Living and Work Situation

The next morning we took a plane from Tokyo and arrived in Hiroshima city and I met my supervisor, Sakata sensei and a fellow JET named Rome. They were both really nice and took me to my new home for the next year. So I am actually living in a city about 40 minutes from Hiroshima city called Kure. The city recently grew as it almagated with numerous other cities to create a mini-metropolitan. So though I am technically living in Kure-shi, I’m actually in a small town about 20 minutes away called Kawajiri. In addition, I’m not even teaching in Kawajiri, but another town about 10 minutes away called Yasurra. Originally I was a bit disappointed in this set up, but now I’m actually ecstatic about my situation. The city of Kure is nice and big and most of my friends are there, but I enjoy living in the inaka- or countryside much more. Kawajiri is a real quiet little town right by the water and everything is just minutes away from my house. In addition its better to not live in the city you teach in because you lessen the chance of running into your students as much. Thus, I am close to the city, but I also get to experience the country life and get to hopefully know two towns really well.

I’m also one of the most fortunate JETs in Kure because of my living situation. I am sure you have all heard that living in Japan is very expensive and the places are really small. Well….the reason why I’m also not living in Yasurra is because they couldn’t find any decent accommodation for me. Some of my fellow JETs have nice places, but they are either tiny and a lot of them are quite old and run down. Luckily, mine is neither as I got a brand spanking new apartment. All the appliances and the entire place has been remolded and I even have hardwood floors. What is even more unfair is that I have four large windows in my living room that overlook the seto sea, so yea, I have a waterfront view. Really, how cool is that? My place is also the biggest too, consisting of a living room the size of most other JETs apartments and two bedrooms, a patio, a large washroom and shower. So yea, no complaints on this department at all. What was really neat too is when the landlord was showing me around the place, and decided to show me every appliances function, including every light switch in the house, and how to turns on and off. Furthermore, he even sat on the famous Japanese cleaner toilets and proceeded to demonstrate to me how to ummm..use it. Yes, they are definitely thorough here. The view from my windows
My work situation seems to be a good one. I have heard that some JETs get too many schools or really uncooperative teachers or who just sit around all day and the teacher never utilizes them. Luckily for me I just have one junior high school which is something I’m really happy about as it allows me to build a relationship at that one school, as opposed to the numerous schools that some JETs have. I also get to teach elementary, which from that I hear is taxing but very rewarding. I’ll have my main junior high school in Yasurra and five surrounding elementary schools which I will rotate teaching on a weekly basis. So I really do feel I have a good mix up of junior and elementary schools and a great situation. Furthermore, the main English teacher I have met is very cooperative and nice. His English is functional, as opposed to some JETs have teachers that are unable to even speak English. Okamoto sensei seems really cooperative and wants me to have an active role in the classroom. So overall, I am excited when the school year starts on September 1^st.