I keep putting off writing a new entry every night, but I
think it was understandable that at first my time here in Japan would be one
big whirlwind at the start.
So here are a few brief things about my literal current
situation. In between classes (and
unless you are allowed, or invited to sit in on other classes) you get to sit
in the staff room at your desk. Being an
assistant, and not yet fully trusted by some of my teachers, this can be a VERY
boring time. This is what I’m doing
right now. I’ve finished giving my
lesson for the day, so until lunch I have pretty much nothing else to do. But why waste this time? Instead, if I have the time and I can, I will
be trying to write out some of my blog entries.
At least it will give me something to do and give the appearance that I
am working to my co-workers. LOL one of
the advantages to being the only fluent English speaker in the office I suppose
is that it will just look like I am typing something up, not many will be able
to fully understand what exactly I am writing.
What I really wanted to reflect on during this post was what
my first week here in Japan was like.
Since I was a late upgrade, that means I missed most of the
nice long orientations in Tokyo. After I
landed and was gathered together with some other late arrival JETs we were then
taken to the same hotel orientation was at, but for only two nights. Our one day in Tokyo was for a major crash
course orientation session, and then the next morning we would depart ways to
our designated towns/cities. For me that
meant a bus ride to the second airport in Tokyo (Hanaeda), and then an hour and
a half or so flight to Izumo, followed by an hour drive to my small town. There was a Shimane Prefecture representative
to guide me along my trip to Izumo, and then at that airport I was met by my
supervisor and another worker from the town office that was kind of my
translator. I didn’t have too much time
to myself at first since there was sooo much to take care of!
During the weekend I was taken on trips to the larger town
of Matsue for supplies that may be missing from my apartment, set up my
cellphone contract, and car insurance. I
was also shown to a local supermarket that I could buy food for the weekend at
(which is actually a short walk from my apartment, so yay!) The rest of the
week was also packed full of various appointments, and showing me around town a
little bit. During the week, I was
officially starting work at the Board of Education Office, but through the week
I had various meetings with people and traveled about town. A couple of the days had time dedicated to my
supervisor driving me around town and showing me how to get to the various
schools. This also gave me the
opportunity to briefly meet the staff and give a short self-introduction to
them. It was also during this week that
I had an appointment to meet with the mayor of the town! There was a brief ceremony in his office
where I was presented with my official contract for the school year (Definitely
something to frame!). This did mean
though, that the rest of the day while I was in the office I had to once again
make myself look busy. This included
making lists of things I needed still for the house, practicing writing my
self-introduction to my future students, and whatever else I could
scribble. At least there was something
to do every day to break up the long hours of “working” at my desk, and every
day my supervisor took the other JET and me to eat out at these really good
restaurants! I also had to go get my
bank account set up during the weekday, and I got my inkan (personal seal)
officially registered.
During this first week as well (and actually even a little
bit longer) I also didn’t have access to my internet connection. It was already set up, but the PC tablet I
brought with me only had USB ports, so I didn’t have anything to connect it
to. This meant that my evening
activities were pretty much limited to the iTunes movies that I already had
saved on my external hard drive. Though
this wasn’t always a bad thing, there were times that I was pretty tired when I
got home anyway, so I was fine with it.
One of the exciting things that happened my first week being
in town was that I was right on time for the next festival! There was all kinds of yummy food booths,
some that were merchant stalls with various things to buy, and the highlight
was by far the beautiful fireworks display!
All in all a pretty good start to my year here I think!
