So, the count-down begins! One week until my life is packed into 2 suitcases and I head off with a case of sunscreen and fluoride toothpaste to the Great Beyond. Where am I off to this time? Further than I've gone before! It's the other side of the world for Joyce. 26.40N, 128.0E. That's right: JAPAN.
Ha ha, you knew that was coming because you already read the name of my blog. But wait, it's not just Japan! I'm headed to the furthest reaches of Japan, to the prefecture of Okinawa. This is a 400 mile long chain of tropical islands stretching from the bottom of mainland Japan all the way to Taiwan. I will be living on the main island: Okinawa, which is equidistant (~1000 miles) from Tokyo and Manila. I will probably be making more trips to China and Taiwan than what we think of as "Japan".
What will I be doing there? I will be working for JET: the Japanese Exchange and Teaching Program (or something along those lines). This is a program of the Japanese gov't that brings a whopping 6,000 native English speakers to Japan every year and places them in public school districts around the nation to teach English. A JET is actually directly employed by their prefecture or their board of education, not by the "JET" program, or "Japan" as an entity. So depending on where you are placed, the situation can be very different. It can be rural or urban, teaching elementary and middle schools or high school, some people have subsidized rent and a free car some don't, some JETs are shared between up to 20 schools and some have only one, some people plan all of their lessons themselves and some people are given very little authority by the English department, I have 20 days of vacation and some only have 10, etc. I'm living in an urban part of the island in a lovely city called Ginowan. There is a US airforce base called Futenma in my city, with 4,000 US marines. If they so much as look at me cross ways, I'll knock them silly with my knuckle-sandwich left hook. From all I've heard, marines are easy to avoid because they don't poke their heads out of their bases, and Ginowan is a great place to be. Among other things, there are 2 Japanese universities in the town and lots of young people, a community of Peruvians (second generation Japanese immigrants come back to learn Japanese), and the beach is never further than a couple miles away. In fact, I believe my high school is beach front property. I'll verify that in a week. Let's see it on the map!
Here's an actual view of the city:
border="0" alt="" />I'll be employed by the prefecture and therefore teaching in one public high school... You guessed it! Ginowan High. This is a lower level high school, the meaning of which is still vague for me. My interpretation is that the kids didn't do well on the high school entrance exam and got sent to this high school instead of the one for hot-shots. There's 660 of them and one of me. You figure out the odds. But I've been told that despite occasional low motivation, the kids are great and so are the teachers at my high school, so I'm really looking forward to it. Soooo, sayounara, one and all!
I'll be back here with some more exciting mumbo-jumbo once I've arrived on the island...
Joyce
