Why I'm Here

The JET Programme is a teaching position. JET after all, stands for Japanese Exchange and Teaching. But what exactly it is that we’re teaching can easily get murky. We work in English departments, so it would seem straightforward enough to say that we teach our mother tongue to the youth of Japan. And while this is true (and desperately needed. Next to North Korea, Japan ranks lowest in English proficiency in Asia. Next to North Korea), this doesn’t quite paint the whole picture.

Becoming the Monster

When I got off the airplane to find myself standing in the oppressive early morning humidity of a Tokyo summer almost 17 months ago, I came equipped with “Hello”, “Please be good to me”, “Where is the toilet”, and about 2 dozen or so other essential phrases. I’ve never learned a language to any real proficiency, but I came with an open mind and an eagerness to learn. After all, if I can't learn a language while living in the country that speaks it, there's not much hope for me. And so I set out on my journey of linguistic self-betterment.

Operation Make A Plan

So I did it! I made it! One year in Japan, now officially under my belt. One year since I arrived into the Tokyo heat and ventured forth to unknown lands of Yamagata. It`s been a heck of year. And now would be the perfect time to do a retrospective.

Except that I`m not going to. I ain`t got time to sit around and talk about the past. Tomorrow I`m off to China for a three week solo trip around the sunny South-East. At least, that`s where I think I`m going… I haven`t exactly planned very much yet. So what better way to kill two jobs with one blog post than to write an update about my plan, as I make my plan! It`s foolproof!

Force of Nature

In March, I decided to take a short road trip from my home on the west coast of northern Japan to the east coast. Over there lies Sendai, the Tohoku region’s main city. If that name sounds somehow familiar, it became newsworthy last year when its industrialised port was slammed by a tsunami, providing the world with images of black smoke billowing from a blazing petroleum refinery.

Before and After

It looks like Spring is peeking its head around the corner in this part of the world, and though I really enjoyed the winter here I’m looking forward to being able to spend more time outdoors. I only started renting a car for myself at the very end of autumn, so before then I had got around entirely by bicycle or on foot. The car has been truly indispensable over the past few snow-buried months, but compared to the bike I found it a little... claustrophobic? I’d gotten used to just bounding out the door with a backpack on and heading off anywhere, stopping wherever I wanted. The car is just less elegant. It’s a lot more confining in terms of to what extent you can explore. Which, after all, is one of the main reasons I came here.

Photographic Memories

Phew! Okay, bit of a hiatus, but we’re back. Busy before the Christmas break, busy after the Christmas break... but things have calmed down now, so let’s kick off the new year (while it’s still... wait, February!? Oh man...) with a post, shall we?

Before I hopped on a plane to Vancouver to eat stupid amounts of food with my brother and sister, I left behind the snowy mountains of Tsuruoka for the skyscrapers of Tokyo. I’d been there before in July for the JET orientation, and I’d had a good time taking in the city with some of my fellow Irish. But at heart, I am a massive loner and I enjoy few things more than traipsing around somewhere entirely unfamiliar, exploring it by myself. At orientation, after a meeting with the Irish Embassy staff (in an Irish pub. Keepin’ it classy lads) I took a detour on my way back to the hotel. It ended up being the best 3 hours I spent in the city.

On Swans and Contracts

Back in the end of Autumn, my supervisor asked me if I had seen the swans that arrived from Russia. They migrate here from Siberia for the winter. I asked him what they were like, and he proceeded to describe a swan. So I asked him how they differed from the swans that already lived in the nearby park, which have been there since I had first arrived in the height of summer.

They are actually also Russian swans. One winter, a pair of swans were injured and come spring they weren’t able to fly back to their home in Siberia. So they had to stay behind in Tsuruoka and rest until they could take to the air again. That was some years ago now, but the swans have yet to leave.

“Maybe they’re lazy!”, observed my supervisor.

“Maybe they don’t want to go back to Russia?”, I replied.

That made him laugh. Who would?

But maybe they just stayed a while, and found that they liked it. I mean, there’s an awful lot to like here. Maybe they thought they’d stay a little longer. Lazy or not, maybe these swans had the right idea...






I officially re-contracted today. I’ll be staying in Japan for another year.