As fun as the Tokyo orientation was, we all had to get out to our respective placements. If anything, I’m more worried for those who are coming to Japan for the first time, as they are almost given a small taste of the Tokyo excitement and then shipped off (in almost all cases) to a rural placement which is definitely not Tokyo.
Amakusa is one of those definitely not Tokyo placements. But really, I was excited to get out of Tokyo and finally get a taste of where I was going to live. When we all got to Kumamoto airport and waited at baggage claim, we could see a definitely excited crowd of Japanese people with signs to greet the various people who were coming to work in their local schools. I tried my best to find a sign with my name all over it but would actually find my name on a sign the size of a regular piece of paper. And beyond that, in the corner of the page as well. Didn’t even get to keep my first souvenir. In comparison to other welcoming parties, which may have had school students, host families, or etc., I was greeted by someone from the Amakusa Board of Education and a senior JET. So, no, it was not quite the huge welcoming party that Japanese television shows have promised me.
The urban sprawl of Kumamoto city would give way to farmlands and spectacular views of the water and islands as Amakusa slowly came into view. I may have been a bit worried about leaving the water behind in San Francisco, but I have to say that Amakusa has it beat for sure. As the main roads are all along the coast, you’re pretty much looking out over the water anywhere you go on the Amakusa islands.
My first couple days in Amakusa have been pretty busy. I was able to get a lot of things set up on the logistic side. Setting up my car insurance, getting a phone, filing for the aptly named “gaijin” (foreigner) card. It’s a lot of formalities that I wouldn’t have been able to do without my Board of Education supervisor, Kurata-san. She does all the talking and form filling out, I just sit there and try to acknowledge when something from me is needed. I wouldn’t have gotten this far without her help. I hope that other JETs have just as great supervisors they work with.
My neighborhood of Ariake is mainly just residental. That being said, there are plenty of farmlands as well. And the large amount of backroads that cross all over Ariake basically force me to take the main coastal road if I want to go anywhere. I might be able to get somewhere faster in Ariake if I stay on the back roads, but for now I’ll be staying on the coast.
That doesn’t mean I’m in the middle of just rice fields. Hondo, another part of Amakusa, serves as the city center. Yes, it’s definitely no Tokyo, but at least it has shopping, game centers, and food. As one of the old ALTs put it, you’ll get everything you need in Hondo, you’ll just not get the variety you would find in a big city. Basically the fun I’ll be getting in Amakusa will be from the community and not the excitement of the city itself. People, over things, will be the focus.
My only other big comment is to say that the weather is not that bad here. Yes, it’s hot, but it only comes in at high 80s right now. Even with the humidity, it’s much better than it was in Maryland (90s to 100) before I left. People on the JET board need to be calming down about Japan’s weather.
The schedule for Tokyo orientation was a bit imposing. We all expected the fact it would be non stop meetings morning to night, but the JET program, knowing that it sends its participants into a variety of situations across the country, offers just as many workshops for each person to choose from based on their interests. The fact you could pick and choose what you wanted to listen to helped break the monotony of the day, although in the end, you’re still being lectured at, which unfortunately meant for almost everyone here (except for the lucky New Zealanders), that you were fighting jet lag as you tried to stay awake.
So I fully expected to fall asleep during various points in the day. I withheld from coffee for breakfast even though falling asleep would be bad times. However, to my surprise, most of the speakers during the day made it easy to stay awake. They all had interesting things to say about the topic at hand and many were also surprisingly humorous. Notably, the robotlike hosts of the JET Info DVD had their turn on the stage and turned out to be actually interesting and humorous speakers. When one came up to give the keynote and speak for an hour, it may have been a bit of a warning sign to many in the crowd who remembered his performance, but by the end of the speech we didn’t even realize the hour was up as he had kept us going the whole time with great stories and advice, punctuated with many jokes. Why that couldn’t have been on the DVD, I’m not sure, although I would think Japanese formality would have some hand in it.
Another large part of the day was dedicated to seeing how life would be in Japanese elementary/middle/high schools. It was easy to fall into the trap of all the fun and good pictures/videos the presenters chose to highlight and believing your life in Japan will always be the same. Of course that stuff makes for more engaging presentations. However, they would be careful to point out 1) your life in Japan is not going to be like theirs, 2) there will be challenges. You may expect genki (energetic) kids everyday, but as one person said, Japanese kids are still kids. English still equals study. And kids anywhere in the world do not like to study. You’re going to get blank stares, sleeping kids, etc. Just don’t let it get you down.
During the culture shock presentation, they spoke about the stages of shock, the initial one (Stage 1) being the euphoria experienced while being in a new country. And even though I’ve done Japan and Tokyo so many times, the infectious Stage 1 happiness of other JETs made it quite easy to share an izakaya night (after a failed attempt at karaoke…too many) as we all talked about where we came from and where we were all going. I’m saving my Stage 1/2 crisis point for when I get to Kumamoto and see where I’ll actually be living for the next year. Unfortunately, I don’t get to live in a nice hotel in Shinjuku for my JET experience…if only!
Upon looking at my passport when I got it at the embassy in DC on Friday, it really hit home the fact that I’ve been to Japan a hell of a lot of times. I mean, this has been commented by many people, many times, but seeing the majority of my passport dedicated to Japanese immigration, it makes it pretty obvious which country has been getting a lot of my foreign attention.
Starting with Tsuru in 2005, every year except 2007 had me visiting Japan in some capacity.
That’s a lot of yen!
But it’s this time, in 2011, that’s quite special.
I guess it was inevitable that I would end up with the JET program. Learning about it early in my career at Berkeley (they visited my Japanese class in my freshman year), I always considered an option. And while it didn’t mesh too nicely with the Computer Science major, I would still apply for JET in Fall 2007. And guess what? I actually was able to get in. But I guess worry over my student loans won over at the time and I chose Deloitte then.
I don’t mean for this post to go into a diatribe about why I would leave Deloitte and such but at the very least, consulting wasn’t giving me what I needed. So in came the JET program again, serving as the test case for me to see if a career in teaching would be the right one for me. And hey, the working in Japan would be a great bonus as well.
So now I find myself in Tokyo, waiting to get oriented about what the heck I’m really getting myself into. I’ve sat through countless meetings stateside, now it’s time to hear some of the same stuff over again, but with the added conditions imposed by Japanese formality (ceremony, don’t drink before the boss does, bow, etc.) But still I’m excited to be here with around 800 of my fellow newbies. Almost to the point that I can’t wait to leave Tokyo just so I can get closer to my new home in Kumamoto and Amakusa!
But first things first, a few more days of meetings and learning, before I even get anywhere near a Japanese classroom.
1. “om nom nom” should only be used by little asian girls.
2. And even then, only sparingly.
3. If your status is always set to “away” or “busy”, you’re doing it wrong. Or get over and stop ducking your ex.
4. In retrospect, I should’ve seen the fact that she didn’t know that credit cards could be paid off in installments as a red flag.
5. “Oh Japan. So much technology. So little being normal.” – Seth Meyers
6. There’s nothing like being the guy rooting for the visiting team in a crowd full of home supporters. Although make sure you have a quick escape plan just in case.
7. The California high speed rail was probably the best idea I’ve heard come out of state government in awhile.
8. After all this time of flying, I’m still pretty amazed that I can get on a plane and then end up somewhere else completely after just a few hours. It’s a seat in the sky, how are we all so jaded on that fact?
9. First anime, now ramen, I just keep wondering what is the next big Japanese thing to take over the states.
10. It’s a lot harder to come up with ten thoughts than I thought. This is worrisome.
Let me say first off that I love Yelp. Somehow, I’m a Yelp elite, despite its quickly lessening significance nowadays. I think Yelp has been a great tool in helping people not just find good eats, but also other services. I’ve found my doctor, dentist, laundry, etc. through that little site. Having something that has been vetted by others can’t be beat, because you know you can trust the results.
That being said, I’m a little worried. Let’s face it, I think we’re all really chained to Yelp now. I don’t want to get into the whole issue of how the internet has fundamentally changed society. It has, of course.
But think about it. Before, if you didn’t know something, you didn’t have the answer at your fingertips. You asked around, looked it up somewhere else, or maybe just gave up. And if you didn’t know, you had to live with the fact that you probably wouldn’t ever know. And that kind of feeling stuck with you.
So now when looking for places to eat, we have to vet it through a Yelp check. Less than 4 stars? No good.
Whatever happened to just going out? Just wandering and finding eats? We used to pick something that looked good from the menu in the window, or seeing a good number of people inside enjoying themselves.
Do we now have to make sure the place we eat has been approved by X number of Yelp users? Must we have 7×7 define what we eat? If it doesn’t give me another notch on a 7×7 list then do we not go?
Food reviews have a place, obviously. Food critics were around long before Yelp ever came along and they’re still around now. But now more than ever, we’ve become a super picky society. Yelp recommendations are useful, but does this mean we have no personal opinions of our own?
What happened to exploration? The days of hit or miss?
My tagline on Yelp is “willing to try anything once”. What other people say is useful but you won’t really know for yourself if you experience a certain place, right? I’m just wondering if we’re all missing a lot of places we’d like, even if the Yelp majority doesn’t, just because we’re not giving something a chance.
Some of the best moments I had in my travels to Japan was wandering the streets looking for something to eat. I’m sure Japan has some Yelp like site over there (not like I know how to read it) but some of the best food I’ve had there was just through a place I popped into, with nothing else to guide me but my senses.
Not saying Yelp needs to go away…by no means. But I think we could all use a little exploration in our life right? How about we put down the phone with the Yelp application. Close the window with the 7×7 restaurant list. Just wander your neighborhood, find a place that looks good and try it out. Maybe it’s 1 star, maybe it’s 5 stars, but at least it was your choice.
Went ahead and renewed the rolandcarlos.net domain. It was a pretty easy call, $10 just to make sure no one decides to grab my name. The other rolandcarlos domains are more than available though.
Years later, I’m still not really sure what I’m doing with this space. There’s the infrequently updated blog, the infrequently updated photoblog, and the almost abandoned writing site. Not to say that I’m not done thinking about writing, it’s just more that I’ve fallen into a rut of work/time wasting that there’s no time for writing. I don’t even take photos that much anymore, even though I have such a backlog from my Japan trip still that I can easily keep posting up photos for awhile (just have to get the desire to do so).
I’d like to even post more here on the blog, as always, just random thoughts. But I think a lot of it is finding the time and admittedly I’d rather just be lazy than throw up more Youtube links for people to watch here.
Anyway, I’m locked in for another year. At least with the domain. The more expensive hosting plan will need to be renewed soon enough…
Yeah, I probably shouldn’t be addicted to this as much as I should be…but Japan, you do know how to make your teenage pop groups.
Probably does not help that the members of Tokyo Girls Style have their ages withheld (for whatever reason). But it’s all about the technically modified voices, I swear!
And of course, the also just as catchy 8-bit remix:
Back in Maryland, when I had to endure without cable television, there was not much to watch on television. However, one of the public access channels would play some international music at night. And while yes, I was probably watching more for the Japanese songs, I would watch most of the broadcast and find some fun music in other languages. By now I’ve forgotten most of it, but the one that I still find catchy is La Mosca, which the internet has told me to describe as Argentinean ska. What is there not to like?
While it taxes the limit of my high school Spanish to keep up with them, I find their songs to be insanely catchy and makes me wonder if I should sample ska in other languages as well. Who needs understandable lyrics if you have a full ska band backing you up? Maybe that would make anything sound good.
