The Truth is Never Simple

Do you like Halloween? Well of course you do, if you're North American then Halloween is a prime holiday. You can wear a costume of your choosing. Be sexy, be interesting and be creative if you want. You can get tons of candy if that's what you desire. Back in the day the candy aspect was a huge highlight for me but nowadays, given my dedication to my eating pattern, the idea of sitting down and eating an entire box of Halloween candy is less appealing. You'll have a party maybe and dress up for work. All in all, Halloween is a great time! In South Korea Halloween was basically non-existent. But in Japan, if you like Halloween, then you're in for a treat! Japan has taken most of the commercial aspects of Halloween. They don't do trick or treating but that's mainly because of the context around trick or treating is something they've missed out on. However, the excuse to party and eat spooky themed treats is one that that enjoy! You'll find tons of t...

Part of being in Japan and on the JET program is setting challenges for yourself. You set goals and attempt to achieve them. This is something I can totally get behind. Find something you want to achieve and then go for it! Whether or not you achieve it isn't really the issue...it's about the attempt. I've set a few goals for myself and one of them is the 20 Prefecture Challenge. During my time in Japan (2-3 years) I want to visit 20 Prefectures. I have already been to 5 before moving to Japan full time: Osaka, Nara, Kyoto, Chiba and Tokyo. Moving to Kochi Prefecture raised that to 6. So that means I have 2-3 years to visit 14 Prefectures. October 7-9th was a long weekend this year and a friend and I took a trip to Okayama. My friend is someone who has studied in Japan before and thus she's had many opportunities to travel. She's an amazing person and I feel very, very lucky to have met her. She's helped me so much and I can only hope that my own life ex...

So you've arrived in your city and your eventual school. For me that's a Junior High School Monday - Thursday and an Elementary School on Fridays. My JHS is one of the largest in my city. It's got approximately 300 students. That's big for my city but not big for ALTs in larger cities. I know ALTs on Honshu who teach over 500 students, some over 1000. Surprisingly despite the fact that I'm in a smaller school I'm still kept incredibly busy. The good thing is that I see every class multiple times per week and that does mean the students are warming up to me pretty well. Junior high kids are shy. Really shy. They're self conscious of their English abilities. The English level at my school is incredibly low. They don't know much English and their test scores are typically pretty low as well. However, I am seeing them improve and their writing abilities are not too bad. They're starting to greet me in the hallways and ask how I am. You might be at a bi...