff for your self-intro lessons, which you will bedoing all through September. Perhaps photos of your family, friends, pets, house, town, country, school, hobbies, adventures, foods, daily life in the US, etc... anything you can use to creatively introduce yourself, your town, your state, your country. My self-intro was pretty boring but some JETs do really great ones -- Michael (from Australia) brings in kangaroo jerky for the kids to eat, teaches them how to make a koala noise, and shows them how to play cricket! So bring anything you might want for a funself-intro lesson.

- You will want at least one pair of comfortable sandals/slippers to wear inside the schools and the community center, since you can't wear outdoor shoes indoors. (I actually have three pairs, one at the community center, one at the junior high, and one in the car to take to the elementaries.) But unless yourfeet are big (say, size 13+) you should probably wait until you get here, so you can see what the other teachers are wearing and get something similar.

- Which reminds me, you don't need to bring lots of fancy clothes -- just one set for those rare occasions when you need to look nice, like first meetings, formal parties, prefectural trainings, etc. In general Sata is more casual than the rest of Japan. For teaching, any non-jeans pants plus any shirtw/collar will do, as long as you don't look grubby. And if there are any clothes you need you can buy them here -- a chain called UNI-QLO in Kagoshima or Kanoya has good clothes at good prices.

- Make sure all your socks are new-looking or actually new, since you will constantly be taking off yourshoes.

- Finally, bring your hiking boots, camping gear, snorkel, etc. This area is great for outdoor stuff! Anything you don't need at the very beginning (e.g.warm clothes, year long deodorant supply, etc) you should probably ship to yourself. Shipping stuff is so much more fun than lugging it around Tokyo.

As for furnishings, what does the apartment have?

The apartment is small but it has pretty much everything you should need, all purchased by the town for your benefit. The kitchen has a fridge/freezer, small microwave/oven, rice cooker, gas range, table and chairs, pots and pans, plates, utensils, etc. There's a tatami-mat living room with TV, VCR, heater/aircon, electric fan, chairs, table, telephone. There's a clothes washer (you have a little balcony to hang clothes out to dry -- most Japanese peopledon't own dryers), and a bedroom with closet, desk, chair, lamp, and hard bed. There are also lots of other small random things: a hairdryer, bicycle helmet, coffee maker, alarm clock, kite, fire extinguisher, etc. The only major purchase you'll probably consider would be a mattress for the hard bed if you find it too uncomfortable to sleep on. Also you'll find a lot of empty wall space so you might want to get stuff to cover it with. But don't worry about forgetting stuff-- any things you might need for the apartment can befound at a big home supply store called NISHIMUTA about 30 min drive from Sata.

If there's anything specific you're wondering about, just ask. So... I hope I've answered your questions! If youhave more, just send them along -- June is the monsoonso (as you can see) there's lots of indoor time forwriting. Good luck with all the preparations!

Peter

P.S. I'm glad you like hiking! I do too -- some of my favorites are:- Yakushima Island traverse, including Mt. Miyanoura. Rare old growth forest, awesome mountain scenery. Check the weather forecast beforehand, and go only if it's sunny. Ferries leave from Kagoshima City.- Mt. Karakuni and other hikes in Kirishima NationalPark. Craters, hot springs, weird volcanic stuff. At the northern border of Kagoshima-ken, about 3 hrs drive north.- My favorite nearby hike is Mt. Tsuji in Nejime. You can hike up the front of it (hard) or the back (easy)-- either way takes you to the great view at the top. Sata also has a loop of forest trails at Mt. Inao.- Exploring the southern islands: my favorites areYakushima (above), Amami-Oshima/Kakeroma (jungles,beaches, snorkeling), Io-jima (volcano and hotspring), and the rural islands farther south inOkinawa-ken. And if you've never visited Japan before, you'lldefinitely want to see the cultural sites (temples,gardens, etc) at Kyoto and Nara, which are pretty faraway but certainly worth the trip.

Links

I’ve added a few more links to the links list in the sidebar. Enjoy the exploration!

The Two Special People in My life Who Made All of It Possible: My Parents 

Friends and I Celebrating Graduation in Arcata 

Yeah! I Know Where I've Been Placed:

Well, I found out where I'm going to be placed. My assignment will be in Kagoshima-ken, Sata-cho. Kagoshima is the prefecture, which is kind of like the county, and Sata-cho is the town. The town's population is around 3,500. In a tourist handbook, Lonely Planet, it says that Kagoshima is the Naples of Japan. The climate is semi-tropical and the oceans are cobalt blue. The area is surrounded by National Parks, volcanos, and hot springs. Wow! I'm getting really excited. Here is a link:http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/spn/kagoshima/welcome.html
Go directly southeast from Nagasakibana. The tip of that peninsula is Sata. It is number 5 on the map. I'm at the southern most tip of Kyushu. They have not told me what grade I'm teaching yet. Until then, I'll do as much research on the area as possible.

JET and The Title of This Blog:

JET is an acronym, meaning Japanese Exchange Teaching. The Japanese consulate arranges the job after an intensive application process, which began in November of ’04 and was finalized in May ‘05. I will be an assistant language teacher, meaning that I will be co-teaching English with a native of Japan. Here is the link to the detailed and official explanation of JET:http://www.jetprogramme.org/

A Japanese Miscellany, written by Lafciadio Hearn, inspired me the title my blog. There is a small section in Hearn’s studies of Japanese culture that describes the significance of Dragonflies in Japan. He says that in Japan the change of the seasons can be calculated by the hatching of the dragonflies. As spring transitions to summer, different dragonflies hatch because of the change in temperature and humidity, and as a result of their prevalence, Dragonflies are a salient symbol in the arts, especially poetry. Supposedly, twenty-six hundred years ago, Emperor Jimmu was hiking in the region of Yamato, and looking over the land, he felt it resembled the shape of a dragon-fly. Thus, the ancient name for Japan is Akitsushima – Island of the Dragon-fly. In a later incident, another Emperor, Emperor Yuriaku, was hunting when a gadfly landed on and bit his arm. Suddenly, a dragon-fly swooped down and gobbled up the gadfly. At that moment, Emperor Yuriaku composed this ode (Hearn 79):

Even a creeping insect
Waits upon the Great Lord:
Thy form it will bear,
O Yamato, land of the dragon-fly.

I'm interested to see how many insects still wait on the Emperor. My guess is that his power is more subtle and symbolic now, and in the meantime, the dragonflies still hatch.

Looking toward Japan from College Cove, California 

Why Japan?

I get this question all the time. With earnest looks of either encouragement or disdain leaping from their faces, many friends, colleagues, and strangers have asked me about my intentions for moving so far away. In truth, I always need to pause for a moment and think about it. Why do I want to leave such a place -- Arcata, California, and Home -- that has endowed me with so much and left such a great influence on my being? I have been lucky to have friends who would eagerly share their homes and food with me, to have relationships that have nurtured each ounce of my character, and to have family who have exhausted their lives supporting and believing in me. Much of the people and experiences in my life have caused me to sow seeds and grow roots that dig deep into the stratum.

Those moments and the people who go along with them have been extraordinary, but they have not existed in a vacuum. I'm going to Japan because I'm not ready to become sedentary, to dig deep into this culture or this reality. I'm restless. Between the moments of joy, there are other seconds, days, and weeks of my life that create a discontent with the status quo. The moments linger in the back of my throat and conscience, unnamed and distasteful. Here, in Arcata, I often look out to the sea. Deep and dark, the sea calls out to me. As it rhythmically sighs, the ebb and flow pull at my emotions and desires. The smell of salt, swirling faintly with rebirth and decay, awakens me. I'm seduced by its infinite multitude, beauty, and possibility. I feel welcome to explore its unwavering mystery.

The sea exists as a metaphor for me: it is the opening and gateway to the rest of the world. While reading about the early adventures of Ernesto Guevara, I found refuge in his words delicately written in The Motorcycle Diaries:

We would look out over the immense sea, full of white-flecked and green reflections, the two of us leaning side by side on the railing, each of us far away, flying in his own aircraft to the stratospheric regions of his own dreams. There we understood that our vocation, our true vocation, was to move for eternity along the roads and seas of the world. Always curious, looking into everything that came before our eyes, sniffing out each corner but only ever faintly – not setting down roots in any land or staying long enough to see the substratum of things; the outer limits would suffice (76).

I long to reach out to the rest of the world. There are over 6 billion people on this planet with different sensibilities and worldviews. While in Japan, I look forward to seeing how they conceive education, transportation, food, family, and government. Of course, the Japanese will not be a homogeneous culture, and I expect to find many different perspectives and points of view. Nevertheless, I believe that the overall experience will be a completely different paradigm when compared to life lived in the U.S. I am trying to go with an open mind; I am conscious and wary of the western mentality of the paternalistic conqueror. I hope that I don't come off as being brash or pompous. We'll see.

All in all, My motives for going to Japan go beyond my melodramatic cravings. In my application essay for JET, I wrote the following passage that I believe emphasizes my true motives and feelings:

I have a strong desire to develop cross-cultural empathy and work in cooperative teaching environments because I enjoy interaction and problem solving with others. Education is communication, and it is reciprocal. To better understand how non-native speakers of English acquire language, I feel the need to subject myself to a similar experience. I must become the immigrant, the language learner, the pupil. In Japan, I will need to deal with the dizzying process of acculturation. Though I have traveled throughout Mexico and Spain, and I learned much about their culture, my travels did not lead to the in-depth cultural experience that I am looking for. The JET program affords the opportunity of full immersion and an understanding of Japanese public education while experiencing the subtleties of Japanese culture. By working alongside the Japanese, I will experience the Japanese perspective on language learning, teaching, and cross-cultural communication. I believe that I have had an excellent educational experience in the United States thus far, but I feel the intercultural experience provided by JET is a priceless opportunity. Ultimately, it will refine my character as an educator.

As the passage illustrates, I see the JET program as an opportunity of cultural exchange and education, and when the adventure has ended, I hope to better understand who I am and the world in which we live.

Disclaimer:

Like this blog, I am a work in progress. There will be factual, spelling, and grammatical errors in this blog. There will be claims and sentiments full of prejudice, contradiction, and misconception. These flaws, however, will be revealing because this web log is a tool for reflection. I plan to flesh out my flaws and paint a clearer picture of myself. This site is also a tool to excavate and appreciate my talents. While this site is about me, it is also about Japan and education. Finally, it is to be the electronic thread keeping me in contact with family, friends, and colleagues. Feel free to make comments or suggestions. Enjoy!