I received a letter from the Takayama Board of Education today! It includes information about my placement, my housing, and my contract. I've selected a few blurbs out of it to share:
Your Placement
You have been placed in Gifu Prefecture, and will be based in the community of Takayama, which has a population of about 95,000. Takayama lies in the center of Japan, in the Northern Japanese Alps, about 560 meters (1850 ft) above sea level. It is approximately 130 kilometers (80 miles) from the prefectural capital of Gifu City, and another 30 kilometers from Nagoya City, one of Japan's largest metropolises. Takayama is famous as a destination for Japanese and foreign tourists, because of its beautiful natural surroudings, traditional architecture, rural atmosphere, as well as the famous Takayama Festival held twice a year.
You will be arriving in the summer. Takayama is warm in the summer, and like the rest of Japan usually quite humid, though not to the degree of lower-lying areas. Winters in the region are severe, although Takayama's basin surroundings shield it from the massive snow buildups of some of the nearby smaller villages. At any rate, please keep in mind the varying climate when packing.
Your Workplace
You will be working at one of 12 junior high schools in Takayama, with weekly trips to elementary schools, though your Contracting Organization is the Takayama City Board of Education (BOE). One ALT at the BOE, a fourth year American, will be staying and will be a recourse for the next year. She will contact you when you come to Japan.
Your Accomodation
You will be living in an apartment. Rent is covered by the BOE, though you will be responsible for utilities, costing around 10,000 yen per month depending on usage and seasons. Your first payday is on August 21st, so please bring enough money to tide you over until then. The necesssary items for living have been provided for you, including bedding, washing machine, television, fridge, heater, gas stove, table, chairs, lighting, dishes. Your departing predecessor (and previous tennant of the flat) will contact you about any other details.
So how awesome is that? Rent's covered, furnished apartment, weekley elementary school visits? And only one junior high. Hopefully the apartment isn't a dump, but I'll have to wait until I am contacted by my predecessor to find that out. But now I can actually fill out the visa application! More paperwork! ha ha ha ha ha
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
Denshi Jisho!
Ok, this doesn't technically have anything to do with JET, but it is sort of Japan-related, and I don't have many things to post about right now since I'm still waiting to hear anything from Takayama. I did hear a rumor we should get some kind of notification around Tues or Weds of this week... but we'll see.
I have been looking for a good English/ Japanese electronic dictionary (denshi jisho) to take with me. It just so happens the Nintendo DS has a "game" called Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten, which is essentially an electronic dictionary. Plus, you can draw in kanji to look up via the touch pad of the DS, and it's relatively inexpensive as compared with most traditional electronic dictionaries.
So, in the name of frugality and common sense, I purchased a Nintendo DS Lite yesterday. I wanted a blue one, but the only options Best Buy has are black, silver, and pink. So I went with black.
I was real impatient to get into it in the car on the way home. Which proved eventful, as the packaging for the thing is virtually impenetrable without scissors...
Eventually I persevered, and voila! We have my newtoy dictionary
Since I have to wait for the dictionary game, I purchsed Super Mario Bros. And it's been a hoot! lol The screen is really nice. And I love the dual-screen and the touch pad on it. And drawing stuff with the stylus. Which I am sure I will lose fairly quickly. Heh heh.
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass doesn't come out in the US until December. But, fortunately, I am moving to Japan in a month and it's alreayd been released there. muahahahahaa!!!
I have been looking for a good English/ Japanese electronic dictionary (denshi jisho) to take with me. It just so happens the Nintendo DS has a "game" called Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten, which is essentially an electronic dictionary. Plus, you can draw in kanji to look up via the touch pad of the DS, and it's relatively inexpensive as compared with most traditional electronic dictionaries.
So, in the name of frugality and common sense, I purchased a Nintendo DS Lite yesterday. I wanted a blue one, but the only options Best Buy has are black, silver, and pink. So I went with black.
I was real impatient to get into it in the car on the way home. Which proved eventful, as the packaging for the thing is virtually impenetrable without scissors...
Eventually I persevered, and voila! We have my new
Since I have to wait for the dictionary game, I purchsed Super Mario Bros. And it's been a hoot! lol The screen is really nice. And I love the dual-screen and the touch pad on it. And drawing stuff with the stylus. Which I am sure I will lose fairly quickly. Heh heh.
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass doesn't come out in the US until December. But, fortunately, I am moving to Japan in a month and it's alreayd been released there. muahahahahaa!!!
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Aikido-less Jen
As I mentioned before, I've been studying Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido (commonly referred to as Ki-Aikido) for just over 2 years. My Sensei generously offered to look into possible Ki-Aikido dojos in Takayama that I could study at while I was there.
He informed me after class tonight that, unfortunately, there are no Ki-Aikido dojos in all of Gifu Prefecture. Bummer!
I can't say I was surprised to hear there were no dojos for my school of Aikido in Takayama, but the entire prefecture? It sounds like the closest dojo I might be able to train at is in Osaka, which would really only be feasible if I went to a conference or something. But I would definitely have to take vacation time for that.
So, it's doubtful I will be able to progress much in Aikido over the next year, though Nabel Sensei did mention that I could continue to study the art of Ki, on my own, while I am there. Which is something, at least. And I will of course bring along my keikogi (uniform for training), since you never know what opportunities might pop up ^_^
He informed me after class tonight that, unfortunately, there are no Ki-Aikido dojos in all of Gifu Prefecture. Bummer!
I can't say I was surprised to hear there were no dojos for my school of Aikido in Takayama, but the entire prefecture? It sounds like the closest dojo I might be able to train at is in Osaka, which would really only be feasible if I went to a conference or something. But I would definitely have to take vacation time for that.
So, it's doubtful I will be able to progress much in Aikido over the next year, though Nabel Sensei did mention that I could continue to study the art of Ki, on my own, while I am there. Which is something, at least. And I will of course bring along my keikogi (uniform for training), since you never know what opportunities might pop up ^_^
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Books!
I received a package from the Consulate General of Japan yesterday that included a letter and two books, the JET Programme General Information Handbook and Japanese for JETs.
The handbook comes complete with a cheesey informational video about adjusting to life in Japan and what to expect in the program. Dave and I watched it last night; if its goal was to get me thinking more about what will *actually* happen once I do arrive in Japan, then it worked ^__^ I am definitely feeling the impending upheaval of my life, and the move seems much more real now. That might have something to do with my turning in my letter of resignation at my job on Thursday as well...
Anyway, the handbook is full of information about things to do before you leave (forms to fill out, tax information, bringing prescriptions to Japan, etc), what to expect in way of a contract, working conditions, general cultural things about living in Japan, etc. It is also written in both English and Japanese.
Yep. Japanese.
What have I gotten myself into?!?!! XD
Still haven't heard anything from Takayama or my predecessor. But I am motivated to actually fill out the IRS Form 6166 to get my Japanese tax exemption. Probably shouldn't have put that off until mid-June...
The handbook comes complete with a cheesey informational video about adjusting to life in Japan and what to expect in the program. Dave and I watched it last night; if its goal was to get me thinking more about what will *actually* happen once I do arrive in Japan, then it worked ^__^ I am definitely feeling the impending upheaval of my life, and the move seems much more real now. That might have something to do with my turning in my letter of resignation at my job on Thursday as well...
Anyway, the handbook is full of information about things to do before you leave (forms to fill out, tax information, bringing prescriptions to Japan, etc), what to expect in way of a contract, working conditions, general cultural things about living in Japan, etc. It is also written in both English and Japanese.
Yep. Japanese.
What have I gotten myself into?!?!! XD
Still haven't heard anything from Takayama or my predecessor. But I am motivated to actually fill out the IRS Form 6166 to get my Japanese tax exemption. Probably shouldn't have put that off until mid-June...
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
The application steps of JET
Ok, so to start with, I'll go through the steps required to get in to the program.
1. Assuming you already know about the program, the first thing you have to do is fill out the application. It's incredibly long and asks insanely detailed questions about stuff you haven't thought about in years. For example, I had to find my old passport in order to fill in the international experience section because they wanted every place you had been to from birth. I even had my mother looking up dates from home with no idea why I was asking her these silly questions. In addition, you're going to have to dupe 2 people into writing you letters of reference, preferably someone who has been in a position of authority relative to you. In my case, I went with a former manager and my sensei from Aikido.
2. Once you've got the application filled out, it's time to write your statement of purpose. 2 pages long, with 12 point font, double spaced, and 1 inch margins. And if you screw up the formatting, it won't matter how stellar your essay is; you've got to learn to follow rules if you want to live in Japan :) The statement of purpose should include reference to your qualifications, your interest in the program, and why you want to go to Japan. I hadn't written an essay in years, and I put off writing that stupid statement right up to the last minute. It was almost as difficult as writing the essay that got me in to grad school. Mostly I played up that I had traveled extensively thanks to my airline-brat upbringing, had been to Japan, do a lot of volunteer work, and that I was a TA in grad school. Also, I made a big point of stating what I wanted to get out of the program and what I wanted to bring to the kids over there - mostly cultural exchange type stuff.
3. The next step is to pester your reference-writers, get all your transcripts together in time, photo copy your diploma(s), put everything in the correct order, and ship that puppy out before the early December deadline. In typical Jen fashion, I shipped mine overnight mail on Dec 4, just in time to make the Dec 5 cut off :D
4. Now you wait. For 2 months you wait. You get a taste of it in the beginning, before they *actually* post the application on the web in November, several weeks after they say they will, but it is nothing in comparison to this. Once you get the notification that they have received your application, you hear nothing. Merry Christmas.
5. Near the end of January, when you've somewhat forgotten that you had applied, you will find out if you have passed the first round. They send you a number when they notify you they have received your application, and this they will post in an enormous spreadsheet on the internet. There you must search for it, either with the people who passed or those who didn't. I, obviously, was in the group who passed. From what I could tell, it appeared about half of the people who applied made it past this step.
6. Next you will be contacted by your local consulate congratulating you on making it thus far, then you will wait again to find out when the interviews will take place. And you will wait for about a month. In my case, there was a very good chance that I was supposed to be traveling for work when the interviews were to happen, and this was quite stressful for me given that there are 2 days, and 2 days only, when these interviews would happen. And if you could not make it to one of those dates you were dropped from the list. Fortunately for me, it worked out that I didn't have to go anywhere and the consulate was kind enough to give me some advanced warning of the interview timing.
7. Interview prep. This is probably the most difficult part of the entire process - you will be assigned a date and time for your interview, which is non-negotiable. Mine was the second-to-last interview with "Group A", on day number 2 of interviews. I neglected to request a day or time when we signed up for the interviews. I saw it as a crap-shoot - either you go first and they are eager and hit you with horrible questions, or you go second and they're tired of doing interviews and you get horrible questions. In order to prepare for the myriad of questions they were most likely going to ask me, I practiced lists of questions from people who had already gone through the process, posted on the internet. Lists and lists and lists of questions, compiled over years of interviews. Only one of which I was actually asked. Typical.
8. The interview. On your assigned day, you should arrive 30 minutes early for your interview. From what I had gathered, there would be a receptionist there to greet you and sign you in, and he/she would take note of when you arrived. I worked in the morning, dressed in interview clothes (feeling totally obvious in the business-casual atmosphere of my office). Well, I wouldn't say I actually got any work done, but I showed up at least. I arrived for my interview 30 minutes early, as prescribed in my instructions. Not too early, not too late. Followed the signs for the "JET Interviews", and I found a line of people waiting in a hallway that was under construction >.< We were told by a man hurriedly exiting the room at the end of the hallway that they were running behind and to just wait in the room until we were called. There were 4 different groups of interviewers - A, B, C, and D. I was in group A. No receptionist, no other instructions than that. Just wait. We sat in the waiting room, nervously chatting, until one by one, people were called into their interviews.
After a small gaffe involving the girl ahead of me in group A and I interrupting another interview, I was finally called in. Because of the construction, my interview was actually on another floor. Way up at the top of the building. So I was escorted up the elevator to a large room with a splendid view of Denver and the mountains by one of my 3 interviewers. The man who came to get me appeared very tired and seemed somewhat stressed, so I tried my best to alleviate the tension by chatting virtually non-stop on the ride up. I was really worried about being asked questions I had no idea how to answer, but as it turned out they were all really interested in me and were so eager to ask me questions about myself that they int erupted each other. And I began the interview by cracking jokes and asking them questions, which seemed to disarm them well as the most difficult question I had involved being served whale at a party. In fact, it was probably the most pleasant interview I've ever been on, and I left feeling awesome and I just knew that I was in.
9. Once the interview is over, the interviewers will send their recommendations on and you will again wait. Until some time in April. I was notified on April 3 that I had been accepted, although they won't give you a placement until after you formally accept. They send you a packet of forms you will need to complete and send back before a deadline near the end of the month. It included my response (yes or no), a very quick medical exam that for some reason includes a chest x-ray (for TB I know, but they didn't request anything else like blood work or vaccination history or anything), pictures (because everybody in Japan has to include a [passport-sized] photo of themselves with their applications), and an FBI background check. This was the first year they have done the background check, so there were plenty of snags associate with that. But what is life without a little drama, eh?
10. After sending in your response in April, you must once again, yes, wait to find out your placement. They say you will be notified in May, so I was on the lookout, quite foolishly, from May 1 on. As it turned out, I found out May 21. And I was in Utah for work so had virtually no opportunity to research my new home.
11. At this point, June 4, I have received notification of where I am going, but have not actually made contact with the local Board of Education (BOE) where I will be teaching. They are supposed to get in touch with me, "soon", but we all know what that means ;) Hopefully I will also be able to get in touch with my predecessor to find out about housing and what will be left for me and what I will have to purchase once I get there.
12. At some point I will have to begin packing, my American-ness in 2 (maybe 3 if I'm willing to pay extra), suitcases checked on the plane. There will be a mandatory, pre-departure orientation on July 27, and then I head out to Japan on July 28, arriving in Tokyo on July 29 for 3 days of orientation before being shipped out to Takayama. Of course, I have not heard yet anything other than we are leaving on July 28; no info on airline, flight number, or time. But then again if I've learned anything through this process it's that not-knowing is just another part of the JET experience :)
1. Assuming you already know about the program, the first thing you have to do is fill out the application. It's incredibly long and asks insanely detailed questions about stuff you haven't thought about in years. For example, I had to find my old passport in order to fill in the international experience section because they wanted every place you had been to from birth. I even had my mother looking up dates from home with no idea why I was asking her these silly questions. In addition, you're going to have to dupe 2 people into writing you letters of reference, preferably someone who has been in a position of authority relative to you. In my case, I went with a former manager and my sensei from Aikido.
2. Once you've got the application filled out, it's time to write your statement of purpose. 2 pages long, with 12 point font, double spaced, and 1 inch margins. And if you screw up the formatting, it won't matter how stellar your essay is; you've got to learn to follow rules if you want to live in Japan :) The statement of purpose should include reference to your qualifications, your interest in the program, and why you want to go to Japan. I hadn't written an essay in years, and I put off writing that stupid statement right up to the last minute. It was almost as difficult as writing the essay that got me in to grad school. Mostly I played up that I had traveled extensively thanks to my airline-brat upbringing, had been to Japan, do a lot of volunteer work, and that I was a TA in grad school. Also, I made a big point of stating what I wanted to get out of the program and what I wanted to bring to the kids over there - mostly cultural exchange type stuff.
3. The next step is to pester your reference-writers, get all your transcripts together in time, photo copy your diploma(s), put everything in the correct order, and ship that puppy out before the early December deadline. In typical Jen fashion, I shipped mine overnight mail on Dec 4, just in time to make the Dec 5 cut off :D
4. Now you wait. For 2 months you wait. You get a taste of it in the beginning, before they *actually* post the application on the web in November, several weeks after they say they will, but it is nothing in comparison to this. Once you get the notification that they have received your application, you hear nothing. Merry Christmas.
5. Near the end of January, when you've somewhat forgotten that you had applied, you will find out if you have passed the first round. They send you a number when they notify you they have received your application, and this they will post in an enormous spreadsheet on the internet. There you must search for it, either with the people who passed or those who didn't. I, obviously, was in the group who passed. From what I could tell, it appeared about half of the people who applied made it past this step.
6. Next you will be contacted by your local consulate congratulating you on making it thus far, then you will wait again to find out when the interviews will take place. And you will wait for about a month. In my case, there was a very good chance that I was supposed to be traveling for work when the interviews were to happen, and this was quite stressful for me given that there are 2 days, and 2 days only, when these interviews would happen. And if you could not make it to one of those dates you were dropped from the list. Fortunately for me, it worked out that I didn't have to go anywhere and the consulate was kind enough to give me some advanced warning of the interview timing.
7. Interview prep. This is probably the most difficult part of the entire process - you will be assigned a date and time for your interview, which is non-negotiable. Mine was the second-to-last interview with "Group A", on day number 2 of interviews. I neglected to request a day or time when we signed up for the interviews. I saw it as a crap-shoot - either you go first and they are eager and hit you with horrible questions, or you go second and they're tired of doing interviews and you get horrible questions. In order to prepare for the myriad of questions they were most likely going to ask me, I practiced lists of questions from people who had already gone through the process, posted on the internet. Lists and lists and lists of questions, compiled over years of interviews. Only one of which I was actually asked. Typical.
8. The interview. On your assigned day, you should arrive 30 minutes early for your interview. From what I had gathered, there would be a receptionist there to greet you and sign you in, and he/she would take note of when you arrived. I worked in the morning, dressed in interview clothes (feeling totally obvious in the business-casual atmosphere of my office). Well, I wouldn't say I actually got any work done, but I showed up at least. I arrived for my interview 30 minutes early, as prescribed in my instructions. Not too early, not too late. Followed the signs for the "JET Interviews", and I found a line of people waiting in a hallway that was under construction >.< We were told by a man hurriedly exiting the room at the end of the hallway that they were running behind and to just wait in the room until we were called. There were 4 different groups of interviewers - A, B, C, and D. I was in group A. No receptionist, no other instructions than that. Just wait. We sat in the waiting room, nervously chatting, until one by one, people were called into their interviews.
After a small gaffe involving the girl ahead of me in group A and I interrupting another interview, I was finally called in. Because of the construction, my interview was actually on another floor. Way up at the top of the building. So I was escorted up the elevator to a large room with a splendid view of Denver and the mountains by one of my 3 interviewers. The man who came to get me appeared very tired and seemed somewhat stressed, so I tried my best to alleviate the tension by chatting virtually non-stop on the ride up. I was really worried about being asked questions I had no idea how to answer, but as it turned out they were all really interested in me and were so eager to ask me questions about myself that they int erupted each other. And I began the interview by cracking jokes and asking them questions, which seemed to disarm them well as the most difficult question I had involved being served whale at a party. In fact, it was probably the most pleasant interview I've ever been on, and I left feeling awesome and I just knew that I was in.
9. Once the interview is over, the interviewers will send their recommendations on and you will again wait. Until some time in April. I was notified on April 3 that I had been accepted, although they won't give you a placement until after you formally accept. They send you a packet of forms you will need to complete and send back before a deadline near the end of the month. It included my response (yes or no), a very quick medical exam that for some reason includes a chest x-ray (for TB I know, but they didn't request anything else like blood work or vaccination history or anything), pictures (because everybody in Japan has to include a [passport-sized] photo of themselves with their applications), and an FBI background check. This was the first year they have done the background check, so there were plenty of snags associate with that. But what is life without a little drama, eh?
10. After sending in your response in April, you must once again, yes, wait to find out your placement. They say you will be notified in May, so I was on the lookout, quite foolishly, from May 1 on. As it turned out, I found out May 21. And I was in Utah for work so had virtually no opportunity to research my new home.
11. At this point, June 4, I have received notification of where I am going, but have not actually made contact with the local Board of Education (BOE) where I will be teaching. They are supposed to get in touch with me, "soon", but we all know what that means ;) Hopefully I will also be able to get in touch with my predecessor to find out about housing and what will be left for me and what I will have to purchase once I get there.
12. At some point I will have to begin packing, my American-ness in 2 (maybe 3 if I'm willing to pay extra), suitcases checked on the plane. There will be a mandatory, pre-departure orientation on July 27, and then I head out to Japan on July 28, arriving in Tokyo on July 29 for 3 days of orientation before being shipped out to Takayama. Of course, I have not heard yet anything other than we are leaving on July 28; no info on airline, flight number, or time. But then again if I've learned anything through this process it's that not-knowing is just another part of the JET experience :)
Beginning
I've set this blog up to serve as a record for my adventure participation in the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program, and as a way to keep in touch with friends and family while I am in Japan.
Let me begin by way of an introduction. My name is Jen, and my hometown is near Denver, Colorado. I graduated with a bachelor's degree in geology from CU Boulder in 2003, a master's degree in environmental engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in 2004, and I began working in soil and groundwater remediation for an environmental consulting company in Denver in 2005.
I've been a fan of Japanese culture for years, enjoying the wonders of their entertainment industry and cuisine, learning the language (albeit poorly), and studying Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido, in which I have achieved the rank of 4th Kyu. I found out about the JET program at the career fair at CSM shortly before I graduated in December 2004. I opted at the time to pursue my career, however the idea has stuck with me since then and last fall I decided it was time to take the plunge and applied.
I'll be posting about the application process and the agonizing wait that accompanied it, and also about the last remaining 2 months leading up to my departure for Takayama-shi, in Gifu-ken in later posts. For now, welcome to my blog!
PS - The title Rurouni comes from one of my favorite series, Rurouni Kenshin. It is the story of a wandering swordsman in Meji-era Japan, with rurouni being a word invented by the author to mean "wanderer". I found it quite fitting for this journal :)
Let me begin by way of an introduction. My name is Jen, and my hometown is near Denver, Colorado. I graduated with a bachelor's degree in geology from CU Boulder in 2003, a master's degree in environmental engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in 2004, and I began working in soil and groundwater remediation for an environmental consulting company in Denver in 2005.
I've been a fan of Japanese culture for years, enjoying the wonders of their entertainment industry and cuisine, learning the language (albeit poorly), and studying Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido, in which I have achieved the rank of 4th Kyu. I found out about the JET program at the career fair at CSM shortly before I graduated in December 2004. I opted at the time to pursue my career, however the idea has stuck with me since then and last fall I decided it was time to take the plunge and applied.
I'll be posting about the application process and the agonizing wait that accompanied it, and also about the last remaining 2 months leading up to my departure for Takayama-shi, in Gifu-ken in later posts. For now, welcome to my blog!
PS - The title Rurouni comes from one of my favorite series, Rurouni Kenshin. It is the story of a wandering swordsman in Meji-era Japan, with rurouni being a word invented by the author to mean "wanderer". I found it quite fitting for this journal :)
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