After nearly a year of having this blog and not using it, I've found a new reason to revisit it. This blog will chronicle my adventures in Japan, which will begin at the end of this week. At the moment, I am about to embark on my new job as an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) for the JET Programme. I'm going to teach English to Japanese high school kids in Numazu City in Shizuoka Prefecture. Shizuoka is a coastal prefecture, an hour's bullet train ride from Tokyo, and known for it's mild weather, natural beauty, tea fields, Mt. Fuji, and of course, it's situation right on a major fault line, meaning it (and I) could be wiped out by an earthquake any minute. From what I hear, it's nice. :)
Up to this point, I've been corresponding with my lovely predecessor Emily, who's helped me prepare for this trip in more ways than I can count. I've gotten the booklets, the forms, the schedules, the "survival guides," the contract, the rules, more pieces of paper than I care to keep track of. And the gifts. Oh, the gifts. Not for me, unfortunately. As Emily put it, I suspect Japan's entire economy is kept afloat by the sheer amount of gifts, or "omiyage," that foreigners and English teachers bring for their hosts, co-workers, bosses, and anyone who helps them along the way. I've heard the most loved gifts are the ones that are indigenous to your locale, a little bit of home, so to speak. Keychains and teatowels with the picture of your state on it, local edibles and crafts, etc.... Pretty much anything so tacky and useless that no one in the state actually owns it and you CANNOT find in the suburbs of a small city, like Henrico County. I'd have better luck if I lived in a theme park or a rest stop on the side of the interstate (Actually, that's probably not a bad place to look). The principal and vice principals of my school will be receiving nice tins of Virginia peanuts. Everyone else is going to have to make do with the hodgepodge of items I've managed to scrounge together, including candles, calendars that have nothing to do with Virginia, potpourri, and teeny bottles of Texas hotsauce that are actually pretty cute if you ask me.
The rest of the week will be devoted to fitting my belongings into two suitcases not to exceed 50 lbs each, and soaking up as much American culture as I can, so I get good and sick of it before I leave.
