Ah, finally connected. I’ve updated the postings, and they are in chronological order below. You might need to scroll down a ways to get up to speed.

I was getting ready to go out for yakitori when the doorbell rang. Usually it’s Melanie but I knew that she was out tonight with some of her teachers. I cautiously opened the door, and it’s a delivery guy with my DSL modem. I had it up and running in 5 minutes, despite the whole thing being in Japanese. Yes!

After hooking up the DSL, I went over to the yakitori place to celebrate, and had another great experience. I didn’t see anybody I knew besides the master, but I got invited to another table to eat with a family that actually lives in my apartment complex. They were very friendly, and they made their poor kid try to speak English with me. Talk about high pressure – poor guy. I mixed in as much Japanese as I could to help him out. I tried a bunch of new dishes, like roasted pimentos, shitake mushrooms, and a new chicken skewer he had.

Tomorrow I am supposed to help clean up around the apartment complex – the entire group of residents are going to help out. It was raining today, and the typhoon that was coming has aparently changed course. If it is raining, we’ll postpone the cleanup until Sunday. Melanie and I were going to try to go out to Kobe to see some waterfalls in the hillside, but if the weather sucks, we are going to skip it.

Today I spent a pretty mellow day at school, and then Melanie and I went over to Akashi for some beers at Murphy’s, and Irish bar that is run by a genuine Irishman. It is located in the red light district, and the bartenders tend to drink more than you do. It was a lot of fun. I actually bumped into another JET there that I had been trying to get in touch with. He was chugging away the Murphy’s Irish Stout, and so I was able to get his number. He wants to be part of the poker group.

Melanie’s friend Brendan came in and promptly started chatting up a Japanese girl in the bar, so I think I served my purpose, and the heat is off her. After a few beers we got going down the road and beat a big thunderstorm home. Tomorrow is the Friday before a long weekend so I’m pretty excited.

Today I heard at school that a typhoon is approaching, but it is still 600 miles away. It is supposed to be about the same size as the last one, which was pretty impressive. It is expected to hit in the next couple of days. Yikes!

In between classes I was talking with Miss Kageyama, and she agreed to be my Japanese language conversation partner. It might seem weird to seek out someone in Japan to speak Japanese with, but Miss Kageyama’s English skills are so good that she can listen to me, and then correct me where I went wrong in English, if necessary. When I screw up my Japanese with your everyday Japanese person, they look at me strangely and I don’t learn a thing. We tried it out today while the other teachers were at a staff meeting, and I think it worked well. She is also teaching me some of the local dialect to impress my friends.

On the way home I did some heavy shopping for the weekend, and then I had a strange combination of salad, sausages, and quesadillas for dinner. Kind of my version of leftover night. I am busy reading the Count of Monte Cristo, and really enjoying it.

Today was pretty uneventful – I spent time today teaching three classes, and for the most part, the students were enthusiastic. One of the exercises is to write the answer to some tough questions like “What is your teacher’s name?” and “What are his hobbies?” One student today wrote my name on the board with a little heart at the end, so I just ignored it and pretended like I’m used to this sort of thing.

I spent my off time at work learning some new Japanese verbs, and the teachers were amused to walk by and watch me practicing. I think it helps them to realize that I’m not some sort of amazing trilingual genius – I have a lot of work to do.

When I cooked up my tacos in the microwave, it filled the teacher’s room with a smell that must have been new to everyone. A couple of people stopped by to ask questions. At my desk, I gave Mr. Komuri a sample of a taco, and then one of the girl’s P.E. teachers showed an interest so I gave her a quesadilla to try. She went nuts – I couldn’t tell if she was being over-polite, but I think she really liked it. She passed on a bite to another teacher, and so a little Mexican food went a long way. When other teachers arrived after their 4th period class and found out that they missed it, they were pretty bummed out. I’m going to have to bring in some more Mexican food soon. I also found out who teaches the Japanese calligraphy class, or shodo, at my school – it turns out it’s the same teacher that kicked my butt in ping pong. I’m going to ask him to help me out with shodo as well.

After school I shared a train ride home with one of my English club members, and we had a great conversation, half in Japanese and half in English. On the way home I stopped in at the shaved ice stand, because it had been so long since I had talked to the shaved ice lady. She was really happy to see me, and I was dreading what was going to happen after I got my shaved ice. She usually tries to give me something special each time I’m there. This time I sat down, and when I had finished my shaved ice, I went up to say goodbye. She had been in there making takoyaki for me, and gave me 10 pieces for my dinner. She is so nice – I’m looking for the right gift for her. I have a couple of ideas, though.

I dropped by Melanie’s place and gave her half the takoyaki – I didn’t know what her dinner plans were but she’s in a financial crunch until payday, so I wanted to help out a bit. Melanie asked me to go out with her and a guy named Brendan that we had met at a party a while back. The guy is kind of annoying, but I guess Melanie agreed to go out with him. I guess I am there to keep things legit. I don’t know why she agreed to go out with him if he’s a loser, but I’m not going to turn down Murphy’s on draft.

Tomorrow I’ve arranged to have conversations in Japanese with Miss Kageyama for about an hour once a week. I’m hoping we can do it more often, but for know we’re going to try it out and see how it goes.

I got to work early this Monday morning, and for some reason, the girls were giggling more than usual today. The whole day had some kind of strange vibe, and I was asked some unusual questions in class. Usually kids are too scared to ask questions at all, but some kids in my first year class asked me my age, where I bought my shirt, if I had a girlfriend, and my favorite question of the day, if my hair color was real (it is).

One of the exercises I had the students do was come to the front of the room with a partner and talk about their name, hobbies, and favorite food. I had grown used to the same one word answers like “baseball” “television” and “movies”, until a student today said his hobby was “collecting Japanese Mafia goods”. I asked him about it later, and it turned out he was talking about swords, weapons, and other items used by the yakuza, the Japanese mafia. I had this mental image of him riding around a bike extorting 80-year old shopkeepers. Go figure.

The rest of my day was pretty uneventful, but while I walked home I was smiling at everyone and I got a few smiles back, which is unusual.

For dinner I cooked up tacos and quesadillas with the somewhat bland cheese I have available to me. The flour tortillas that I had bought here turned out to be quite good, and the meal turned out great. It was a simpler version of tacos as I don’t have access to beans here, so it was ground beef, cheese, lettuce, onions, and Tapatio hot sauce. I’m taking my leftovers into work tomorrow and I can’t wait to see their reaction to that meal.

Melanie had bought an English language newspaper, the Daily Yomiuri, and had left it in my mailbox for me to read. As I settled down with the first newspaper I had read in more than a month, some kids started to scream across the street. It was not an alarming scream, more like some kids fooling around. For the next 45 minutes, they just kind of screamed at random intervals. I think the parents probably had just said, “Fine, go ahead and scream. See if I care”. After about a half hour, I was cracking up. I wanted to join in, just for fun, but what would my neighbors think?

We woke up at Nel’s place around seven in the morning, and decided to go out and do a little hiking. The area around his apartment is really nice, with lots of trails that lead all over the mountainside. I was pretty envious of his set up.

Below his apartment complex is a small lake, and as we stood on the bridge looking down, about 15 turtles swam up and waited expectantly for us to drop food down to them. Since we didn’t have anything to give them, we walked around a bit more, and then gathered up our gear and went into town.

Near Nel’s train station is a place that has “Morning Service”. Depending on who you talk to, this can mean a lot of things, but in Japan, it means a light breakfast. We ordered some iced coffees, and with your drink you get a giant slice of buttered toast and a banana. The good news is that the food is free, you just pay for the drink. We got out of there for just a couple of bucks.

Next we took the train one station over and went to the beach. The weather was perfect, and although I didn’t bring a suit or a towel, I kicked off my shoes and walked around in the waves a bit. The water temperature was warmer than what I’m used to, and it was fun to walk around a bit and watch the locals. The girls swam with their clothes on – there were no bikinis in sight. The guys were wearing bathing suits, and people were just kind of lounging around. There was a lot of trash laying around, and I was surprised that they didn’t really take care of the beach.

After having a Zen moment at the beach we went back to the train station and went our separate ways. It was good visiting these guys, and I’m looking forward to our next visit.

I relaxed around the house, doing laundry and taking care of chores. In the evening Melanie came down with some beers and we compared notes on our weekends. I was getting ready to cook up some udon soup with pork, so I invited her to stick around. She brought down some frozen gyoza (pot stickers) and so I cooked up the lot and we had a couple more beers. The udon soup turned out nicely, and it was fun to cook for someone. The only downside was that we were eating hot soup on a hot day, but overall it was nice.

After dinner Mel took off and I made my weekly pilgrimage to the local 7-11. The 7-11 is not the closest convenience store, and not even really that convenient. The big attraction in this store is one of the employees, and she always works on Sundays. I usually take the 20 minute walk to the store for an ice cream on Sundays. The employee speaks in the most incredibly high, squeaky voice I have ever heard. You really must hear it to appreciate it, but it is amazing. It is worth a 20 minute walk, and 100 yen for an ice cream. She gives you great service, and finishes with an extra deep bow and the strangest, squeakiest “arigatoo gozaimashitaaaaaaa” you’ll ever get.

Yesterday I went to Kobe to meet up with a couple of JETs that I had met in Los Angeles. They both come from the LA area, and are really fun to hang out with. We had a miscommunication on where we were going to meet, and ended up spending several hours looking for each other all over Kobe. Only one of us had a cellphone, so that made it pretty difficult to track each other down. Eventually we got it figured out, and went into the Kitano area of Kobe.

We were pretty starved, so we went into a ramen shop and had some quick noodles. While I was walking around I found a bookstore that had an English section, and ended up paying hardcover prices for some paperback books. I got Stephen King’s The Stand, and Dumas’ Count of Monte Cristo. They were almost $20 each, but they are both huge books that I will probably read more than once, so I think it was worth it.

We walked around and found ourselves in a British pub drinking Guinness and sharing a shot of Ballantines. The staff were kind of snobby, though, and I think they get a lot of foreigners in there. The vibe was OK, but not that great. They also charged a 10% “service charge” for no apparent reason.

Afterwards, we hopped through a few bars, and a cafe for iced coffee. The cafe was interesting because it was part of the Motomachi shopping area. Among tiny shops full of toys, junk, antiques, and electronics, the cafe was a refreshing change. We walked in and removed our shoes, then sat on tatami mats and ordered up some iced coffees. It was nice to sit for a while and relax – the decor was very traditional Japanese, with some original artwork by the owner. She came out and talked with us a little bit, and Nel decided that he was going to come back quite often. Nel’s fiance is kind of an artist herself, so it looks like a good place for them to bring out some creative energy.

We kept walking through Motomachi towards the Kobe train station, and stopped in here and there. The guys weren’t too adventurous – nobody wanted to go into a bar that they couldn’t see inside, and so we had to really be picky. We did try a Japanese Jamaican Rasta bar, but they weren’t open yet. I just wanted to see a Japanese guy with dreadlocks. We went into one karaoke type bar and after sitting down, they explained to us that we needed to pay 3000 yen ($25) each just to be in the place, and that beers were 1000 yen ($8) each. We got the hell out of there and down the street found a two story bar called “Like, Like”. We sat down in the bar on the first floor, and instantly liked the place. The staff were very friendly, and they talked about baseball and strange Japanese habits with us. They had Bass in bottles for 600 yen ($5) each and even Corona in bottles. Nel and Antoine were drinking red wine, and we proceeded to get pretty drunk, joking with the staff and other customers. The place is owned by a big surfing fan, so there were Hawaiian things all over.

After having a great time at Like, Like, we checked the time and realized that although I could probably get home, Antoine would probably miss the last train. Nel offered to let us stay in his apartment. His fiance is still in Tokyo, so he has the place to himself for a while. We staggered over to the station, with the staff from Like, Like coming out to wave goodbye to us.

Nel led us to his hometown, which was very close by. We hiked up the hillside to his apartment, with Antoine trying to figure out how he could have picked up on some of the girls in the bar. Finally we arrived at the top of the hill, and fairly quickly crashed out.

Due to a strange scheduling quirk, I had no classes to teach today. I spent the day organizing handouts and worksheets for my classes next week – normally I have a busy schedule each week. I’ve heard from some JETs that they have just a few classes each week. Melanie shares her school with two other JETs, so she only teaches about 10-15 minutes during each class. I think I prefer to be as busy as possible to make the time go by. There are still breaks in my day, so I can wander the hallways and chat with kids. They speak a lot more with me in an informal setting.

One of the part time teachers who helps coach volleyball and teaches home economics has always walked around the staff room, but has never looked me in the eye. When I walk by people I smile and nod or say hello, but she has been pretty shy. Today I made a breakthrough – we were both in the copier room making copies, and I asked her in Japanese if I could look at a recipe book she had. She lit up and I got the impression that the whole time she was just waiting for me to talk to her, rather than introducing herself. We got to talking, and she does speak some English – her accent was better than some of the English teachers. She invited me to visit the Home Economics class sometime and sample some of the food they cook – excellent! Now I’ve got to figure out a way to take her shopping with me.

In the afternoon I taught my teacher’s class, and it went fairly well. We talked about what we wanted to learn, and talked about some shopping terms in English. The difference between the word “expensive” and the word “inexpensive” was a tough concept for them – they sound very much the same. We spent about an hour, and then adjourned for the week. Next week we will be reading and ordering from menus. Some of the ladies in the club offered to teach me Japanese cooking, so I’m hoping that I can arrange something soon.

After school ended, I went over to watch the Kendo club in action. Kendo is sometimes called Japanese fencing, but it looks a lot like a samurai movie with wooden swords rather than the real thing. There is also a lot of screaming and yelling, and it is played by both boys and girls. The temperature has been super hot, and so the kids get in these big padded outfits and beat the crap out of each other for more than an hour, with screams of “Aiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!”. No wonder everyone is so thin around here.

On the way home I stopped at the grocery store and picked up some thin sliced pork to add to my curried rice for dinner. Even just dropping into the store to pick up pork caused a scene. While I was in line, an old lady asked loudly in Japanese where I was from, and everybody in the checkout lines turned to listen to my answer. After saying that I was from America, the lady nodded wisely like she had known the whole time. I turned around as I left and everyone was watching me go. At times like this I find myself checking my fly to make sure I remembered to zip it up. Talk about being under scrutiny.

After dinner I was sitting around and listening to everyone outside running around enjoying their Friday night. My big plans involved laundry and memorizing Japanese verbs. After doing my laundry, I decided to learn Japanese in a more fun, interactive way, and went down to the Yakitori place with my translated menu in my pocket.

As soon as I walked in the door, everyone hushed up and turned around. Somebody said something that sounded like “Hupp!”, which to my ears sounded like the Japanese equivalent of “There goes the neighborhood”. It was quiet for a bit, but as I sat down, the master of the restaurant came out and said something, and everyone relaxed and started talking again. I ordered a beer and some chicken and mushrooms from my menu, and then talked with some of the people there. Everyone was very curious, and I started talking with a guy that had lived in Ireland for six months almost nine years ago. His English was much better than my Japanese, but I did my best to keep my end of the conversation in Japanese.

The Hanshin Tigers were on TV, and they hit a homerun in the bottom of the ninth inning to come from behind and win the game. Everyone was whooping and hollering and chanting strange Japanese songs. I just went with it. The guy that had visited Ireland and his group kept buying me drinks, and we reviewed my English menu for accuracy. The master presented examples of each one. I tried pronouncing some of them, much to the amusement of the group. There were about four guys in their group, and two of them had brought their wives. Eventually they got me to join the group, and the guys wanted me to sit next to their wives and freak them out a little bit. The wives were drunk, shy, and curious all at the same time. Around midnight we called it a night, and I walked home, very satisfied with my Friday. Tomorrow I am going to Kobe to meet up with some friends in the late afternoon.

Today I had a couple of classes, and they both went fairly well. The students were for the most part enthusiastic. A couple of them could care less about the lesson, but it seems like they all know more English than I expected. It looks like I can ratchet up the difficulty of the classes a bit next time we meet.

I caused quite a stir in the staff room today when I heated up my leftovers from last night – I had teriyaki beef with rice, which is nothing too special, but the idea that I had cooked it was pretty impressive. Many teachers stopped by to check it out, and even the vice principal stopped by to inspect it. I’m missing some key piece of information here, but I think they are just surprised that I know how to cook. Weird.

I offered to teach a teacher’s English course on Fridays, and I already have four teachers committed to attending during sixth period. They speak almost no English, so it will be a tough class for me to teach. They have a lot more patience and motivation than my high school students, so I think it will even out nicely. Everyone is really excited, and I’m also looking forward to our first class tomorrow.

I am serving as president of the English Speaking Society (ESS) club in our school. Today, we met after school and we had a party to welcome me to the school. Mrs. Tsutsumi came along to smooth things over translation-wise, and it went very well. There was plenty of soda and snacks, and we talked about movies, music, and the club for almost an hour. I brought my photo album, and that was a big hit – everyone enjoyed seeing my family and friends, and some of the places I’ve visited.

There are five 3rd year ESS members, and they will graduate after next term. These students are ones that I have met already through Andy, and so I’ll be sad to see them go. That will leave me with just five members, so I’m hoping to recruit some first years during next term – it will be more fun with more people. Unfortunately, there are no boys in the club – it’s considered to be a girl’s thing.

I got out of school late because of the club meeting, so I stopped in at my local Yakitori place for dinner. The owner was in there and he remembered me from last time. We tried again to have a conversation, but it was pretty tough. I had bacon wrapped cheese on skewers, pork, beef, and chicken. With a couple of beers, the total came out to about $20. He actually has a large menu, but since it is in kanji characters, I can’t read it. I asked him if I could make a copy of the menu to take into my teachers and translate it, but he insisted on copying it by hand for me right there in the restaurant. He’s a really nice guy, and we watched the Hanshin Tigers play baseball on the TV while I ate and drank.

Afterwards, I walked home about two blocks, and walked by two Japanese girls standing on the sidewalk waiting for someone to pick them up. They were staring at me the whole time I walked towards them, so just before I passed I smiled and said “Konbanwa” (good evening) to them in Japanese. Both their jaws dropped, and one said “Eeeeehhhhyyy?” loudly, which is the Japanese equivalent of “What the hell?” They just watched me finish my walk to my apartment without saying another word. Another international experience in the books.

Today I had three classes in school, and one of them was without a teacher to help me out. Strictly speaking, that’s against the rules of the JET program, so don’t tell anyone. The students were third year students, and their English skills were quite good. The lesson was great because it made me think carefully about what I said – I didn’t have a Japanese teacher of English around to bail me out if there was something that was not understood. The timing turned out much better, and the students were a bit more enthusiastic, which helped a lot.

My other two classes were with first year students, one with Mr. Hayashi, and one with Miss Yamamoto. They both went pretty well, and were big improvements over the class yesterday. I was very happy with the results – I could tell that things were going to get better as I get more comfortable in the classroom.

I forgot my lunch today, so I took advantage of a service for the teachers of the school. Teachers can write their name on a list at the beginning of the day, and then the school cafeteria staff will prepare a special meal for you, deliver it to the teachers room promptly at 11:00 a.m., and bill your monthly paycheck for about 300 yen ($2.50). That’s a hell of a deal – there is a lot of food in the bento box, and it’s fresh and hot. Unfortunately, the food is on the deep fried side, and probably not a good healthy choice for every day. I’ll continue to bring my own lunches for the time being, but it’s nice to know that something like that is around in case something comes up.

Melanie came down tonight to bring back some of the gear I loaned her for the party last night. She brought a cream puff pastry that one of her friends had brought for her – it was excellent. We looked at the pictures I took from Himeji and Akashi, and she also mentioned that one of the teachers that she works with had a friend that had seen me around and was very impressed. That is all the information she had, so now apparently I have a stalker. I guess I’m going to have to make sure to remember the curtains every night.

Today was my first day actually team teaching, and it was a pretty interesting class. I had only one class the whole day, so I was able to focus. My teacher, Miss Kageyama, said she was very nervous on the way to the class, and I couldn’t help but think that if she was nervous, how about me? I’m teaching a class for the first time in a foreign country, teaching a foreign language, with virtually no experience.

I had planned enough work for a 50 minute class, and as I got started, I realized that things were happening much faster than I expected. As I started, all of the kids gave me blank stares and when I asked for volunteers, they stared even harder at their desks, trying to avoid eye contact. I got off to a rocky start – I talked too fast, and my voice was too quiet for the students to hear. Miss Kageyama let me know when I was doing something wrong, and I was impressed with her poise given the situation.

I finished all of my presentation, and then realized that there was no clock in the room, so I didn’t know how much time was left to kill. I asked Miss Kageyama, and she said that we had almost twenty minutes left! I couldn’t believe how quickly the activities had been finished. It wasn’t really that the students were that sharp, it was that I was talking fast, and I hadn’t planned well. I had planned on time for the students to respond and ask questions, and that never really happened. Miss Kageyama did some quick thinking on her feet, and we had the students begin their homework assignment in class. They were quietly working, and when I approached, they giggled or talked with their friends.

Once the bell rang, the students left, and I was left with a feeling of disorientation – it felt like I really hashed up the class. Miss Kageyama tried to help by telling me how well it went, but I think it was a very Japanese way of saying that I should hang in there and things would get better.

The rest of the day was spent preparing my lessons for Wednesday, and trying to learn from my mistakes in the first class. In retrospect, it was great to have the time to refine the lesson and get back on track.

At about 4 o’clock, one of the English teachers brought the table tennis coach over and introduced me. In my speech in front of the teachers I had mentioned that ping pong was one of my hobbies, and the teacher was curious to see if I wanted to play with them – the school has a table tennis club. I didn’t have gym clothes, so I went to the gym and played in my nice clothes – this opportunity was too good to miss.

I’ll cut right to the chase and tell you that I got my ass kicked. Several times, as a matter of fact. They had a paddle for me that bounced the ball across the room if I even tapped it, and the style of play was incredibly different than anything I’ve ever seen before. I was able to slam it a couple of times, and I made some returns that made the whole table tennis club oooohhh and aaaaahh. Other than that, I was a merely a speed bump for the coach and their top player. The coach was highly amused, and offered to teach me some of the moves sometime – I’m an honorary member of the ping pong club. I returned to the teacher’s room a sweaty mess, but I was pretty happy. It was a great experience to play someone with that kind of skill.

Mel was hosting a small party upstairs and so when I got home, I went up to help out a bit. Melanie made some homemade salsa, and then we laid out some salty snacks for everyone. The party went pretty well, and we compared notes on our first days teaching. It was a actually a birthday party for one of the Japanese guys that hosted a BBQ a while back – he was turning 20 years old. At 20 years old, you are allowed to drink, and so it was kind of cool that he chose to spend a milestone birthday with a bunch of foreigners. His English isn’t very strong, about the same as my Japanese. We switched back and forth while talking, and it was great communicating with someone with such a different background. We adjourned the party fairly early, and I was in bed early to get ready for the next day.

Today was the first day of school back for the entire student body, and my first really full day at work. I didn’t have any classes to teach, but I was expected to make a brief self-introduction in English and Japanese to all of the students and staff in the gymnasium. It worked out to about 1100 people.

There was an opening ceremony, and a brief awards ceremony, and then they called me up to the stage. Mr. Hayashi came up with me, and I was grateful for the company. Standing in front of a thousand silent high school students was pretty unnerving. Before I started, all the students rose from their sitting position on the floor and bowed to me, and I bowed back. The moment was perfect for a photo, but it probably would have been awkward. Maybe I’ll take one at the start of next term.

I jumped into my speech in English. I cut it short because of the heat and the idea that only a few people in the room could understand me. Then I jumped to Japanese and kept it short because of the heat and the idea that I cannot speak Japanese well.

Afterwards, one of the members of the student council rose and read me a short paragraph in English welcoming me to the school, and then Mr. Hayashi and I tried to explain where California was by referencing famous Japanese baseball stars in the major leagues. I am not sure how well that went over. Afterwards, we left, and all of the students were smiling and saying hello (“konnichi wa”) in the hallways. Apparently I was a hit, and many students were lining up outside of the teacher’s room to stare, point, and if it was a girl student, giggle. I would say hello and set them off – their giggles and laughter would echo down the halls. I wonder how long the novelty lasts?

Some of the students that I had already met through Andy or at the summer sessions came in and congratulated me on my speech, and so it was great to talk to them a bit. Tomorrow is my first class, and it is actually with Miss Kageyama, so I’ll be at least familiar with the teacher a bit.

This evening I sauteed some calamari in garlic and butter, and had that with rice and hot sauce. Afterwards I ran down to the store to buy some ingredients for future meals, and to get ready for the party upstairs tomorrow night. Mel and I had a drink together and talked about the big fiesta tomorrow. She is throwing a birthday party for the guy that threw the BBQ the other night in the next town. She is really nervous about it, and isn’t sure how the neighbors are going to react. I’m just glad it’s in her apartment, and not mine.

After you complete the interview in the middle of February, the waiting begins. If you started in September like I did, you’ve already had your fingers crossed for six months. At the end of the interview, they said that I would hear something by the end of April. Another two and a half months of waiting! This is a tough time – you’ve got a real good shot at going to Japan this year, but it’s not guaranteed so you have to live your life and try to forget about it. The closer I got to April, the more I had to consider two paths. Bracing yourself for disappointment, hoping for some good news, all the mental games that you have to play to keep yourself sane. There is so much at stake, but the more you dwell on that, the more disappointed you are likely to be. In March and April I visited the mailbox every day. It was like torture.

Finally after reading on an online bulletin board that some folks from Los Angeles had received word, I drove to the post office, and inside was a regular business sized envelope from the Consulate of Japan. It seemed heavier than normal, so that’s a good sign, right? I took the envelope, threw it in my backpack and drove out to the desert, where I hiked deep into Horsethief Canyon. I finally opened the letter in front of a waterfall at the basin of the canyon. And I was in!

The sense of relief is amazing! Now you know what you are going to do with your life for the next year. You can start planning so many things. Ah, sweet relief. I’m going to Japan!

So after two months of waiting to see how things went with my application, I get a very thin letter that congratulates me on reaching the “next stage”. I did some research, and it seemed like if you got to the interview stage, your chances are pretty good. They’ve weeded out most of the “undesirable” folks with the application, and now it’s time to meet who is left. My interview was in Los Angeles. I called in sick to work, and then made the drive from San Diego to LA. I got there several hours early, changed into my suit in a nearby hotel bathroom, and then went inside. I get the impression that it’s OK to be nervous at the interview; it’s just a matter of hiding it well. I was glad I got there early – I was able to listen to some ex-JETs recall their experiences, and watch them eat lunch. Finally, they called me in and I was on the hot seat.

I understand that the interview format varies depending on where you interview – in Los Angeles I interviewed with a panel of three people. You walk in, make eye contact, smile, say hello, try to remember to breathe, sit down, adjust your clothes, deep breath, smile again, remember all the things you want to say…

The interview went pretty well overall – I stumbled a few times on some basic stuff, but what felt like a colossal failure on my part evidently looked like a little trip to them. The panel members didn’t really smile or react to what I said. A couple of head nods, and some tough follow-up questions were about all the feedback I got. One of the situations they put me in was to teach them about an American holiday, and they would mimic the behavior of Japanese students. During my lesson, I mentioned that Thanksgiving was in November, and one of the interviewers asked “What’s November?” My mind clicked through a bunch of possible answers� what do you mean? Are you kidding? It’s after October! All of the sudden, I remembered the Japanese word for November – “juuichigatsu”. Yes! The interviewer smiled when I said it, and that was about all the feedback I was going to get. After 20 long minutes, they let me go. I walked out of the building feeling great that I had survived, and even gave a homeless guy five bucks before I jumped back on the freeway to San Diego. What a relief to be done with it!

Now, I just had to wait for the results.

If you want to go to Japan, there’s a couple of different ways to do it, and every way has its own advantages and disadvantages. You can just fly out there and visit Japan as a tourist, taking a couple of weeks to see the sights. I wanted to live there, and to do that, I was going to need a job. Teaching English in Japan is a big business, and there are several different firms that bring native-English speakers to Japan. After a great deal of investigation, I found a program that seemed like it was the right one for me. The JET program is a solid, well-funded, government-sponsored program that has been around since the 80’s. After cruising the message boards, reading the literature, and talking to friends, it looked like the perfect fit. The only problem – it’s highly competitive. There are some people that have applied to the JET program several times, interviewed several times, and were rejected several times. Ouch. The big hurdle in getting to Japan was making this program. I had no backup. I had no contingency plans.

I downloaded the application from the JET website. It’s a large packet full of detailed instructions. I would need letters of recommendation, proof of graduation, a two page original essay, and DNA samples. Well, maybe not the DNA samples. I printed out the application and instructions and there was a serious stack of paper. My best advice here is to read it a couple of times – everything doesn’t sink in right away. The thing to do first is to get your letters of recommendation going, because they are going to be completed by someone else, and you’ll be depending on their schedule and good graces.

Once you gather all your information, you need to have it at the Japanese embassy in Washington DC by the beginning of December. You get about two and a half months to finish the application and send it off – make sure to do as much as you can as early as you can. While there is no advantage to getting it there early, there is a peace of mind issue – you’ll need the extra inner tranquility later on, as you shall see.

Next, the interview.