I remember thinking, if I still had no idea what I wanted to do with my life after university, teaching English in Japan didn't seem like a bad option.
6 years later, after the most stressful application process I have ever been through (I never thought I would have a breakdown about not having uniform paper clips) I have ditched the sailor moon-esque attire, and traded the 'clueless student' status for 'clueless uni grad', still have no idea what I want to do with my life and so - I'm back.
And now that I've finally got my internet hooked up (you learn to disregard all images of a futuristic Japan when your placement is in a town of 5,000 people....) I am once again privileged with spamming everyone with my poor grammar, and even worse proof reading skills as I document my time abroad, with my base in the quaint little town of Konoura, Nikaho, Akita Prefecture.
This time round has a bit of a different ring to it, though I'm still being Shepherded around by my supervisor and have her to hold my hand while I have to do terrifying grown up shit like set up bank accounts and sign tenancy contracts (or sign my life away and hope that I'm not agreeing to donate my organs through an agreement that has far to much kanji for me to read) It is very much a flying solo kind of deal.
In amongst the excitement of returning to Japan, we were warned of what an isolation and lonely experience that JET can be if you let it. Where I'm fortunate to be able to speak terrible but mildly coherent Japanese and am somewhat accustomed to the food, the kids from the states in particular may not only have to learn a new language and stumble thorugh a completely foreign culture, but also learn to drive on the 'wrong' side of the road and decipher the metric and Celsius system, so in short, everything they ever knew is wrong.
Strangely it's not the language or culture, but going from living in a flat with 6 other people, to being alone from the time you get home to the time you leave the next morning that has been the biggest shock to the system.
But now that I seem to have stopped waking up in a panic because I'm convinced there's someone in my flat - life in Akita promises to be a charming (and character building) experience.
Watch me stumble my way through life here x
You have linguistic charm my dear. I'm glad you got your interwebs sorted out. How else would you blog about the state of the internet in Japan ;P I feel you on the shock of not living in the flat anymore and straight up I had one night I thought there was a ghost in my apartment, but here we both are now; we're communicating via the internet 2.0 and we're both living in Japan. That's some crazy shit indeed.
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