20-08-2010
Time for an update again! For the past three days I’ve been in Yashiro having the final orientation with Hyogo Board of Education. I have to say it has been a strange few days. In all we had about 10 seminars based on life in Hyogo, the educational system and various team-teaching techniques. Some of the information was really useful, but the rooms we were in for the seminars didn’t have air conditioning and there was no supply of fresh drinking water between meals for the first day, so everyone struggled to concentrate in the 34 degree heat. Japan is a beautiful country but the heat is unbearable, and in all honesty the only humidity comparable to the Japanese climate is that of a sauna.
And I don’t last very long in saunas.
We had an opening ceremony where our notice of employment was presented to us. The Japanese are big on ceremonies, even for small things, so when I arrived (on time! Woohoo!) and forgot to change out of my canvas shoes with bright pink laces (D’oh!) I thought I had set myself up for a fall. I seem to be the queen of bad impressions. In fact, the day I arrived in Hyogo I was dressed in my scruffs for the long journey as one of the group leaders gave the impression that we wouldn’t be meeting anyone important… but when I was collected by one of the English teachers I was taken straight to school to meet the two vice-principals and the staff. In any case the orientation staff weren’t the slightest bit bothered by my shoes, and I even checked with one of the Japanese ladies organising it beforehand, so the ceremony had a bizarre feel to it.. semi-relaxed but definitely a formality. It was pretty cool to get an official notice of employment anyway. The Japanese take such pride in a lot of things, their work in particular, and it’s such a nice change when you contrast this with Britain and its nation of job-hoppers.
The ceremony wasn’t the only part that had a bizarre feel to it. In one of the opening speeches the main supervisor from the Board of Education listed the rules of the institute and joked that previous JETs referred to the place as Yashiro prison, reassuring us that this was not at all the case. I suppose it depends on your perspective - to me it felt like being on a school trip with a twist. We were allowed to drink alcohol and even encouraged to do so, but requested not to get so drunk that we would set off the fire extinguishers in the toilets. We could go out if we wanted but there was a curfew of 10pm. Lights went off at 11pm and anyone who was caught wandering the halls was sent off to their dormitory (four JETs to a room, men and women on separate corridors.) In the morning, the tannoy played gentle piano music into the dorms at 6.55am, followed by a wake up announcement at 7am. After this, the music switched to ‘I like to move it move it.’
I think I can safely say that this is the one part of my Japanese experience so far where I have truly woken up and thought ‘where… on Earth… am I…’
So it’s been a change of scenery, to say the least! But I feel much better for having done it. I had no idea there were so many JETs close by - there are even some in South Nishinomiya! I got to meet loads of other people from the surrounding areas and I feel so much better for it. For the past few weeks I really have felt like the only gaijin in the village. This was not a good feeling! Yet it seems I have struck the right balance - whilst I have JETs close enough to meet up with if I want, I am still living around Japanese people, so I have the incentive to learn Japanese.
All I have to do now.. is learn Japanese.
Uh…
Time for an update again! For the past three days I’ve been in Yashiro having the final orientation with Hyogo Board of Education. I have to say it has been a strange few days. In all we had about 10 seminars based on life in Hyogo, the educational system and various team-teaching techniques. Some of the information was really useful, but the rooms we were in for the seminars didn’t have air conditioning and there was no supply of fresh drinking water between meals for the first day, so everyone struggled to concentrate in the 34 degree heat. Japan is a beautiful country but the heat is unbearable, and in all honesty the only humidity comparable to the Japanese climate is that of a sauna.
And I don’t last very long in saunas.
We had an opening ceremony where our notice of employment was presented to us. The Japanese are big on ceremonies, even for small things, so when I arrived (on time! Woohoo!) and forgot to change out of my canvas shoes with bright pink laces (D’oh!) I thought I had set myself up for a fall. I seem to be the queen of bad impressions. In fact, the day I arrived in Hyogo I was dressed in my scruffs for the long journey as one of the group leaders gave the impression that we wouldn’t be meeting anyone important… but when I was collected by one of the English teachers I was taken straight to school to meet the two vice-principals and the staff. In any case the orientation staff weren’t the slightest bit bothered by my shoes, and I even checked with one of the Japanese ladies organising it beforehand, so the ceremony had a bizarre feel to it.. semi-relaxed but definitely a formality. It was pretty cool to get an official notice of employment anyway. The Japanese take such pride in a lot of things, their work in particular, and it’s such a nice change when you contrast this with Britain and its nation of job-hoppers.
The ceremony wasn’t the only part that had a bizarre feel to it. In one of the opening speeches the main supervisor from the Board of Education listed the rules of the institute and joked that previous JETs referred to the place as Yashiro prison, reassuring us that this was not at all the case. I suppose it depends on your perspective - to me it felt like being on a school trip with a twist. We were allowed to drink alcohol and even encouraged to do so, but requested not to get so drunk that we would set off the fire extinguishers in the toilets. We could go out if we wanted but there was a curfew of 10pm. Lights went off at 11pm and anyone who was caught wandering the halls was sent off to their dormitory (four JETs to a room, men and women on separate corridors.) In the morning, the tannoy played gentle piano music into the dorms at 6.55am, followed by a wake up announcement at 7am. After this, the music switched to ‘I like to move it move it.’
I think I can safely say that this is the one part of my Japanese experience so far where I have truly woken up and thought ‘where… on Earth… am I…’
So it’s been a change of scenery, to say the least! But I feel much better for having done it. I had no idea there were so many JETs close by - there are even some in South Nishinomiya! I got to meet loads of other people from the surrounding areas and I feel so much better for it. For the past few weeks I really have felt like the only gaijin in the village. This was not a good feeling! Yet it seems I have struck the right balance - whilst I have JETs close enough to meet up with if I want, I am still living around Japanese people, so I have the incentive to learn Japanese.
All I have to do now.. is learn Japanese.
Uh…
