I've never set New Year's resolutions before. I've never made a point to set long-term goals and start the clock on New Year's Day. Reasons include the widespread, self-defeating mindset that people can't keep their resolutions longer than a month, not really having any goals to set at the time, and not having the time or resources to focus on anything other than finishing school and not getting fired from my part-time job.
I'd like to give this formal goal-setting a solid try now that I have the job security and free time to focus on other things, but the perpetuated outlook on resolutions has instilled in me a fear of giving up prematurely.
A recent post by a Facebook friend of mine inspired me to think about how we set goals and ways to increase the chances of accomplishing them.
While not official in any way or exhaustive, here is a list of things I think should be considered when setting goals:
-Beware hard deadlines.
The nice thing about New Year's resolutions is that there is a built-in start time. Having a solid time to start working on goals is much more motivating than "sometime next week" or "I'll get around to it".
However, keep in mind that setting a solid end can do more harm than good. Deadlines are infamous for squandering artist creativity. Committing to do something by a specific time can facilitate structure and order, but the increase in pressure can also be demotivating. Eventually, not doing anything at all is much more appealing, and people either quit, rush to get a project done resulting in inferior work, or procrastinate.
-Goals are rarely "accomplished"...and that's okay!
The problem here is that most equate not accomplishing goals with failure.
Let's say you set a goal to find your lost car key. Found it? Great, mission accomplished. Failed to find it? Mission not accomplished. pretty simple.
However, most goals aren't that black and white. Resolving to lose 30 pounds in a year is a concrete goal, but even if you only lost 25, you still accomplished something! Even a single pound is an important step in the right direction.
-Certain goals are a life-time commitment
Skills and healthy lifestyles need to be maintained.
Weight loss. Drug cessation. These are among the top-tier most daunting goals because they imply major lifestyle habit changes that need to continue for the rest of a person's life. Most people go into things like weight loss thinking about the short-term goal of losing the weight and don't think about how to maintain the new weight in their daily lives.
There are also certain skills that have no end-point. Language learning is one of these. I will continue learning Japanese (and whatever other languages I decide to learn) for the rest of my life. Hell, I'll be learning English the rest of my life too. Languages are organic and change over time which means I need to strive to keep up. There's always more to learn.
-Setting goals is a skill in itself.
Skills need to be developed and goal-setting is no different. As you experience progress and failure, you'll learn how to adjust your habits and schedule according to how you operate best.
-Goals need to change over time
This is why having an end time set in stone is generally a bad idea.
You are setting goals to develop yourself in some way which means you need to expect and accept change in a variety of areas including the goals themselves.
Expand your time-frame. Set smaller, more attainable goals. Or throw out the rule-book entirely and start over.
-There is no right answer
Italian electronic, disco musician and producer Giorgio Moroder has a documentary song in Daft Punk's most excellent album, "Random Access Memories" called "Giorgio by Moroder". At one point, he states, "Once you free your mind about the concept of harmony and of music being 'correct', you can do whatever you want.".
It's your life and your rules (or lack thereof). The only right answer is the answer that's right for you.
-And finally, patience
My last item on this list is probably the most important. People are human and humans have limitations. Don't treat those limitations as barriers, but rather as starting points. As you learn and grow, you'll begin to expand on those limitations.
Objects at rest want to stay at rest and objects in motion want to stay in motion. This law permeates all aspects of life. The hardest part will always be that first trip to the gym, or putting that first pencil to paper, or typing that first word. Know that once you begin to build momentum, it'll get easier and easier to keep going.
Learn to celebrate yourself and the small accomplishments. Reward yourself. Allow yourself some wiggle room and know that failure is normal and healthy. Allow yourself to quit if you need to.
The past year has been unforgettable and amazing and I can't wait to see what 2015 brings.
Happy New Year!
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Monday, November 10, 2014
Inaka != Isolation
Three years ago, I spent an amazing year studying abroad in Tokyo. I met friends and had experiences I couldn't have had anywhere else and after I returned to the US, I was convinced I wanted to live and work there. One of my reasons for joining the JET Programme in the first place was to use it as an opportunity to gain experience and a high enough Japanese skill to get a job in Tokyo or Osaka.
Lately, I've been wondering if I was aiming for this for the wrong reasons...
I fell in love with Tokyo the moment I stepped out of Shinjuku Station and saw the sleek, elegant skyscraper buildings balanced with beautiful parks and shrines. Walking through the city at night was like walking through a fever dream. So many sights and sounds and things to do and so little time to do them in. Tokyo was a great distraction from my crappy part-time job and trying to pull the credits together for a diploma I wasn't sure how to turn into a career. And Tokyo is the grand metropolis of distraction. Karaoke bars everywhere, events and concerts going on every day, huge museums, expensive clubs, and one of the best railway systems in the world. "I could walk these streets for days and know not even half its wonders." (Yes, I just quoted Assassin's Creed, don't hate...) Compared to reality back home, getting lost in the city with a generous stipend from the government was paradise.
Yet whenever I had time to myself or walked down the crowded streets alone, I was amazed at how lonely one could feel among so many people. Besides the usual stare foreigners get every once in a while, people just pass by. No one cares. They had their own lives to worry about. The problem was that I didn't really have one.
Even in Milwaukee, I had started to feel that way. My close-knit circle of friends were graduating and moving on with their lives. And now it's happening again: my friends at Seijo are graduating and moving on. One of my best friends now lives in Nagoya and most of my international friends are back in their home countries moving on with reality. My social group has all but scattered and my social safety net is left in tatters.
There comes a point in our lives that we realize that nothing is truly permanent and that's hard concept to get used to. Most of us grow up in the same neighborhood with the same kids, the same neighbors, the same teachers. But all of that changes when you leave home to build a life apart from that safety net. Even those who stay with their family find everyone else going away. This cycle has repeated many times for me now and it doesn't seem to get easier.
However, when the dust settles on your social situation, you get to look back and see which relationships are still standing. You did have true friends all along, but you couldn't see them among the multitude of people you were trying to maintain connections with until people started moving out of your life. These are the people that are there for you no matter how far apart you are. The ones you can go months without speaking to and then strike up a conversation as if no time has passed at all. And it's worth the pain of losing those you thought were good friends.
Each time you repeat this process, the weak ties break, and you weave new, stronger bonds into your safety net.
Starting your life in Japan on JET is another iteration of this process. Most of us are recent graduates leaving the college life behind when we leave our home countries. We leave friends and family behind to start a new chapter and this can be especially challenging for us big-city folk since most us are placed way out in the countryside.
The abundant landscapes and mountains are gorgeous. I don't think any JET can deny that. However, after a whirlwind month of introductions, classes, conferences, eikaiwas, and other obligations being thrust upon us, we take a look around and think, "Is this it?" Let's be honest- the countryside isn't known for it's thriving nightlife or other such distractions. There aren't a whole lot of people your own age besides your fellow JETs.
Then the boredom sets in and the stage two culture shock takes hold and all you want to do is stay inside and re-watch The Office over and over. You feel a bit resentful because there's no one at work that understands what your going through and you have to carry on like nothing's wrong. You crave real pizza and burritos the size of your head, but there's none to be found.
But then, when you feel up to it, you start to reach out. You start that martial art you've always wanted to for the first time. You share a nice conversation with a fellow teacher and find you have things in common. You start to realize that there are people out there who care and want to help. You stop seeing events and enkais as obligations and more like opportunities. You take hobbies back up you didn't have time for before or start new ones. Slowly but surely, your social calendar starts filling up again.
We look inward and realize that while we can't do much to change anything outside, there is something inside that we've been ignoring for a long time. They say that the hardest person to live with is yourself, and you'll experience this firsthand on JET. Because when there are no lights and sounds and crowds of young people to distract you, all that's left is yourself and you'll be shocked to feel like a stranger in your own skin.
One of the fifth-year JETs who left this year told me something that had to do with "creating a version of yourself you can take anywhere". Many people come here to leave behind a dreary life, but remember- you'll always have to live with your own demons no matter where you are. Escaping from them to a hedonist's paradise like Tokyo is just that- escapism. If you're looking for a brief distraction, great, but don't let distractions become and control your life. Don't become a hollow shell of a person that's only working for that next buzz alcohol and club music will bring.
One of my remaining close friends in Tokyo Skyped with me recently and she always asks me every time: "What is there to do there? Isn't it boring?" I laugh and agree there isn't much "to do" here. The problem is she means clubs, restaurants, amusements parks, etc. The truth is that I have a ton "to do" here in a different sense: I have kyudo, kendo, knitting, gaming, a mountain to climb in summer and ski down in winter, cultural events to see, community English events to participate in and I could go on. And if I do need more of a distraction, there is a huge Round One in Akita City...
And I've been surprised to realize that I'm just fine with the way things are. It may not be the most exciting, but life is pretty good. I've never felt more at peace with myself. Most of them may be over the age of 40, but I do have stable friends who won't be moving away. I've lost over 20 pounds and have never felt better about myself or my body. My relationship with my husband is the best it's ever been. He seems happier than he has in a while and we both have our share of issues.
JET is an opportunity and you have to grab onto and make the most of it if you want to get anything out of it. Don't waste away inside your apartment praying for time to accelerate to next summer so you can get the hell out of here. Try new things. Explore the area. Talk to people. Spend time with yourself. Take a mental inventory every once in a while and think about who you are and who you want to be when you leave the programme.
If February comes around and you decide it's time to go, make sure you can look back and say with satisfaction that you made the most of your time here. The countryside can be an experience in despair and isolation or magnificence and community. There are no obstacles, only challenges and learning experiences. Walking away and hiding from your problems doesn't solve them or make them go away. Don't hide away from the boundless opportunities in front of you. Don't hide away from yourself.
Break out of the cocoon and fly from the JET programme a better you.
Lately, I've been wondering if I was aiming for this for the wrong reasons...
I fell in love with Tokyo the moment I stepped out of Shinjuku Station and saw the sleek, elegant skyscraper buildings balanced with beautiful parks and shrines. Walking through the city at night was like walking through a fever dream. So many sights and sounds and things to do and so little time to do them in. Tokyo was a great distraction from my crappy part-time job and trying to pull the credits together for a diploma I wasn't sure how to turn into a career. And Tokyo is the grand metropolis of distraction. Karaoke bars everywhere, events and concerts going on every day, huge museums, expensive clubs, and one of the best railway systems in the world. "I could walk these streets for days and know not even half its wonders." (Yes, I just quoted Assassin's Creed, don't hate...) Compared to reality back home, getting lost in the city with a generous stipend from the government was paradise.
Yet whenever I had time to myself or walked down the crowded streets alone, I was amazed at how lonely one could feel among so many people. Besides the usual stare foreigners get every once in a while, people just pass by. No one cares. They had their own lives to worry about. The problem was that I didn't really have one.
Even in Milwaukee, I had started to feel that way. My close-knit circle of friends were graduating and moving on with their lives. And now it's happening again: my friends at Seijo are graduating and moving on. One of my best friends now lives in Nagoya and most of my international friends are back in their home countries moving on with reality. My social group has all but scattered and my social safety net is left in tatters.
There comes a point in our lives that we realize that nothing is truly permanent and that's hard concept to get used to. Most of us grow up in the same neighborhood with the same kids, the same neighbors, the same teachers. But all of that changes when you leave home to build a life apart from that safety net. Even those who stay with their family find everyone else going away. This cycle has repeated many times for me now and it doesn't seem to get easier.
However, when the dust settles on your social situation, you get to look back and see which relationships are still standing. You did have true friends all along, but you couldn't see them among the multitude of people you were trying to maintain connections with until people started moving out of your life. These are the people that are there for you no matter how far apart you are. The ones you can go months without speaking to and then strike up a conversation as if no time has passed at all. And it's worth the pain of losing those you thought were good friends.
Each time you repeat this process, the weak ties break, and you weave new, stronger bonds into your safety net.
Starting your life in Japan on JET is another iteration of this process. Most of us are recent graduates leaving the college life behind when we leave our home countries. We leave friends and family behind to start a new chapter and this can be especially challenging for us big-city folk since most us are placed way out in the countryside.
The abundant landscapes and mountains are gorgeous. I don't think any JET can deny that. However, after a whirlwind month of introductions, classes, conferences, eikaiwas, and other obligations being thrust upon us, we take a look around and think, "Is this it?" Let's be honest- the countryside isn't known for it's thriving nightlife or other such distractions. There aren't a whole lot of people your own age besides your fellow JETs.
Then the boredom sets in and the stage two culture shock takes hold and all you want to do is stay inside and re-watch The Office over and over. You feel a bit resentful because there's no one at work that understands what your going through and you have to carry on like nothing's wrong. You crave real pizza and burritos the size of your head, but there's none to be found.
But then, when you feel up to it, you start to reach out. You start that martial art you've always wanted to for the first time. You share a nice conversation with a fellow teacher and find you have things in common. You start to realize that there are people out there who care and want to help. You stop seeing events and enkais as obligations and more like opportunities. You take hobbies back up you didn't have time for before or start new ones. Slowly but surely, your social calendar starts filling up again.
We look inward and realize that while we can't do much to change anything outside, there is something inside that we've been ignoring for a long time. They say that the hardest person to live with is yourself, and you'll experience this firsthand on JET. Because when there are no lights and sounds and crowds of young people to distract you, all that's left is yourself and you'll be shocked to feel like a stranger in your own skin.
One of the fifth-year JETs who left this year told me something that had to do with "creating a version of yourself you can take anywhere". Many people come here to leave behind a dreary life, but remember- you'll always have to live with your own demons no matter where you are. Escaping from them to a hedonist's paradise like Tokyo is just that- escapism. If you're looking for a brief distraction, great, but don't let distractions become and control your life. Don't become a hollow shell of a person that's only working for that next buzz alcohol and club music will bring.
One of my remaining close friends in Tokyo Skyped with me recently and she always asks me every time: "What is there to do there? Isn't it boring?" I laugh and agree there isn't much "to do" here. The problem is she means clubs, restaurants, amusements parks, etc. The truth is that I have a ton "to do" here in a different sense: I have kyudo, kendo, knitting, gaming, a mountain to climb in summer and ski down in winter, cultural events to see, community English events to participate in and I could go on. And if I do need more of a distraction, there is a huge Round One in Akita City...
And I've been surprised to realize that I'm just fine with the way things are. It may not be the most exciting, but life is pretty good. I've never felt more at peace with myself. Most of them may be over the age of 40, but I do have stable friends who won't be moving away. I've lost over 20 pounds and have never felt better about myself or my body. My relationship with my husband is the best it's ever been. He seems happier than he has in a while and we both have our share of issues.
JET is an opportunity and you have to grab onto and make the most of it if you want to get anything out of it. Don't waste away inside your apartment praying for time to accelerate to next summer so you can get the hell out of here. Try new things. Explore the area. Talk to people. Spend time with yourself. Take a mental inventory every once in a while and think about who you are and who you want to be when you leave the programme.
If February comes around and you decide it's time to go, make sure you can look back and say with satisfaction that you made the most of your time here. The countryside can be an experience in despair and isolation or magnificence and community. There are no obstacles, only challenges and learning experiences. Walking away and hiding from your problems doesn't solve them or make them go away. Don't hide away from the boundless opportunities in front of you. Don't hide away from yourself.
Break out of the cocoon and fly from the JET programme a better you.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Things I'm Just Beginning to Understand at 25.
I still can't believe it. I'm 25 years-old. A quarter of a century. I'm about a third through my lifetime if I'm lucky. It's come to my attention that I am not the same person I was in college and I'm starting to realize how much I've done and changed. There are mindsets and beliefs that have changed drastically and I feel like a more complete person for it. I'm sharing only a few of them here and I wholly expect to continue changing as I finally start to feel the weight of adulthood. So here are some things that I'm finally starting to figure out at 25.
Being "Fit"
I touched on this one a bit in Physcial Wellness- What I Wish They Would Have Told Me, but I think this is the one concept related to health that still eludes me. We're all told that being "fit" is the ideal, but no one ever bothers to provide any clues as to what it actually is besides images of thin, lean people working out. When I worked at a Subway restaurant in Milwaukee, one of my more memorable customers always came in on break from a run. I swear this woman had no body fat. No curves, no boobs, nothing but lean muscle. Is she "fit"? Is she the pinnacle of "fitness"?
A quick google search of "fitness" will provide this definition:
The West Virginia University Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences center has a pamphlet on healthy living which provides this explanation:
The global increase of depression is well-known and according to the National Institute of Health, there is a strong correlation between depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric disorders and insomnia. There is no clear evidence to suggest whether the psychiatric disorders cause insomia or vice versa, but they do make each other worse. This creates a vicious cycle that's hard to break out of since exercising will give you more energy and better sleep, but it also takes some energy to get started in the first place.
Since physical fitness is such a personal measure of health, I've learned that gauging it should involve certain personal benchmarks. For example, I decided that being able to go up the two flights of stairs at work without by heart racing and being winded was my first step. With the 15 pounds I've lost and my increased activity level, I can definitely say I'ved mostly achieved that and I sleep better and feel better during the day. I am by no means a paragon of fitness, but I am well on my way.
Self-Esteem
Closely linked to fitness, we have self-esteem. This is probably the topic on this list that surprised me the most. About a month ago I had in epiphany of sorts. I was standing in front of the mirror and came to a realization: I like my body. More surprising was the realization I didn't really like it before.
My usual reactions before included "Meh", "I'm alright", and "Could be worse...". I considered this to be good self-esteem because I thought it was the best I could do both physically and mentally. Now when I look into that mirror, I think, "I actually LIKE my body!"
The confusing part was my body hadn't really changed. I'd dropped a few pounds developed a few muscles, but they hadn't made that much of a difference in the broad scheme of things.
Considering my body hadn't changed all that much, I tried to think what had: I'd started working out and keeping track of my calories. I'd started archery and kendo. It seemed like the results of what I was doing wasn't as important as the fact that I was doing them. Just trying and pushing myself raised my self-respect and self-worth. I found out I was capable of so much more than I thought.
As kids we're told to look in the mirror and say to yourself, "I'm beautiful", "I'm awesome", "I can achieve anything I want", but there's a difference between saying these things and actually believing in them and making them a reality. Telling someone with low self-esteem to just start loving themselves is like telling a person suffering from depression to just be positive. You can't wish feeling and emotion into existence. The only thing that can change anything is action.
Don't like your body? DO something about it. I'm not saying lose weight and get thin. I'm saying work your ass off for something you truly want. Don't settle for anything less than what challenges you. Does it suck? Good- it means your learning and improving. Take that anger and frustration and throw it into the face of what's in your way. Your body and mind will thank you for the work you've done and you'll love yourself for it no matter what the outcome.
"Getting a Life"
Let me be clear here: "get a life" is an insult. It's a veiled attempt to assert your superiority complex over someone.
I only use this phrase because I assume most people want "a life", but don't know exaclty what that is nor how to "get" one. Unfortunately (like almost everything on this list), it's too personal to have a cut-and-dry answer.
Here is what I thought a "life" was at 18: graduate high school, go to college, graduate college, career. I thought that was the natural progression of a successful individual. Any step outside it was a fast-track to loserdom. It shames me to think I used to look down on those that deviated from this path, but the truth is that I did. Things had been pretty smooth sailing for me. I was a good girl, kept my head down, flew through high school, got into my private, expensive, university of choice, and met the love of my life when I got there.
Then I started failing classes. I started seeing the possibility of not being able to make it through. It terrified me, and when I finally threw my hands up and admitted defeat I was at a loss. I knew I wanted to transfer somewhere else, but I didn't know where or what for or how to pay for it. I didn't know where I was going to live. I didn't know where my relationship with my boyfriend whom I was very much in love with was going to go.
Looking back, I think that's when my true "life" started. That's when I started to have to actually work to survive and get what I wanted.
After I left the Milwaukee School of Engineering, I fought to get into UW-Milwaukee (which is ironically easier to get into than MSOE), moved into my first apartment, and made the unwise choice to let my boyfriend move in with me and kept it from my disapproving parents. From that moment, I felt like almost everything I did was against their wishes and expectations. It was like all the angst and rebellion I'd suppressed as a teenager had festered and burst open. I started doing things because it was what I wanted and not necessarily what others wanted from me. I learned that I'd been mentally trained to feel guilty about doing so. Sometimes everything seemed like a fight whether at school, in my crappy job making subway sandwiches, in my relationship, or with my family.
But you know what? Between the challenges, between the frustration and tears, I was happy. I was finally "living". Fighting the tide instead of letting it take me wherever it was going made me feel alive and more like myself (whatever that meant at the time). With every challenge I faced, I built up pride and self-respect.
I met some of the best, the worst, most-interesting, most terrible people at my job. I met artists, I met hippies, I met drug dealers, I met homeless people, artists, musicians, hair stylists. I realized that a "life" can just be exactly that- life. Shaping it into whatever you want it to be. And unless you're causing harm to other people, who is anyone else to judge? The only judge that matters in life is you.
Friends
This one's hard to think about even now because I feel like I've lost many friends in my lifetime and I can't figure out where the relationships went wrong. It's not like I ever start a friendship with the thought that it might end. Sometimes a person you thought you were getting along with for a while starts ignoring you in passing while others you met only once in real life end up becoming good facebook friends.
Somewhere in life we start to separate aqcuaintences from friends, but I still have trouble understanding why I can't be friends with my aqcuaintences too or why friendships fade with time. In Girl Scouts there's a song that goes,
I used to think, "Why can't they all be gold?".
When I left MSOE I still hung out there regularly. But then time passed, and friends graduated and moved on until I had only a few left in Milwaukee who became understandably busy with their own lives and careers. I realized that someday I'd have to move on too. People change. They never stop changing. Some people grow together while others grow apart.
I didn't start getting a feel for who my "gold" friends until after I left college. I've learned the best friendships are the ones that endure through distance and time and it's worth the pain and loss of finding them.
Happiness
There are people I've met that seem almost too happy. You know the type- the bubbly, smiley ones that have an unbeatable zest for life and their facebook statuses are nothing but sunshine and rainbows.
These people bug me. It's not like I don't like them, but something about them rubs me the wrong way. I used to think it was because I felt resentful and jealous. I believed that level of happiness was the baseline for "normal" people and if it wasn't you were doing something wrong.
Now I know it's the inherent insincerity. These people aren't as happy as they portray themselves to be. It's nothing I hold against them- it's just the persona they've learned to present no matter how they feel. As a person who wears her heart on her sleeve, I hold emotional honesty in high regard.
And if I'm being honest right now, I'd say I'm mostly happy. I've learned that money can't "buy" happiness, but not having enough to survive certainly lowers your baseline. I've learned that putting yourself first is okay. I've learned that you can have great relationships with people even when you disagree with them (or even because of it). I've learned that the highs aren't a baseline and we wouldn't even appreciate the highs if we didn't have a baseline or the lows.
I've learned that when people talk about "happiness", they're really talking about "contentment". If you can say, "Yeah, I'm doing just fine.", I'd say you're happy. You have enough highs in your life to off-set the lows. You have enough to get by. You have a little more than enough so you can enjoy things beyond mere survival. You have an emotional safety net of people you trust and care for. You're body and mind are functional in a way that allows your daily life to run smoothly.
Most importantly, I've learned that happiness is different for different people. This goes back to the whole "having a life" thing a bit. If your current life is happy for you, than don't let anyone judge you for it. Love who you love and do the things you love to do.
And if you're not happy, DO something. Anything. One little change can make all the difference. If you need a big change, break it into small, less intimidating changes. It's hard, I know. Breaking out of the vicious cycle of a negative mindset is difficult. If you need encouragement or help, don't be silent. Reach out. Know that failure is a natural part of the learning process, not a stop sign.
After writing this, I'm amazed at how different I was ten or even just two years ago. As a quarter-of-a-centurian, I've experienced a lot of things and it's good to know I've actually learned a thing or two from them. If there are any other mid-twenty somethings out there, I encourage you to take a moment and think about what these things mean to you. I have a feeling that all too many people watch life pass them by and not take a second to fully appreciate exactly what and who they are. You're the only one in the entire universe and are here for only a brief time. Wouldn't it be nice to get to know yourself while you're here?
Being "Fit"
I touched on this one a bit in Physcial Wellness- What I Wish They Would Have Told Me, but I think this is the one concept related to health that still eludes me. We're all told that being "fit" is the ideal, but no one ever bothers to provide any clues as to what it actually is besides images of thin, lean people working out. When I worked at a Subway restaurant in Milwaukee, one of my more memorable customers always came in on break from a run. I swear this woman had no body fat. No curves, no boobs, nothing but lean muscle. Is she "fit"? Is she the pinnacle of "fitness"?
A quick google search of "fitness" will provide this definition:
1. the condition of being physically fit and healthy.Gee, thanks- had no idea "fitness" had anything to do with "being physically fit". Also, being "healthy" is a separate thing. Even when I was 195 pounds I could go to my physical and get a clean bill of health (after which my doctor will say, "Now about your weight...").
The West Virginia University Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences center has a pamphlet on healthy living which provides this explanation:
Fitness means being in good physical condition or being healthy. Fitness means"More energy", "better sleep patterns", "able to carry out tasks more easily". Now we're getting somewhere. Of course, these are different for every person which means fitness is going to be personal as well.
having more energy and better sleep patterns. A person who is fit is also able to
carry out tasks more easily.
The global increase of depression is well-known and according to the National Institute of Health, there is a strong correlation between depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric disorders and insomnia. There is no clear evidence to suggest whether the psychiatric disorders cause insomia or vice versa, but they do make each other worse. This creates a vicious cycle that's hard to break out of since exercising will give you more energy and better sleep, but it also takes some energy to get started in the first place.
Since physical fitness is such a personal measure of health, I've learned that gauging it should involve certain personal benchmarks. For example, I decided that being able to go up the two flights of stairs at work without by heart racing and being winded was my first step. With the 15 pounds I've lost and my increased activity level, I can definitely say I'ved mostly achieved that and I sleep better and feel better during the day. I am by no means a paragon of fitness, but I am well on my way.
Self-Esteem
Closely linked to fitness, we have self-esteem. This is probably the topic on this list that surprised me the most. About a month ago I had in epiphany of sorts. I was standing in front of the mirror and came to a realization: I like my body. More surprising was the realization I didn't really like it before.
My usual reactions before included "Meh", "I'm alright", and "Could be worse...". I considered this to be good self-esteem because I thought it was the best I could do both physically and mentally. Now when I look into that mirror, I think, "I actually LIKE my body!"
The confusing part was my body hadn't really changed. I'd dropped a few pounds developed a few muscles, but they hadn't made that much of a difference in the broad scheme of things.
Considering my body hadn't changed all that much, I tried to think what had: I'd started working out and keeping track of my calories. I'd started archery and kendo. It seemed like the results of what I was doing wasn't as important as the fact that I was doing them. Just trying and pushing myself raised my self-respect and self-worth. I found out I was capable of so much more than I thought.
As kids we're told to look in the mirror and say to yourself, "I'm beautiful", "I'm awesome", "I can achieve anything I want", but there's a difference between saying these things and actually believing in them and making them a reality. Telling someone with low self-esteem to just start loving themselves is like telling a person suffering from depression to just be positive. You can't wish feeling and emotion into existence. The only thing that can change anything is action.
Don't like your body? DO something about it. I'm not saying lose weight and get thin. I'm saying work your ass off for something you truly want. Don't settle for anything less than what challenges you. Does it suck? Good- it means your learning and improving. Take that anger and frustration and throw it into the face of what's in your way. Your body and mind will thank you for the work you've done and you'll love yourself for it no matter what the outcome.
"Getting a Life"
Let me be clear here: "get a life" is an insult. It's a veiled attempt to assert your superiority complex over someone.
I only use this phrase because I assume most people want "a life", but don't know exaclty what that is nor how to "get" one. Unfortunately (like almost everything on this list), it's too personal to have a cut-and-dry answer.
Here is what I thought a "life" was at 18: graduate high school, go to college, graduate college, career. I thought that was the natural progression of a successful individual. Any step outside it was a fast-track to loserdom. It shames me to think I used to look down on those that deviated from this path, but the truth is that I did. Things had been pretty smooth sailing for me. I was a good girl, kept my head down, flew through high school, got into my private, expensive, university of choice, and met the love of my life when I got there.
Then I started failing classes. I started seeing the possibility of not being able to make it through. It terrified me, and when I finally threw my hands up and admitted defeat I was at a loss. I knew I wanted to transfer somewhere else, but I didn't know where or what for or how to pay for it. I didn't know where I was going to live. I didn't know where my relationship with my boyfriend whom I was very much in love with was going to go.
Looking back, I think that's when my true "life" started. That's when I started to have to actually work to survive and get what I wanted.
After I left the Milwaukee School of Engineering, I fought to get into UW-Milwaukee (which is ironically easier to get into than MSOE), moved into my first apartment, and made the unwise choice to let my boyfriend move in with me and kept it from my disapproving parents. From that moment, I felt like almost everything I did was against their wishes and expectations. It was like all the angst and rebellion I'd suppressed as a teenager had festered and burst open. I started doing things because it was what I wanted and not necessarily what others wanted from me. I learned that I'd been mentally trained to feel guilty about doing so. Sometimes everything seemed like a fight whether at school, in my crappy job making subway sandwiches, in my relationship, or with my family.
But you know what? Between the challenges, between the frustration and tears, I was happy. I was finally "living". Fighting the tide instead of letting it take me wherever it was going made me feel alive and more like myself (whatever that meant at the time). With every challenge I faced, I built up pride and self-respect.
I met some of the best, the worst, most-interesting, most terrible people at my job. I met artists, I met hippies, I met drug dealers, I met homeless people, artists, musicians, hair stylists. I realized that a "life" can just be exactly that- life. Shaping it into whatever you want it to be. And unless you're causing harm to other people, who is anyone else to judge? The only judge that matters in life is you.
Friends
This one's hard to think about even now because I feel like I've lost many friends in my lifetime and I can't figure out where the relationships went wrong. It's not like I ever start a friendship with the thought that it might end. Sometimes a person you thought you were getting along with for a while starts ignoring you in passing while others you met only once in real life end up becoming good facebook friends.
Somewhere in life we start to separate aqcuaintences from friends, but I still have trouble understanding why I can't be friends with my aqcuaintences too or why friendships fade with time. In Girl Scouts there's a song that goes,
"Make new friends, but keep the old.
One is silver and the other's gold.
When I left MSOE I still hung out there regularly. But then time passed, and friends graduated and moved on until I had only a few left in Milwaukee who became understandably busy with their own lives and careers. I realized that someday I'd have to move on too. People change. They never stop changing. Some people grow together while others grow apart.
I didn't start getting a feel for who my "gold" friends until after I left college. I've learned the best friendships are the ones that endure through distance and time and it's worth the pain and loss of finding them.
Happiness
There are people I've met that seem almost too happy. You know the type- the bubbly, smiley ones that have an unbeatable zest for life and their facebook statuses are nothing but sunshine and rainbows.
These people bug me. It's not like I don't like them, but something about them rubs me the wrong way. I used to think it was because I felt resentful and jealous. I believed that level of happiness was the baseline for "normal" people and if it wasn't you were doing something wrong.
Now I know it's the inherent insincerity. These people aren't as happy as they portray themselves to be. It's nothing I hold against them- it's just the persona they've learned to present no matter how they feel. As a person who wears her heart on her sleeve, I hold emotional honesty in high regard.
And if I'm being honest right now, I'd say I'm mostly happy. I've learned that money can't "buy" happiness, but not having enough to survive certainly lowers your baseline. I've learned that putting yourself first is okay. I've learned that you can have great relationships with people even when you disagree with them (or even because of it). I've learned that the highs aren't a baseline and we wouldn't even appreciate the highs if we didn't have a baseline or the lows.
I've learned that when people talk about "happiness", they're really talking about "contentment". If you can say, "Yeah, I'm doing just fine.", I'd say you're happy. You have enough highs in your life to off-set the lows. You have enough to get by. You have a little more than enough so you can enjoy things beyond mere survival. You have an emotional safety net of people you trust and care for. You're body and mind are functional in a way that allows your daily life to run smoothly.
Most importantly, I've learned that happiness is different for different people. This goes back to the whole "having a life" thing a bit. If your current life is happy for you, than don't let anyone judge you for it. Love who you love and do the things you love to do.
And if you're not happy, DO something. Anything. One little change can make all the difference. If you need a big change, break it into small, less intimidating changes. It's hard, I know. Breaking out of the vicious cycle of a negative mindset is difficult. If you need encouragement or help, don't be silent. Reach out. Know that failure is a natural part of the learning process, not a stop sign.
After writing this, I'm amazed at how different I was ten or even just two years ago. As a quarter-of-a-centurian, I've experienced a lot of things and it's good to know I've actually learned a thing or two from them. If there are any other mid-twenty somethings out there, I encourage you to take a moment and think about what these things mean to you. I have a feeling that all too many people watch life pass them by and not take a second to fully appreciate exactly what and who they are. You're the only one in the entire universe and are here for only a brief time. Wouldn't it be nice to get to know yourself while you're here?
Monday, August 25, 2014
"Hair"rowing Tales
Like many fans, I was shocked and saddened by the sudden announcement that Ghibli studios would be closing down and then relieved when a friend informed me mere hours later that they were only restructuring, and then sad again when I learned it was due to Miyazaki retiring (for realz this time). Ghibli has touched the hearts of many the world over with their stunning visuals, masterful storytelling, and progressive, believable, characters.
One could write multiple essays about just one movie let alone all of them, but there is one theme that has become especially relevant in my life recently. I will describe it thusly:
The pattern is very apparent: main characters with long hair tend to lose it by the end of the movie. The metaphor for character development and loss of innocence and childhood is made stronger by most of these characters losing their hair by force: the above character's braids are literally shot off with a pistol, Sophie in Howl's Moving Castle has to sacrifice her long hair in order to find Howl, and Prince Ashitaka in Princess Mononoke cuts off his hair in a more ritualistic fashion before starting his journey away from home. However, the change is almost always taken in stride. By the time the hair is removed, the characters have already acquired the attributes befitting the symbol: self-confidence, maturity, and courage.
It wasn't until recently that I realized how much I thought of my hair in this way. My hair has been long as long as I can remember. I considered it the thing about myself I liked most and took great pride in my long, brown-golden locks that shined in the sun. I never in my life thought I would ever cut it short. I thought it was the thing that made me beautiful. No matter how hot the summer, how much shampoo and conditioner it took to keep it clean and oil-free or how much brushing it took to keep it untangled, I stubbornly refused to let more than an inch or two go at each trimming.
Sometime in High School I dove headfirst into the popularity explosion that was Japanese pop culture. Spirited Away moved me to tears. I'd never seen anything like it (although after watching Totoro I realized I'd actually seen it a long time ago in elementary school!). Around this time I became engrossed in a rail-shooter game called Panzer Dragoon: Orta- a game highly lauded as the best game of the year that no one played due to poor marketing and the stigmatizing of rail-shooters in general (Starfox forever!).
As a teenage girl vulnerable to romantic flights of fancy, I was drawn to the main character Orta- a girl chained up in a tower for an absurd reason who is soon rescued by one of the most bad-ass dragons ever. They then fly off together to destroy the evil empire that hunted her.
This next time I went for a haircut, I brought of picture of her along with me and asked the stylist, a friend of the family, what she thought. It was a reverse bob (front in long tapering to short in the back) with a tad sharper angle than the usual and I didn't think it was too radical. However, she thought maybe it wasn't such a good idea and I instead got my hair cut to just below my shoulders. I regretted it later. I didn't even think that maybe I wanted that hairstyle so much because it was worn by a person who fought for her freedom to reject her past and choose her own destiny.
The next radical thing I tried was to dye it blue when I was in college. I loved it, but then had to face the realities of a possible career after graduation and let it return to normal.
Recently, I've been working vigorously to lose weight and have noticed a rise in my self-esteem and self-confidence. I decided I was finally ready to appease the thirteen year-old me and get the haircut that had since nagged me in the back of my mind.
As I sat in the chair waiting for the snipping to begin, I couldn't believe how nervous I felt. There was no going back once it started and I'd have to live with it for a long time. I kept convincing myself I was ready for this change. I finally felt ready to join the ranks of Sheeta, Sophie, and Ashitaka. I didn't need my long, thick hair to hide my face and body or feel beautiful anymore, and I was sick of how it was always in my way or pulling on the back of my head like a chain.
With the sound of metal-on-metal, my hair began to fall to the floor. Pieces of my life interwoven with guilt, shame, timidness, and uncertainty were severed and swept away. As any other part of a person, I can still feel it's absence, but I'm better without it and I don't need the safety net it provided anymore.
I walked away from the salon a carefree women. I feel lighter and more like myself. I didn't get to fly with dragons or befriend a totoro, but I got there nonetheless. When I see old pictures of myself with those long, beautiful locks, I'll look on them fondly, but with no regrets.
*All screenshots belong to Studio Ghibli and Panzer Dragoon: Orta is a property of Sega*
One could write multiple essays about just one movie let alone all of them, but there is one theme that has become especially relevant in my life recently. I will describe it thusly:
The pattern is very apparent: main characters with long hair tend to lose it by the end of the movie. The metaphor for character development and loss of innocence and childhood is made stronger by most of these characters losing their hair by force: the above character's braids are literally shot off with a pistol, Sophie in Howl's Moving Castle has to sacrifice her long hair in order to find Howl, and Prince Ashitaka in Princess Mononoke cuts off his hair in a more ritualistic fashion before starting his journey away from home. However, the change is almost always taken in stride. By the time the hair is removed, the characters have already acquired the attributes befitting the symbol: self-confidence, maturity, and courage.
It wasn't until recently that I realized how much I thought of my hair in this way. My hair has been long as long as I can remember. I considered it the thing about myself I liked most and took great pride in my long, brown-golden locks that shined in the sun. I never in my life thought I would ever cut it short. I thought it was the thing that made me beautiful. No matter how hot the summer, how much shampoo and conditioner it took to keep it clean and oil-free or how much brushing it took to keep it untangled, I stubbornly refused to let more than an inch or two go at each trimming.
Sometime in High School I dove headfirst into the popularity explosion that was Japanese pop culture. Spirited Away moved me to tears. I'd never seen anything like it (although after watching Totoro I realized I'd actually seen it a long time ago in elementary school!). Around this time I became engrossed in a rail-shooter game called Panzer Dragoon: Orta- a game highly lauded as the best game of the year that no one played due to poor marketing and the stigmatizing of rail-shooters in general (Starfox forever!).
Seriously, why didn't anybody play this game?!
This next time I went for a haircut, I brought of picture of her along with me and asked the stylist, a friend of the family, what she thought. It was a reverse bob (front in long tapering to short in the back) with a tad sharper angle than the usual and I didn't think it was too radical. However, she thought maybe it wasn't such a good idea and I instead got my hair cut to just below my shoulders. I regretted it later. I didn't even think that maybe I wanted that hairstyle so much because it was worn by a person who fought for her freedom to reject her past and choose her own destiny.
The next radical thing I tried was to dye it blue when I was in college. I loved it, but then had to face the realities of a possible career after graduation and let it return to normal.
Recently, I've been working vigorously to lose weight and have noticed a rise in my self-esteem and self-confidence. I decided I was finally ready to appease the thirteen year-old me and get the haircut that had since nagged me in the back of my mind.
As I sat in the chair waiting for the snipping to begin, I couldn't believe how nervous I felt. There was no going back once it started and I'd have to live with it for a long time. I kept convincing myself I was ready for this change. I finally felt ready to join the ranks of Sheeta, Sophie, and Ashitaka. I didn't need my long, thick hair to hide my face and body or feel beautiful anymore, and I was sick of how it was always in my way or pulling on the back of my head like a chain.
With the sound of metal-on-metal, my hair began to fall to the floor. Pieces of my life interwoven with guilt, shame, timidness, and uncertainty were severed and swept away. As any other part of a person, I can still feel it's absence, but I'm better without it and I don't need the safety net it provided anymore.
I walked away from the salon a carefree women. I feel lighter and more like myself. I didn't get to fly with dragons or befriend a totoro, but I got there nonetheless. When I see old pictures of myself with those long, beautiful locks, I'll look on them fondly, but with no regrets.
*All screenshots belong to Studio Ghibli and Panzer Dragoon: Orta is a property of Sega*
Thursday, July 17, 2014
The JET programme: Change Your Life
Summer vacation is just around the corner here in Japan, but things seem to be speeding up rather than slowing down around here. August harolds an exciting time in Japan full of festivals, sunny beach barbeques, Koshien, and many partings and meetings for us JETs. I wish every JET near and far the best as they embark on their newest adventure and personally look forward to welcoming our two incoming ALTs in the next few weeks.
Over the ocean in the US (and perhaps other parts of the world), students fresh-faced from summer break are gearing up for their very last year or semester of college. This a busy time for all of you as well and I remember the frantic excitement of finally being done with school and mounting panic as I realized I need an actual plan for the future.
There was really only one thing I was completely sure of when I came home from my study abroad in Tokyo: I wanted to go back. As I slogged through my last semester at UW-Milwaukee in the Fall of 2012, I looked for ways back to Japan. Teaching wasn't really on my radar, but JET was always in the back of my mind as an option. I looked on a few websites such as Ohayo Sensei and GaijinPot, but I was intimidated by actual job-hunting in a foreign country and nothing came close to the benefits offered in a JET contract. I finally decided being a CIR in the JET programme would be a great working experience and threw my proverbial hat into the ring.
To those of you thinking about JET, I want to say that it is an invaluable, life-changing experience and I have no regrets accepting my position. But before you start getting everything together for that application, there are many things to consider. As much research as I did, there were many things I wish I had been told beforehand and I want to share those things with you. My goal is not to discourage anyone but to make you as fully prepared as possible for the challenges that lie ahead (multiplied by getting your last credits together and your thesis/final projects done) and set reasonable standards for life in Japan as a JET.
Should you find yourself wishing to partake in the insanity that is the JET programme after reading this, then I say go for it and the best of luck!
1. The JET application process
a) The application
The entire application process starts in October/November and runs all the way through April when people receive their acceptance/rejection letters. Many candidates are University students trying to get through their senior year and making time to get the necessary documents including transcripts (including any overseas transcripts), proof of graduation, 2 letters of recommendation, a 1,000-word statement of purpose, and the very lengthy application itself together mulitplies the already-existing stress of senior classes, projects, and dissertations. If you want to shoot for an April departure time, you have even more paperwork to do at the time of application.
b) The waiting
After you have everything sent in and you receive your little slip of paper with your application number on it comes the hardest part: the waiting. Considering the app is due sometime in November and candidates don't receive results until sometime in February (depending on the consulate), it all adds up to approximately three months of nothing especially after doing all that work. Students can try as they might to focus on school (and for those that graduate in December, job-hunting), but JET is going to start burrowing a little niche in the back of your mind where it will sit and nag at you until you FINALLY receive that email.
c) The interview
JET interviews aren't intrinsically terrible, but it does take time to properly prepare for one and the experience varies greatly between consulates and the candidates themselves. Those who want to read in length about the JET interview can do so here, but long story short, you will be questioned about your application repsonses and statement of purpose, and there will be a few questions designed to test your adaptability and how you deal with difficult situations. You need to be able to keep a cool head and think on your feet.
c) MORE waiting
Yep, the next 1-2 months are another whole lot of nothing. Having passed the first stage of the process, the anxiety is going to be amplified by your success and the hard work you've done thus far. As February rolls into April, you're going to start checking your email every day and freak out whenever you receive one.
d) The notifcation
The moment has arrived, and one of two things will happen: you'll read the word congradulations and go crazy with excitement, or you'll read through the whole thing in despair as you realize you were rejected. This can be hard. REALLY hard. Receiving that rejection from a normal job sucks as it is so I can't imagine the disappointment of being rejected from a programme you not only dreamed about but worked on for the better part of a year. If you're going to apply to the programme, you need to be prepared for and be able to deal with this situation and have a back-up plan handy.
2. Being a JET
While the JET programme is a great opportunity that has given me priceless experiences and professional development, there are many challenging aspects that I feel many prospective JETs aren't aware of and need to know.
a) Placement
The Downside:
You probably will not be placed in Tokyo or Osaka. However...
**EXCITING NEWS**
There have been short-listed applicants announcing their placements in Tokyo popping up all over the internet. It is true- JET has opened up almost a hundred new placements in Tokyo proper for the 2014-2015 year and I couldn't be more excited (and jealous). They will be adding even more positions in the coming years as the Japanese government prepares to push the English program back even further to start in the 3rd grade.
The Bright Side:
On your application you can request three different placements. I tried to get as large a placement as possible close to the big cities and they gave me Japanese Wisconsin (aka Akita prefecture). The other two ALTs from Milwaukee got Gunma and Saitama (both urban and close to Tokyo). While there may be plenty of openings in urban centers, there are many other factors such as municipality, prefectural, or board of education requests (gender, Japanese ability, teaching experience, sister city hometown, etc.).
Many people who do request countryside locations tend to get them. And let's face it, I gotta be one of the luckiest JETs out there to be able to come to work and see this every day:
Even if you want to live in the countryside, you need to be prepared to go anywhere. If you decide to drop out after placement, you will not be able to apply to JET again for a whole year.
b) The Money Pit
The Downside:
The application process takes a lot of time, energy and perhaps a bit of money, but the real drain on your wallet as well as your free time doesn't start until you've been accepted. Right away there will be paperwork to hand in by the end of the month, and even more paperwork to start which takes both money and time waiting for the government to process for you. The most expensive will be the criminal background check ($18 application fee and $84 for the check) and the tax form proving your US residency ($64 each). Then factor in time traveling to and from your municipal police station, doctor's office for the health check, and any FAQs or other meetings (which are in your best interest to attend).
Next up are any purchases you may need to make such as clothing, luggage, medications, a laptop and/or e-reader, and toiletries that are hard to find in Japan. There is also the high possibility that you will need a car (which you can buy outright from your predecessor or lease when you get here).
Finally, we have the cost of starting your new life in Japan. I wrote up a comprehensive list of things you will need to pay for upon arrival here, but every situation is different (or as we like to say, ESID), Estimated starting costs can range from 100,000yen-300,000yen.
The Bright Side:
Boards of Education understand how large of an undertaking moving to a foreign country is and many are willing to help. Most JETs get a subsidy on their rent. Depending on their budget situation, they may be able to loan you out money or help you make other arrangements.
And then there's your more-than adequate salary. I'm not exactly sure why, but JETs get paid a whole lot more than the average teacher in any country. Even after I send home around 60,000yen every month, I still have plenty left over to take care of both myself and my husband and still have spending money left over.
JET is widely considered to be the best of its kind for this reason plus the free plane ticket they provide to and from Japan.
c) Transportation
The Downside:
One of the things I miss about Tokyo so much is the train system. It's efficient, goes everywhere, easy to board with a rail pass, and runs past midnight. Here on the west coast in Northeast Japan, the main line runs along the coast, runs about once an hour and has a tendency to be severely delayed by high winds and snow especially in the winter. Trains that run all the way to my town run even less frequently and the last one departs Akita City around 8:30pm.
The reality is that most JETs end up getting a car at some point. Many JETs live within walking distance of convenience stores, 100yen shops, and grocery stores, but chances are you're going to have to travel a bit if you want access to things besides survival needs. Almost every JET in my area that tried to make do without a car ended up at least leasing.
Of course, cars come with additonal responsiblities like car insurance, an annual automobile tax, and the mandatory bi-annual car inspection.
The Bright Side:
So much more will be open to you. In a place where public transport is so unreliable, the mobility and self-reliance a car provides gives one peace of mind. You don't have to worry about the weather or what time of day it is- you can just go.
The Downside:
Some ALTs come to Japan raring to revolutionize the education world and create the best damn English department Japan has ever seen. These ALTs end up extremely disappointed. There are some aspects of the Japanese language education system that are, shall we say, 'lacking', but there's really not much one can do about it. There is an association of JETs called AJET that work with the Council of Language and International Relations (CLAIR) to improve the overall work life of JETs, but there really isn't a way to permanently impact the core curriculum.
Many ALTs can find ways to personalize and create their own lessons, but rarely do they have opportunities to teach a whole class by themselves. The Japanese teacher of English (JTE) will always be the primary instructor and may allocate an entire lesson to their ALT or merely use them to pronounce vocab words or read passages. Every JTE is different and some may be very open to new ideas while others would rather stick to their own plans. This can be very frustrating for JET teachers with lots of experience who are used to being in charge.
This can also apply to a CIR who thinks they'll be translating masters by the time they leave JET. Some translate a lot, some don't do any at all. Job duties will differ depending on your placement and the expectations of your superiors.
The Bright Side:
Your "duties" extend outside the classroom. Lets throw some positivity into this mess of pessimism.
JETs fall under the title 'civil servant' which means you work not for the school, but for the city or prefecture itself. Therefore, there are other things you may be expected to do such as help with sister city exchanges or run English conversation classes at the community center. The are even English camps and volunteer activities in many places run by JETs.
Even if you can't make a huge impact in the classroom, these activities are a great way to get involved in your community, make friends, and be in charge for a change.
Something else to watch out for are the changes being considered to prepare the English curriculum for the huge pushback in 2020. As a part of these sweeping changes, CLAIR and MEXT are considering allowing ALTs to teach solo in the classroom. This wouldn't include all classes, but the Japanese government is considering the benefits of at least one class being taught exclusively by the ALT. If you don't find the prospect of being an "assistant" teacher appealing, keep an eye out for these and other changes coming to the JET programme...
e) The free time
The Downside:
There are times when you will have very few or no classes at all. During long breaks you will have absoutely zero to do at work. Many JETs simply don't know what to do with themselves with all this time and most of the teachers won't have answers for you since they aren't very well-versed in the specifics of your job. This can also make you feel isolated and forgotten as everyone else in the office shuffles around with mountains of work to do while you sit at your desk with nothing.
The Bright Side:
This is where creative people shine. While an entire day sitting on your ass can be a drag, take this opportunity to do something productive. Many JETs find the extra time a plus in which they can write, read, study, translate, or make culture boards, games or lessons plans. Hell, I've even budgeted my finances at work.
Just because you have nothing to do doesn't mean you're glued to your desk. Feel free to take a walk around your school. If you get the immobile blues, simply moving at all can help tremendously.
f) School climate
The Downside:
As I've mentioned before, Japan has always been a fore-runner in energy conservation, but after the Great East Japan Earthquake, these policies were kicked into over-drive. My school doesn't tend to turn on the air conditioning during the hot, sweaty summer months and will wait til the last possible day to start turning on the heater in early winter. The interim months between cold and hot are hard to bear since they turn the heaters off pretty early. As a person with bad circulation to begin with, I find that I get so chilled that my fingernails turn a lovely shade of purple.
Another interesting aspect is that the hallways and bathrooms aren't heated at all. It's very strange to walk out of the heated office to freezing hallway to heated classroom. And while you may have those fancy heated toilets, there probably isn't any hot water to wash your hands with.
By the way, Japanese buildings have little insulation and usually lack central heating completely. My schools have smaller heaters installed in each classroom that be individually turned on and off and hallways aren't heated at all.
The Bright Side:
The conversation of energy came with a huge slackening in dress code. On extremely cold days, teachers can shed the suit jackets for an extra cardigan or even a track jacket and can even skip jackets all together in sweltering summer. I've seen teachers sitting with fleece blankets at their desks as well.
There are many alternative heating options available for the home as well.
g) The annual teacher shuffle
The Downside:
Before the start of every new academic year, teachers are moved around their local region. Your school will lose teachers and gain new ones. This means that the JTE you loved working with and spent a whole year building a great relationship with might leave you. Some teachers are even promoted. I was sad to see my principal, vice principal, and gyomu-sensei leave, but was relieved when it turned out the latter two were replaced by promoted teachers.
The shuffle varies from year-to-year and depends on many factors (most of which are a mystery to most of us). Most teachers don't stick around for more than 3-4 years.
The Bright Side:
You might be finally rid of that teacher you just can't seem to get along with. Maybe you'll get to keep the great ones around longer than usual.
Even if your favorites get traded out, they may not be far away. Many are club leaders who you may see at regional competitions or events. It's amazing how every teacher in the southern region in Akita seems to know one another (or at least "about" one another). If you're not sure about your new incoming JTE, chances are someone around you can tell you what to expect.
h) Unpredictable schedules
The Downside:
When you first get here, school schedules will be a complete mystery to you. There will seem to be a billion charts and "jikan-wari" (timetables) that look unreadable and incomprehensible. Your only saving grace will be the office ladies handing out printed daily schedules, but sometimes they forget or don't seem to know whether to give you one.
If your head JTE is nice, they'll make you a schedule of your classes for the week. Sometimes, however, there is a class switch without warning or your JTEs may need/not need your help regardless of what the schedule says. Your JTE may run up to you a couple minutes before the next period and hurriedly ask you to join their class.
Always have your class materials handy and be ready for anything.
The Bright Side:
There is a method to the scheduling madness and it will make sense once you figure it out. My junior high can have one of four schedules on any given day: A6 (6 50-minute classes), B6 (6 45-minute classes), A5 (5 50-minute classes), and B5 (5 45-minute classes). There can be other variations of this format such as a B4 (4 45-minute classes) or something completely different (which will have the 特 kanji next to the schedule format which means "special").
Once you have the system figured out, it's pretty simple to plan your day out, but again, be ready for anything.
3. Life in Japan
a) Welcome to the cash society
The Downside:
Say goodbye to your plastic friends, because most of them won't do you any good here. Japan is a 'cash' society- it's considered normal to carry around exhorbitant amounts of cash, most places don't accept debit or credit cards, and checks don't really exist in the conventional sense. When somebody needs to send someone else money, they typically receive the relevent account information and transfer it over at an atm. This may seem extremely inconvenient, but if there's someone or a company that you regularly send money to, you can have the atm make you a card so that all you need to do next time is tell it you want a transfer, stick in the card, and then put in the amount. You can also set up automatic withdrawal for most regular payments like bills (you still receive a notice in the mail).
The Bright Side:
Having to pay in cash is a double-edged sword. Yes, it's super inconvenient to have to drive to the bank so often, but having the inconvenience makes your money less easy to spend and make you spread your funds out to avoid unnecessary trips. I find it's a lot easier to budget when you're limited to the physical amount in your immediate possession instead of having a card you can swipe an infinite number of times whether you have the money or not. Another boon to budgeting is having account books that can be automatically updated by sticking it in an atm. You can also have online banking set up.
b) The Japanese Language
The Downside:
As I've mentioned in previous posts, while the JET programme does not require any previous experience or credentials of any kind outside a bachelor's degree (in anything), the truth is that more and more accepted candidates are either at least basic learners of Japanese or previous teachers or both. I know a few JETs who had little to no Japanese ability, but at least one of them has a supervisor who doesn't speak English and I know a good majority of their troubles could be made easier or non-existent if they knew at least basic Japanese.
At the bare minimum, you need to express your intention to study Japanese if you were accepted to the JET program.
The Bright Side:
I recently discovered a great website created by a world traveler called Mark Manson. One of his many great articles is called "22 Tips for Learning a Foreign Language" in which he remarks, "Studies have shown that the most common 100 words in any language account for 50% of all spoken communication. The most common 1,000 words account for 80% of all spoken communication. The most common 3,000 words account for 99% of communication." He emphasizes that just learning those first 100 words will carry you a long way. To someone who hasn't seriously studied a foreign language, it may seem like a lot, but you'd be surprised how many words you can get down in one sitting. When I work on vocabulary, I usually limit myself to 10-20 words at a time. At a pace of once a day, I can get a hundred words down in 5-10 days. Then, of course, you need to continue to review and expand your usage of them.
c) Weather
One of the most unexpected things newcomers to Japan will discover is that the climate here is actually extremely humid. This makes the colder seasons seem colder and the warmer seasons seem hotter.
The higher humidity brings a few extra challenges. One of these is mold. I've never had to clean my shower and bathtub so much as I have here. People who have tatami rooms have to be especially careful since tatami mats are pretty expensive to replace.
Another particularly dangerous risk in the summer is food poisoning. Bacteria love moist, warm climates (aka: Japan). Be especially weary of food stands.
With the humidity and still air, there's also a heightened risk of heat exhaustion. Cute posters have popped up all over my school reminding kids to hydrate and I see announcements all over the news warning the populace of particularily hot days.
Those who are new to Japan eventually notice that the country has a special relationship with umbrellas. Due the strong sun and rainy seasons in summer, umbrellas have become a big industry in Japan with many different kinds, syles, and brands available. The large amount of rain and long stretches of cloudy days can be hard to deal with at times.
And of course, the large amount of precipitation herolds a massive amount of snow in the northern regions. Dealing with the massive amount of snow can be a daunting challenge to most new JETs.
Japan is also infamous for it's seasonal typhoons. These can be scary, but are usually nothing to worry about as long as you stay home and pay attention to the news.
c) The infamous ginormous bugs
The Downside:
With the I'm not gonna lie- this was probably my biggest hang-up about living in the countryside. It might seem silly, but the thought of finding a multi-legged creepy crawler or humongous spider in my apartment freaks the hell out of me.
Fortunately, the worst we get up here in Akita are giant spiders and giant wasps. Other harzardous fauna include bears and poisonous snakes. I've seen neither since I got here, but I have seen the destruction they're capable of:
I'd imagine you'd have to traipse pretty far into the forests to see them. We've had a Serow (a kind of large goat with stunted horns) visit close to my junior high and caused quite an excitement during school lunch.
Even when I lived in Tokyo, I heard stories from fellow students who had a roach problem (and apparently, they FLY!). This is so common, I see commercials for roach removal sprays all the time on TV and they are prominently displayed in just about every store. Roaches don't only live in dirty places in Japan- they can invade the cleanest of buildings.
The moral of the story is that you need to be prepaired to deal with the worst possible situation. The variety of critters that can potentially invade your home increase the farther south you live. Maybe you'll be fortunate like me and be given a relatively new building to live in or maybe you'll get something super old with a mukade nest.
Oh, what's a mukade you ask? None other than the first-born satan-spawn from the ninth circle of hell (aka Japanese centipedes). Many of them can grow to be 20cm long, are venomous, territorial and are never solitary. If you find one in your home, chances are it isn't the last one you'll find. I almost cried with happiness when my predecessor told me it's too cold up here for them to live!
The Bright Side:
You get to see things like beautiful dragonflies and praying mantises:
I want to reiterate that I'm not trying to scare you (well, maybe enough so that you'll be careful), but you need to know about local flora and fauna before deciding to live anywhere. There is a great, comprehensive blog about Japanese bugs written by a nice German lad who's been all over the countryside.
d) Bodily Difficulties
The Downside:
Of course everybody gets sick, but many foreignors are hit with something they'd never in a million years think they'd have to deal with: allergies. I have 2 brothers and a step-mother with nasty respiratory allergies, but I've never had anything serious besides a slight allergy to ceclor (a component in some medicines) before a couple years ago.
I started to suspect I had allergies when I started getting sniffles around spring time of 2011 particularily in the damp, underground lecture halls of the chemistry building at college. Due to the fact that it went away with the season and it was extremely inconvenient to get tested (I would have had to find time away from work and school to travel home), I didn't give it another thought.
That fall I went to Tokyo. I had no problems.
Then I came to Akita. About a month later, I came down with what I thought was a cold, but it left me with a post-nasal drip that always grew nastier at night and cause me terrible throat-pain. Every once in a while (again, usually at night), my eyes would randomly burn and itch. Sometimes simply tearing up would cause the burning. I came to the conclusion that there was something here my body simply didn't like.
Apparently, I'm not alone. There is an unusually high number of people (foreignors and Japanese alike) that are allergic to cedar pollen. Why? Well, it turns out it's kind of their fault. A long time ago, the Japanese government reforested a large chunk of Japan with these cedar trees because they were thought to be more economically productive than other trees. Unfortunately, the project turned out to be a complete failure. That article from 1996 sites a statistic of 1 in 10 people being allergic to cedar, but more recent ones state percentages of up to 16%. Now the government is desperately trying to reduce the number of cedar trees. It's not uncommon too see Japanese people in facemasks here due to illness, but they also wear them just to keep out allergens.
Up next, we have the inevitable bowel issues that come with a drastic change in diet. Of course this will vary greatly depending on what you ate in your home country. Japanese food tends to be high in sodium that can irritate sensitive bellies. There is also a lot of seafood both raw and cooked and JETs will find themselves eating fish on a regular basis for school lunch. Those who are allergic to or don't like seafood will find this a bit of a challenge.
Those with a chronic problem like IBS will need to bring their own loperimides (the active ingredient in "Immodium") or see a doctor here for a prescription since it isn't sold over the counter in Japan.
If you have a prescription, you're going to either do more paperwork, have someone send it to you a month at a time, or see a doctor here for it. Ladies: birth control is not covered here. Get it taken care of in your own country if it's cheaper.
Lastly, I'd have to say the most out of left field problem I encountered was sleep deprivation. I'm not even talking about jet-lag (which is an issue for any world traveler). You'll find out quickly that even if you have a western-style bed, it tends to be the arcane spring-style firmer mattress. On top of that, a coastal town such as Nikaho can have high winds fast enough to rattle your windows and I'm a light sleeper.
On the bright side...
Social health insurance. Going to the doctor is extremely cheap here. While not entirely free, it'll cost you a pittance of 500yen to just talk to a doctor and any medications will be extremely cheap and effective. A doctor visit plus an x-ray for my husband cost me about $25.
Another great thing is the adaptibility of the human body. Any problems you may have when you come here may simply be a product of not being acclimated yet. Both taste buds and stomaches can adapt to accept a wide variety of foods and many JETs come here hating seafood and leave loving it. It's also quite nice that Japanese people are just less squicked out by talking about bowel issues. You'll notice that not once have I mentioned the word diarrhea (until now), but I've heard my school nurse tell homeroom teachers in not-hushed tones that their student is out of commission due to "geri" (Japanese for diarrhea).
e) Culture shock
The Downside:
I'll probably write a whole separate post about this topic, but it's still important to mention here. This will happen to you in the most unexpected ways no matter how much time you spend here or in other countries. There is no getting around it, but you can minimize it by doing your research and having reasonable expectations.
Culture Shock is typically thought to occur in "stages": after you get over the excitement of being here (stage 1), you're going to sink into a low (stage 2). Culture shock affects each individual differently, but you can almost guarantee that you'll feel negative emotions such as depression, frustration, anxiety, or just a vague feeling that something (or everything) is "wrong" or "just not right". This can be triggered by some minute difference between your home culture and Japan's, or it may seem like you're feeling that way for no reason at all.
The point is that it happens to everyone and you won't know how it affects you until you've experienced it first-hand. It's extremely important that you have an idea about healthy ways to deal with stage 2 when it happens.
The Brightside:
Most importantly, it gets better. Stage 2 typically ends within a few days then you're on to stage 3: assimilation. Now the differences that got you down feel more acceptable or maybe you found a good substitute. The more you're exposed to the culture, the more it will start to feel normal. You'll eventually cycle around to stage 2 again, but you'll start to notice that it takes longer and longer to occur.
Also, you're not alone. Every foreignor goes through it and it helps to share your experiences. JET has a particularily good support line run by fellow JETs that fills the time that the official JET helpline is not available.
The last great thing about living in a small town is that you will get to know a lot of great people who will help you at a moment's notice. I've had my fair share of difficulties, but members of my community were always there for me.
4. Just Do It
Screw it. You know what? Just do it. I've been through all of these challenges and I wouldn't take back my decision to come to here for anything. There's just too much awesome that offsets the amount of suck you have to go through and come out the other side a stronger, better person. If you read through all of this and still feel that pull, a yearning for the adventure living here can provide and are willing to allow yourself to change and be shaped by the experience, just do it.
There were times when I wondered why I'm even here. The road to understanding the answer has been long and arduous and can't be adequately expressed with words. It's the popping sound of an arrow piercing a target. It's getting lost on your way to Bon Odori. It's watching the sun set over the Japan Sea. It's feeling lonely and unloved. It's the mysterious and haunting sound of a Japanese flute during fall matsuri. It's every time I see a spark of understanding in my student's eyes and the fascination I both see in them and feel in myself. It's your car breaking down an hour away from home in a blizzard. It's seeing the country anew through the eyes of my husband. It's every time I walk outside and feel the awe and wonder at how a country can be so green and beautiful.
It's all of these things and more. And it wouldn't have been possible without the JET program.
Just do it.
**Easter Egg: to those who got the reference in the title, kudos! For those who didn't, allow me to educate you.
Over the ocean in the US (and perhaps other parts of the world), students fresh-faced from summer break are gearing up for their very last year or semester of college. This a busy time for all of you as well and I remember the frantic excitement of finally being done with school and mounting panic as I realized I need an actual plan for the future.
Every college student right before graduation.
There was really only one thing I was completely sure of when I came home from my study abroad in Tokyo: I wanted to go back. As I slogged through my last semester at UW-Milwaukee in the Fall of 2012, I looked for ways back to Japan. Teaching wasn't really on my radar, but JET was always in the back of my mind as an option. I looked on a few websites such as Ohayo Sensei and GaijinPot, but I was intimidated by actual job-hunting in a foreign country and nothing came close to the benefits offered in a JET contract. I finally decided being a CIR in the JET programme would be a great working experience and threw my proverbial hat into the ring.
To those of you thinking about JET, I want to say that it is an invaluable, life-changing experience and I have no regrets accepting my position. But before you start getting everything together for that application, there are many things to consider. As much research as I did, there were many things I wish I had been told beforehand and I want to share those things with you. My goal is not to discourage anyone but to make you as fully prepared as possible for the challenges that lie ahead (multiplied by getting your last credits together and your thesis/final projects done) and set reasonable standards for life in Japan as a JET.
Should you find yourself wishing to partake in the insanity that is the JET programme after reading this, then I say go for it and the best of luck!
1. The JET application process
a) The application
The entire application process starts in October/November and runs all the way through April when people receive their acceptance/rejection letters. Many candidates are University students trying to get through their senior year and making time to get the necessary documents including transcripts (including any overseas transcripts), proof of graduation, 2 letters of recommendation, a 1,000-word statement of purpose, and the very lengthy application itself together mulitplies the already-existing stress of senior classes, projects, and dissertations. If you want to shoot for an April departure time, you have even more paperwork to do at the time of application.
b) The waiting
After you have everything sent in and you receive your little slip of paper with your application number on it comes the hardest part: the waiting. Considering the app is due sometime in November and candidates don't receive results until sometime in February (depending on the consulate), it all adds up to approximately three months of nothing especially after doing all that work. Students can try as they might to focus on school (and for those that graduate in December, job-hunting), but JET is going to start burrowing a little niche in the back of your mind where it will sit and nag at you until you FINALLY receive that email.
c) The interview
JET interviews aren't intrinsically terrible, but it does take time to properly prepare for one and the experience varies greatly between consulates and the candidates themselves. Those who want to read in length about the JET interview can do so here, but long story short, you will be questioned about your application repsonses and statement of purpose, and there will be a few questions designed to test your adaptability and how you deal with difficult situations. You need to be able to keep a cool head and think on your feet.
c) MORE waiting
Yep, the next 1-2 months are another whole lot of nothing. Having passed the first stage of the process, the anxiety is going to be amplified by your success and the hard work you've done thus far. As February rolls into April, you're going to start checking your email every day and freak out whenever you receive one.
d) The notifcation
The moment has arrived, and one of two things will happen: you'll read the word congradulations and go crazy with excitement, or you'll read through the whole thing in despair as you realize you were rejected. This can be hard. REALLY hard. Receiving that rejection from a normal job sucks as it is so I can't imagine the disappointment of being rejected from a programme you not only dreamed about but worked on for the better part of a year. If you're going to apply to the programme, you need to be prepared for and be able to deal with this situation and have a back-up plan handy.
2. Being a JET
While the JET programme is a great opportunity that has given me priceless experiences and professional development, there are many challenging aspects that I feel many prospective JETs aren't aware of and need to know.
a) Placement
The Downside:
You probably will not be placed in Tokyo or Osaka. However...
**EXCITING NEWS**
There have been short-listed applicants announcing their placements in Tokyo popping up all over the internet. It is true- JET has opened up almost a hundred new placements in Tokyo proper for the 2014-2015 year and I couldn't be more excited (and jealous). They will be adding even more positions in the coming years as the Japanese government prepares to push the English program back even further to start in the 3rd grade.
The Bright Side:
On your application you can request three different placements. I tried to get as large a placement as possible close to the big cities and they gave me Japanese Wisconsin (aka Akita prefecture). The other two ALTs from Milwaukee got Gunma and Saitama (both urban and close to Tokyo). While there may be plenty of openings in urban centers, there are many other factors such as municipality, prefectural, or board of education requests (gender, Japanese ability, teaching experience, sister city hometown, etc.).
Many people who do request countryside locations tend to get them. And let's face it, I gotta be one of the luckiest JETs out there to be able to come to work and see this every day:
Even if you want to live in the countryside, you need to be prepared to go anywhere. If you decide to drop out after placement, you will not be able to apply to JET again for a whole year.
b) The Money Pit
The Downside:
The application process takes a lot of time, energy and perhaps a bit of money, but the real drain on your wallet as well as your free time doesn't start until you've been accepted. Right away there will be paperwork to hand in by the end of the month, and even more paperwork to start which takes both money and time waiting for the government to process for you. The most expensive will be the criminal background check ($18 application fee and $84 for the check) and the tax form proving your US residency ($64 each). Then factor in time traveling to and from your municipal police station, doctor's office for the health check, and any FAQs or other meetings (which are in your best interest to attend).
Next up are any purchases you may need to make such as clothing, luggage, medications, a laptop and/or e-reader, and toiletries that are hard to find in Japan. There is also the high possibility that you will need a car (which you can buy outright from your predecessor or lease when you get here).
Finally, we have the cost of starting your new life in Japan. I wrote up a comprehensive list of things you will need to pay for upon arrival here, but every situation is different (or as we like to say, ESID), Estimated starting costs can range from 100,000yen-300,000yen.
The Bright Side:
Boards of Education understand how large of an undertaking moving to a foreign country is and many are willing to help. Most JETs get a subsidy on their rent. Depending on their budget situation, they may be able to loan you out money or help you make other arrangements.
And then there's your more-than adequate salary. I'm not exactly sure why, but JETs get paid a whole lot more than the average teacher in any country. Even after I send home around 60,000yen every month, I still have plenty left over to take care of both myself and my husband and still have spending money left over.
JET is widely considered to be the best of its kind for this reason plus the free plane ticket they provide to and from Japan.
c) Transportation
The Downside:
One of the things I miss about Tokyo so much is the train system. It's efficient, goes everywhere, easy to board with a rail pass, and runs past midnight. Here on the west coast in Northeast Japan, the main line runs along the coast, runs about once an hour and has a tendency to be severely delayed by high winds and snow especially in the winter. Trains that run all the way to my town run even less frequently and the last one departs Akita City around 8:30pm.
The reality is that most JETs end up getting a car at some point. Many JETs live within walking distance of convenience stores, 100yen shops, and grocery stores, but chances are you're going to have to travel a bit if you want access to things besides survival needs. Almost every JET in my area that tried to make do without a car ended up at least leasing.
Of course, cars come with additonal responsiblities like car insurance, an annual automobile tax, and the mandatory bi-annual car inspection.
The Bright Side:
So much more will be open to you. In a place where public transport is so unreliable, the mobility and self-reliance a car provides gives one peace of mind. You don't have to worry about the weather or what time of day it is- you can just go.
d) The 'A' in ALT really does mean "assistant"The Downside:
Some ALTs come to Japan raring to revolutionize the education world and create the best damn English department Japan has ever seen. These ALTs end up extremely disappointed. There are some aspects of the Japanese language education system that are, shall we say, 'lacking', but there's really not much one can do about it. There is an association of JETs called AJET that work with the Council of Language and International Relations (CLAIR) to improve the overall work life of JETs, but there really isn't a way to permanently impact the core curriculum.
Many ALTs can find ways to personalize and create their own lessons, but rarely do they have opportunities to teach a whole class by themselves. The Japanese teacher of English (JTE) will always be the primary instructor and may allocate an entire lesson to their ALT or merely use them to pronounce vocab words or read passages. Every JTE is different and some may be very open to new ideas while others would rather stick to their own plans. This can be very frustrating for JET teachers with lots of experience who are used to being in charge.
This can also apply to a CIR who thinks they'll be translating masters by the time they leave JET. Some translate a lot, some don't do any at all. Job duties will differ depending on your placement and the expectations of your superiors.
The Bright Side:
Your "duties" extend outside the classroom. Lets throw some positivity into this mess of pessimism.
JETs fall under the title 'civil servant' which means you work not for the school, but for the city or prefecture itself. Therefore, there are other things you may be expected to do such as help with sister city exchanges or run English conversation classes at the community center. The are even English camps and volunteer activities in many places run by JETs.
Even if you can't make a huge impact in the classroom, these activities are a great way to get involved in your community, make friends, and be in charge for a change.
Something else to watch out for are the changes being considered to prepare the English curriculum for the huge pushback in 2020. As a part of these sweeping changes, CLAIR and MEXT are considering allowing ALTs to teach solo in the classroom. This wouldn't include all classes, but the Japanese government is considering the benefits of at least one class being taught exclusively by the ALT. If you don't find the prospect of being an "assistant" teacher appealing, keep an eye out for these and other changes coming to the JET programme...
e) The free time
The Downside:
There are times when you will have very few or no classes at all. During long breaks you will have absoutely zero to do at work. Many JETs simply don't know what to do with themselves with all this time and most of the teachers won't have answers for you since they aren't very well-versed in the specifics of your job. This can also make you feel isolated and forgotten as everyone else in the office shuffles around with mountains of work to do while you sit at your desk with nothing.
The Bright Side:
This is where creative people shine. While an entire day sitting on your ass can be a drag, take this opportunity to do something productive. Many JETs find the extra time a plus in which they can write, read, study, translate, or make culture boards, games or lessons plans. Hell, I've even budgeted my finances at work.
Just because you have nothing to do doesn't mean you're glued to your desk. Feel free to take a walk around your school. If you get the immobile blues, simply moving at all can help tremendously.
f) School climate
The Downside:
As I've mentioned before, Japan has always been a fore-runner in energy conservation, but after the Great East Japan Earthquake, these policies were kicked into over-drive. My school doesn't tend to turn on the air conditioning during the hot, sweaty summer months and will wait til the last possible day to start turning on the heater in early winter. The interim months between cold and hot are hard to bear since they turn the heaters off pretty early. As a person with bad circulation to begin with, I find that I get so chilled that my fingernails turn a lovely shade of purple.
Another interesting aspect is that the hallways and bathrooms aren't heated at all. It's very strange to walk out of the heated office to freezing hallway to heated classroom. And while you may have those fancy heated toilets, there probably isn't any hot water to wash your hands with.
By the way, Japanese buildings have little insulation and usually lack central heating completely. My schools have smaller heaters installed in each classroom that be individually turned on and off and hallways aren't heated at all.
The Bright Side:
The conversation of energy came with a huge slackening in dress code. On extremely cold days, teachers can shed the suit jackets for an extra cardigan or even a track jacket and can even skip jackets all together in sweltering summer. I've seen teachers sitting with fleece blankets at their desks as well.
There are many alternative heating options available for the home as well.
g) The annual teacher shuffle
The Downside:
Before the start of every new academic year, teachers are moved around their local region. Your school will lose teachers and gain new ones. This means that the JTE you loved working with and spent a whole year building a great relationship with might leave you. Some teachers are even promoted. I was sad to see my principal, vice principal, and gyomu-sensei leave, but was relieved when it turned out the latter two were replaced by promoted teachers.
The shuffle varies from year-to-year and depends on many factors (most of which are a mystery to most of us). Most teachers don't stick around for more than 3-4 years.
The Bright Side:
You might be finally rid of that teacher you just can't seem to get along with. Maybe you'll get to keep the great ones around longer than usual.
Even if your favorites get traded out, they may not be far away. Many are club leaders who you may see at regional competitions or events. It's amazing how every teacher in the southern region in Akita seems to know one another (or at least "about" one another). If you're not sure about your new incoming JTE, chances are someone around you can tell you what to expect.
h) Unpredictable schedules
The Downside:
When you first get here, school schedules will be a complete mystery to you. There will seem to be a billion charts and "jikan-wari" (timetables) that look unreadable and incomprehensible. Your only saving grace will be the office ladies handing out printed daily schedules, but sometimes they forget or don't seem to know whether to give you one.
If your head JTE is nice, they'll make you a schedule of your classes for the week. Sometimes, however, there is a class switch without warning or your JTEs may need/not need your help regardless of what the schedule says. Your JTE may run up to you a couple minutes before the next period and hurriedly ask you to join their class.
Always have your class materials handy and be ready for anything.
The Bright Side:
There is a method to the scheduling madness and it will make sense once you figure it out. My junior high can have one of four schedules on any given day: A6 (6 50-minute classes), B6 (6 45-minute classes), A5 (5 50-minute classes), and B5 (5 45-minute classes). There can be other variations of this format such as a B4 (4 45-minute classes) or something completely different (which will have the 特 kanji next to the schedule format which means "special").
Once you have the system figured out, it's pretty simple to plan your day out, but again, be ready for anything.
3. Life in Japan
a) Welcome to the cash society
The Downside:
Say goodbye to your plastic friends, because most of them won't do you any good here. Japan is a 'cash' society- it's considered normal to carry around exhorbitant amounts of cash, most places don't accept debit or credit cards, and checks don't really exist in the conventional sense. When somebody needs to send someone else money, they typically receive the relevent account information and transfer it over at an atm. This may seem extremely inconvenient, but if there's someone or a company that you regularly send money to, you can have the atm make you a card so that all you need to do next time is tell it you want a transfer, stick in the card, and then put in the amount. You can also set up automatic withdrawal for most regular payments like bills (you still receive a notice in the mail).
The Bright Side:
Having to pay in cash is a double-edged sword. Yes, it's super inconvenient to have to drive to the bank so often, but having the inconvenience makes your money less easy to spend and make you spread your funds out to avoid unnecessary trips. I find it's a lot easier to budget when you're limited to the physical amount in your immediate possession instead of having a card you can swipe an infinite number of times whether you have the money or not. Another boon to budgeting is having account books that can be automatically updated by sticking it in an atm. You can also have online banking set up.
b) The Japanese Language
The Downside:
As I've mentioned in previous posts, while the JET programme does not require any previous experience or credentials of any kind outside a bachelor's degree (in anything), the truth is that more and more accepted candidates are either at least basic learners of Japanese or previous teachers or both. I know a few JETs who had little to no Japanese ability, but at least one of them has a supervisor who doesn't speak English and I know a good majority of their troubles could be made easier or non-existent if they knew at least basic Japanese.
At the bare minimum, you need to express your intention to study Japanese if you were accepted to the JET program.
The Bright Side:
I recently discovered a great website created by a world traveler called Mark Manson. One of his many great articles is called "22 Tips for Learning a Foreign Language" in which he remarks, "Studies have shown that the most common 100 words in any language account for 50% of all spoken communication. The most common 1,000 words account for 80% of all spoken communication. The most common 3,000 words account for 99% of communication." He emphasizes that just learning those first 100 words will carry you a long way. To someone who hasn't seriously studied a foreign language, it may seem like a lot, but you'd be surprised how many words you can get down in one sitting. When I work on vocabulary, I usually limit myself to 10-20 words at a time. At a pace of once a day, I can get a hundred words down in 5-10 days. Then, of course, you need to continue to review and expand your usage of them.
c) Weather
One of the most unexpected things newcomers to Japan will discover is that the climate here is actually extremely humid. This makes the colder seasons seem colder and the warmer seasons seem hotter.
The higher humidity brings a few extra challenges. One of these is mold. I've never had to clean my shower and bathtub so much as I have here. People who have tatami rooms have to be especially careful since tatami mats are pretty expensive to replace.
Another particularly dangerous risk in the summer is food poisoning. Bacteria love moist, warm climates (aka: Japan). Be especially weary of food stands.
With the humidity and still air, there's also a heightened risk of heat exhaustion. Cute posters have popped up all over my school reminding kids to hydrate and I see announcements all over the news warning the populace of particularily hot days.
Those who are new to Japan eventually notice that the country has a special relationship with umbrellas. Due the strong sun and rainy seasons in summer, umbrellas have become a big industry in Japan with many different kinds, syles, and brands available. The large amount of rain and long stretches of cloudy days can be hard to deal with at times.
And of course, the large amount of precipitation herolds a massive amount of snow in the northern regions. Dealing with the massive amount of snow can be a daunting challenge to most new JETs.
Pictured: winning in Akita
(all the credit to Jeff Lowther)
Japan is also infamous for it's seasonal typhoons. These can be scary, but are usually nothing to worry about as long as you stay home and pay attention to the news.
c) The infamous ginormous bugs
The Downside:
With the I'm not gonna lie- this was probably my biggest hang-up about living in the countryside. It might seem silly, but the thought of finding a multi-legged creepy crawler or humongous spider in my apartment freaks the hell out of me.
Fortunately, the worst we get up here in Akita are giant spiders and giant wasps. Other harzardous fauna include bears and poisonous snakes. I've seen neither since I got here, but I have seen the destruction they're capable of:
They only come out to eat your face at night...
I'd imagine you'd have to traipse pretty far into the forests to see them. We've had a Serow (a kind of large goat with stunted horns) visit close to my junior high and caused quite an excitement during school lunch.
Even when I lived in Tokyo, I heard stories from fellow students who had a roach problem (and apparently, they FLY!). This is so common, I see commercials for roach removal sprays all the time on TV and they are prominently displayed in just about every store. Roaches don't only live in dirty places in Japan- they can invade the cleanest of buildings.
The moral of the story is that you need to be prepaired to deal with the worst possible situation. The variety of critters that can potentially invade your home increase the farther south you live. Maybe you'll be fortunate like me and be given a relatively new building to live in or maybe you'll get something super old with a mukade nest.
Oh, what's a mukade you ask? None other than the first-born satan-spawn from the ninth circle of hell (aka Japanese centipedes). Many of them can grow to be 20cm long, are venomous, territorial and are never solitary. If you find one in your home, chances are it isn't the last one you'll find. I almost cried with happiness when my predecessor told me it's too cold up here for them to live!
The Bright Side:
You get to see things like beautiful dragonflies and praying mantises:
so-named because other insects beg for their lives in its precense
I want to reiterate that I'm not trying to scare you (well, maybe enough so that you'll be careful), but you need to know about local flora and fauna before deciding to live anywhere. There is a great, comprehensive blog about Japanese bugs written by a nice German lad who's been all over the countryside.
d) Bodily Difficulties
The Downside:
Of course everybody gets sick, but many foreignors are hit with something they'd never in a million years think they'd have to deal with: allergies. I have 2 brothers and a step-mother with nasty respiratory allergies, but I've never had anything serious besides a slight allergy to ceclor (a component in some medicines) before a couple years ago.
I started to suspect I had allergies when I started getting sniffles around spring time of 2011 particularily in the damp, underground lecture halls of the chemistry building at college. Due to the fact that it went away with the season and it was extremely inconvenient to get tested (I would have had to find time away from work and school to travel home), I didn't give it another thought.
That fall I went to Tokyo. I had no problems.
Then I came to Akita. About a month later, I came down with what I thought was a cold, but it left me with a post-nasal drip that always grew nastier at night and cause me terrible throat-pain. Every once in a while (again, usually at night), my eyes would randomly burn and itch. Sometimes simply tearing up would cause the burning. I came to the conclusion that there was something here my body simply didn't like.
Apparently, I'm not alone. There is an unusually high number of people (foreignors and Japanese alike) that are allergic to cedar pollen. Why? Well, it turns out it's kind of their fault. A long time ago, the Japanese government reforested a large chunk of Japan with these cedar trees because they were thought to be more economically productive than other trees. Unfortunately, the project turned out to be a complete failure. That article from 1996 sites a statistic of 1 in 10 people being allergic to cedar, but more recent ones state percentages of up to 16%. Now the government is desperately trying to reduce the number of cedar trees. It's not uncommon too see Japanese people in facemasks here due to illness, but they also wear them just to keep out allergens.
Up next, we have the inevitable bowel issues that come with a drastic change in diet. Of course this will vary greatly depending on what you ate in your home country. Japanese food tends to be high in sodium that can irritate sensitive bellies. There is also a lot of seafood both raw and cooked and JETs will find themselves eating fish on a regular basis for school lunch. Those who are allergic to or don't like seafood will find this a bit of a challenge.
Those with a chronic problem like IBS will need to bring their own loperimides (the active ingredient in "Immodium") or see a doctor here for a prescription since it isn't sold over the counter in Japan.
If you have a prescription, you're going to either do more paperwork, have someone send it to you a month at a time, or see a doctor here for it. Ladies: birth control is not covered here. Get it taken care of in your own country if it's cheaper.
Lastly, I'd have to say the most out of left field problem I encountered was sleep deprivation. I'm not even talking about jet-lag (which is an issue for any world traveler). You'll find out quickly that even if you have a western-style bed, it tends to be the arcane spring-style firmer mattress. On top of that, a coastal town such as Nikaho can have high winds fast enough to rattle your windows and I'm a light sleeper.
On the bright side...
Social health insurance. Going to the doctor is extremely cheap here. While not entirely free, it'll cost you a pittance of 500yen to just talk to a doctor and any medications will be extremely cheap and effective. A doctor visit plus an x-ray for my husband cost me about $25.
Another great thing is the adaptibility of the human body. Any problems you may have when you come here may simply be a product of not being acclimated yet. Both taste buds and stomaches can adapt to accept a wide variety of foods and many JETs come here hating seafood and leave loving it. It's also quite nice that Japanese people are just less squicked out by talking about bowel issues. You'll notice that not once have I mentioned the word diarrhea (until now), but I've heard my school nurse tell homeroom teachers in not-hushed tones that their student is out of commission due to "geri" (Japanese for diarrhea).
e) Culture shock
The Downside:
I'll probably write a whole separate post about this topic, but it's still important to mention here. This will happen to you in the most unexpected ways no matter how much time you spend here or in other countries. There is no getting around it, but you can minimize it by doing your research and having reasonable expectations.
Culture Shock is typically thought to occur in "stages": after you get over the excitement of being here (stage 1), you're going to sink into a low (stage 2). Culture shock affects each individual differently, but you can almost guarantee that you'll feel negative emotions such as depression, frustration, anxiety, or just a vague feeling that something (or everything) is "wrong" or "just not right". This can be triggered by some minute difference between your home culture and Japan's, or it may seem like you're feeling that way for no reason at all.
The point is that it happens to everyone and you won't know how it affects you until you've experienced it first-hand. It's extremely important that you have an idea about healthy ways to deal with stage 2 when it happens.
The Brightside:
Most importantly, it gets better. Stage 2 typically ends within a few days then you're on to stage 3: assimilation. Now the differences that got you down feel more acceptable or maybe you found a good substitute. The more you're exposed to the culture, the more it will start to feel normal. You'll eventually cycle around to stage 2 again, but you'll start to notice that it takes longer and longer to occur.
Also, you're not alone. Every foreignor goes through it and it helps to share your experiences. JET has a particularily good support line run by fellow JETs that fills the time that the official JET helpline is not available.
The last great thing about living in a small town is that you will get to know a lot of great people who will help you at a moment's notice. I've had my fair share of difficulties, but members of my community were always there for me.
4. Just Do It
Screw it. You know what? Just do it. I've been through all of these challenges and I wouldn't take back my decision to come to here for anything. There's just too much awesome that offsets the amount of suck you have to go through and come out the other side a stronger, better person. If you read through all of this and still feel that pull, a yearning for the adventure living here can provide and are willing to allow yourself to change and be shaped by the experience, just do it.
There were times when I wondered why I'm even here. The road to understanding the answer has been long and arduous and can't be adequately expressed with words. It's the popping sound of an arrow piercing a target. It's getting lost on your way to Bon Odori. It's watching the sun set over the Japan Sea. It's feeling lonely and unloved. It's the mysterious and haunting sound of a Japanese flute during fall matsuri. It's every time I see a spark of understanding in my student's eyes and the fascination I both see in them and feel in myself. It's your car breaking down an hour away from home in a blizzard. It's seeing the country anew through the eyes of my husband. It's every time I walk outside and feel the awe and wonder at how a country can be so green and beautiful.
It's all of these things and more. And it wouldn't have been possible without the JET program.
Just do it.
**Easter Egg: to those who got the reference in the title, kudos! For those who didn't, allow me to educate you.
Monday, June 9, 2014
Physical Wellness: What I Wish They Would Have Told Me
I'm 24 years-old and around 184 pounds at the time of this writing. I am also an athlete and that still boggles my mind.
When I was in school I never imagined I'd be as active as I am now. I played soccer as a child for a bit and while I did enjoy it, I absolutely hated being center and usually ended up in the wings or in front of the goal. I hated anything to do with running- how fast everyone was compared to me, the sporadic, panting breathing (and how much my throat would hurt if it was cold outside), the stitch in my side, how fast my heart raced and how long it took for it to go away afterward. The bottom line was that it was uncomfortable and painful for me. So I avoided it like the plague.
Since coming to Japan and observing how sports and physical wellness are treated here, I've learned a lot about my own physical health and I think to myself, "Why didn't I learn this earlier?!". I've realized that due to the way our health and physical education classes are structured in the US, children aren't learning enough about how their bodies work and why exercise is so important. The ones that don't conform to the accepted standard of "physically fit" are ignored and end up feeling like they have no options open to them in high school. I've come to believe that there is something active for everyone to do no matter who they are and children could benefit greatly by being exposed to more options early on in life.
Physical "Education"
Gym class is taught as something that must be done as opposed to something that anyone should do on a regular basis. Gym teachers tell you to play badminton so you play badminton. Today we're playing basketball and tomorrow we're swimming because we say so and for no other reason. At no point was any of this physical activity connected to any actual physical "education". Why is this kind of exercise good for you and what are the physical and mental benefits? What's the difference between "aerobic" and "isometric" exercise? Why are nutrition labels based on 2,000 calories a day? How do you even read a nutrition label?
At no point do I remember learning anything about our actual bodies. All we pick up is that taller and/or more muscular bodies are good at sports. Naturally this leads to the attitude that if you don't have this type of body, you just aren't ever going to be good at or enjoy sports at all. It doesn't help that football and basketball are the standard by which all athletes are measured in the United States. The result is that many adolescents feel they just aren't "built" to do sports and aren't encouraged to look for any other options outside high school.
Our laughably terrible health classes tell us about our petuitaries and how they make our bodies go bananas, but we're taught to be ashamed of them. How are we supposed to talk about the best way to develop good physical habits if we're not even comfortable talking about our own bodies? We need to educate kids about how to incorporate more movement in our daily routines and emphasize that they still have a big impact on their health even if they are not extreme changes.
The Importance of Role Models
I met three people in high school that started to change this attitude for me:
1. The first was during my strength and conditioning class when my gym teacher was discussing my progress and remarked, "You have a naturally strong body." This simple remark kinda blew me away. Whenever I looked in the mirror, I never saw "muscle" or "strength". This got me thinking that maybe there's more potential in the human body than what can be seen.
2. When I was fourteen, my dad took me to the shooting range. Soon after, the Stoughton Archery Club was formed and I began what is probably my favorite sport. Here was something I could not only do, but not feel intimidated or discouraged from doing. People of all backgrounds and body types gather at the range. Moreover, this became a family sport that my father, brothers, and I could enjoy together.
3. The third is when I was working on a large graph for math class on the hallway floor with a friend since it was too big to draw out on the desks. Eventually, we started play-fighting with the yard-sticks as dumb kids do when tasked with mundane things. As our shenanigans ensued, a teacher walked by and casually asked, "Would you like to learn how to do that properly?"
After staring like a deer in headlights for a few seconds, we giggled nervously, shook our heads and said, "Nah." This man eventually became my fencing instructor and one of the most important mentors in my life. He emphasized invaluable concepts like true discipline and critical thinking.
I stumbled into these sports by happy accident, but too many children don't have healthy role models in their daily lives outside their gym teachers. Nobody steps up to help them find a sport or form of exercise that is right for them and they can make into a life-long activity.
The majority of my students belong to sports clubs and practice every day after school for 2-3 hours. Then they have practice on weekends. Then they have tournaments. These clubs become a major part of their lives and are viewed as almost as important as academic class. In university, these clubs and social circles become an essential part of their resumes for prospective jobs.
Then there are the multitude of physical events throughout the warm seasons. There's the annual "sports day" where the whole school participates (teachers included) to split into teams and compete in various physical activities like relay races, 100m dashes, and tugs-of-war. There's a prefecture-wide track-and-field day.
Why We Do Sports
Throughout high school I hardly ever missed archery practice. Here's the thing though: I didn't understand why. For whatever reason, I just wasn't very good at it. Both my brothers and my dad were always leaps and bounds ahead of me and I found it very discouraging. But time and again, I found myself going back and I didn't know why. If I ended up disappointed at every competition, why did I keep going?
Kyudo is the complete opposite of Western archery in many ways. One of these is that the emphasis isn't on hitting on the target so much as the shooting process and proper form. Without the pressures of racking up points and "winning", I finally realized: enjoyment doesn't have anything to do with how good you are. When it came to archery, I wanted to be better than my brothers and I wanted to win and those expectations marred my experience. When it comes to kyudo, I just enjoy doing it.
Again, this has a lot to do with role models. Part of the reason I stayed in archery was because my instructors and family were very supportive and encouraging, but they also shared my goals and mindset. My kyudo instructor told me from the get-go that hitting the target isn't important and that even the highest-ranking archers can't always do it perfectly. Every time I retrieve my arrows from around the target, I'm reminded of a Japanese saying, 猿でも木から落ちる, or "Even monkeys fall from trees."
Too many children find themselves doing sports they don't like or spending more time on it than they would like. Coaches weed out the "weak links" and leave them on the sidelines. Overzealous parents force there children into sports and then get frustrated when they show no motivation or aptitude. When their team doesn't win, they're made to feel like failures. In this environment, exercise becomes something difficult, frustrating, and not enjoyable.
There are so many things that I know now that shouldn't have taken me so many years to figure out on my own.
What Do We Get Out of Sports?
I never would have started kendo were it not for my husband. I attended his first kendo class purely as a translator, but then the instructor walked out of the storage room with two shinai and handed one to each of us. Since my prevailing philosophy as a foreignor in Japan is "go with the flow", I gave it a try. Then I came to the next lesson. And then the next one.
Whenever I watch kendo practice, I marvel at how fast and fluid they are. They almost fly across the floor and each strike is fast and precise. As I watched, I felt more and more that I wanted to be able to move like that. I wanted to be that graceful, strong, and fast.
I'm not gonna lie: it wasn't all fun and games at first (I read in an article somewhere that said, "If you're enjoying kendo, you're not doing it right"). One thing I didn't notice before was how aerobic the sport is and I could barely get through the warm-up at first. I hated how hard my heart pounded and how my calf muscles hurt. But I knew that it would get better and I now had a better reason to fight through the beginning excrutiating struggle. Every time I saw my fellow kendoshi fly across the dojo I saw my reason for continuing.
Before, I could barely walk up the stairs at school without my heart pounding. Now it takes an hour at practice to do that. Before, I looked in the mirror and saw room for improvement, now I see power and muscle hiding under all that cellulose. Although I can't really say I see huge physical changes, I still somehow feel and look "better". People have tried to tell me what self-esteem is and that I should have more of it, but it took more than words for me to fully understand.
You will be surprised how much momentum you can build once you start exercising regularly. A body at rest wants to stay at rest and a body in motion wants to stay in motion. If I'm at my desk with nothing to do all day, I'll start to feel terrible unless I get up and move. Before, I couldn't get myself to exercise. Now, I can't seem to get enough. Instead of going home and collapsing into my bed after practice, I want to hit the gym instead.
Something for Everyone
People who look down on "gamers" really bug me. Everyone plays games. The only difference is what kinds of games and how much we play them. When I was little, my family used to play all sorts of board games. I loved them. I grew up playing Halo with my twin brother. The growing popularity of murder mystery games amuses me to no end since it's basically Dungeons and Dragons with a different setting and no dice. With so many different ways to play out there, I sincerely think that we are all gamers at heart and there is a game for everyone to enjoy. If you don't believe me, watch Will Wheaton's show Tabletop and tell me there isn't something in there you want to try.
In the end, games are all about make-believe no matter what medium you do it through and sports are no different. For a period of time, like-minded individuals come together to pretend that how we throw a ball around a field to reach a certain goal matters. In the end, it really doesn't. The value we put in sports besides the physical is like the value we put in money- socially constructed and meaningless in reality. A dollar bill isn't worth anything unless enough people agree that it's worth one dollar and throwing a ball around doesn't really have any value until enough people think it's interesting enough to charge money for and invest in.
With so many different options available, there has to be a sport for everyone out there.
"Sports" vs. "Martial Arts"
As I mentioned above, the problem with sports in high school and college is that the barrier to entry is pretty high. Even if you make the team, there's a chance you'll be warming the bench almost every game. This makes overweight people lacking the ideal "athletic" body extremely discouraged from joining a mainstream sport at all.
This is why I'm an archer and martial artist. These haven't fallen victim to the institutionalization and commercialization of mainstream sports (even if movies still tend to perpetuate the image that fencing is a sport for uppity rich people. Believe me, it's not!). Anyone can join, your skill level doesn't matter, and the emphasis is on your own self-improvement instead of whether you can "make the team". There can be financial hurdles, but most martial arts clubs allow students to borrow equipment until they can afford their own. Students progress at their own pace and often have more personal attention from trainers since clubs tend to be smaller.
And the rest of world's beginning to notice. The Stoughton Archery club went nuts when The Hunger Games came out and now Arrow is causing huge waves.
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Since coming to Japan, I feel like I've found my niche in the physical activity world. I'm starting to drop pounds and I respect my body so much more than before. I've found ways to be active that are both enjoyable and continually motivating with instructors that are patient and welcoming. I feel so lucky to have found this great environment to start my wellness journey and I sincerely think we should fight to make something similar available to everyone.
When I was in school I never imagined I'd be as active as I am now. I played soccer as a child for a bit and while I did enjoy it, I absolutely hated being center and usually ended up in the wings or in front of the goal. I hated anything to do with running- how fast everyone was compared to me, the sporadic, panting breathing (and how much my throat would hurt if it was cold outside), the stitch in my side, how fast my heart raced and how long it took for it to go away afterward. The bottom line was that it was uncomfortable and painful for me. So I avoided it like the plague.
Since coming to Japan and observing how sports and physical wellness are treated here, I've learned a lot about my own physical health and I think to myself, "Why didn't I learn this earlier?!". I've realized that due to the way our health and physical education classes are structured in the US, children aren't learning enough about how their bodies work and why exercise is so important. The ones that don't conform to the accepted standard of "physically fit" are ignored and end up feeling like they have no options open to them in high school. I've come to believe that there is something active for everyone to do no matter who they are and children could benefit greatly by being exposed to more options early on in life.
Physical "Education"
Gym class is taught as something that must be done as opposed to something that anyone should do on a regular basis. Gym teachers tell you to play badminton so you play badminton. Today we're playing basketball and tomorrow we're swimming because we say so and for no other reason. At no point was any of this physical activity connected to any actual physical "education". Why is this kind of exercise good for you and what are the physical and mental benefits? What's the difference between "aerobic" and "isometric" exercise? Why are nutrition labels based on 2,000 calories a day? How do you even read a nutrition label?
At no point do I remember learning anything about our actual bodies. All we pick up is that taller and/or more muscular bodies are good at sports. Naturally this leads to the attitude that if you don't have this type of body, you just aren't ever going to be good at or enjoy sports at all. It doesn't help that football and basketball are the standard by which all athletes are measured in the United States. The result is that many adolescents feel they just aren't "built" to do sports and aren't encouraged to look for any other options outside high school.
Our laughably terrible health classes tell us about our petuitaries and how they make our bodies go bananas, but we're taught to be ashamed of them. How are we supposed to talk about the best way to develop good physical habits if we're not even comfortable talking about our own bodies? We need to educate kids about how to incorporate more movement in our daily routines and emphasize that they still have a big impact on their health even if they are not extreme changes.
The Importance of Role Models
I met three people in high school that started to change this attitude for me:
1. The first was during my strength and conditioning class when my gym teacher was discussing my progress and remarked, "You have a naturally strong body." This simple remark kinda blew me away. Whenever I looked in the mirror, I never saw "muscle" or "strength". This got me thinking that maybe there's more potential in the human body than what can be seen.
2. When I was fourteen, my dad took me to the shooting range. Soon after, the Stoughton Archery Club was formed and I began what is probably my favorite sport. Here was something I could not only do, but not feel intimidated or discouraged from doing. People of all backgrounds and body types gather at the range. Moreover, this became a family sport that my father, brothers, and I could enjoy together.
3. The third is when I was working on a large graph for math class on the hallway floor with a friend since it was too big to draw out on the desks. Eventually, we started play-fighting with the yard-sticks as dumb kids do when tasked with mundane things. As our shenanigans ensued, a teacher walked by and casually asked, "Would you like to learn how to do that properly?"
After staring like a deer in headlights for a few seconds, we giggled nervously, shook our heads and said, "Nah." This man eventually became my fencing instructor and one of the most important mentors in my life. He emphasized invaluable concepts like true discipline and critical thinking.
I stumbled into these sports by happy accident, but too many children don't have healthy role models in their daily lives outside their gym teachers. Nobody steps up to help them find a sport or form of exercise that is right for them and they can make into a life-long activity.
The majority of my students belong to sports clubs and practice every day after school for 2-3 hours. Then they have practice on weekends. Then they have tournaments. These clubs become a major part of their lives and are viewed as almost as important as academic class. In university, these clubs and social circles become an essential part of their resumes for prospective jobs.
Then there are the multitude of physical events throughout the warm seasons. There's the annual "sports day" where the whole school participates (teachers included) to split into teams and compete in various physical activities like relay races, 100m dashes, and tugs-of-war. There's a prefecture-wide track-and-field day.
Why We Do Sports
Throughout high school I hardly ever missed archery practice. Here's the thing though: I didn't understand why. For whatever reason, I just wasn't very good at it. Both my brothers and my dad were always leaps and bounds ahead of me and I found it very discouraging. But time and again, I found myself going back and I didn't know why. If I ended up disappointed at every competition, why did I keep going?
Kyudo is the complete opposite of Western archery in many ways. One of these is that the emphasis isn't on hitting on the target so much as the shooting process and proper form. Without the pressures of racking up points and "winning", I finally realized: enjoyment doesn't have anything to do with how good you are. When it came to archery, I wanted to be better than my brothers and I wanted to win and those expectations marred my experience. When it comes to kyudo, I just enjoy doing it.
Again, this has a lot to do with role models. Part of the reason I stayed in archery was because my instructors and family were very supportive and encouraging, but they also shared my goals and mindset. My kyudo instructor told me from the get-go that hitting the target isn't important and that even the highest-ranking archers can't always do it perfectly. Every time I retrieve my arrows from around the target, I'm reminded of a Japanese saying, 猿でも木から落ちる, or "Even monkeys fall from trees."
Too many children find themselves doing sports they don't like or spending more time on it than they would like. Coaches weed out the "weak links" and leave them on the sidelines. Overzealous parents force there children into sports and then get frustrated when they show no motivation or aptitude. When their team doesn't win, they're made to feel like failures. In this environment, exercise becomes something difficult, frustrating, and not enjoyable.
There are so many things that I know now that shouldn't have taken me so many years to figure out on my own.
What Do We Get Out of Sports?
I never would have started kendo were it not for my husband. I attended his first kendo class purely as a translator, but then the instructor walked out of the storage room with two shinai and handed one to each of us. Since my prevailing philosophy as a foreignor in Japan is "go with the flow", I gave it a try. Then I came to the next lesson. And then the next one.
Whenever I watch kendo practice, I marvel at how fast and fluid they are. They almost fly across the floor and each strike is fast and precise. As I watched, I felt more and more that I wanted to be able to move like that. I wanted to be that graceful, strong, and fast.
I'm not gonna lie: it wasn't all fun and games at first (I read in an article somewhere that said, "If you're enjoying kendo, you're not doing it right"). One thing I didn't notice before was how aerobic the sport is and I could barely get through the warm-up at first. I hated how hard my heart pounded and how my calf muscles hurt. But I knew that it would get better and I now had a better reason to fight through the beginning excrutiating struggle. Every time I saw my fellow kendoshi fly across the dojo I saw my reason for continuing.
Before, I could barely walk up the stairs at school without my heart pounding. Now it takes an hour at practice to do that. Before, I looked in the mirror and saw room for improvement, now I see power and muscle hiding under all that cellulose. Although I can't really say I see huge physical changes, I still somehow feel and look "better". People have tried to tell me what self-esteem is and that I should have more of it, but it took more than words for me to fully understand.
You will be surprised how much momentum you can build once you start exercising regularly. A body at rest wants to stay at rest and a body in motion wants to stay in motion. If I'm at my desk with nothing to do all day, I'll start to feel terrible unless I get up and move. Before, I couldn't get myself to exercise. Now, I can't seem to get enough. Instead of going home and collapsing into my bed after practice, I want to hit the gym instead.
Something for Everyone
People who look down on "gamers" really bug me. Everyone plays games. The only difference is what kinds of games and how much we play them. When I was little, my family used to play all sorts of board games. I loved them. I grew up playing Halo with my twin brother. The growing popularity of murder mystery games amuses me to no end since it's basically Dungeons and Dragons with a different setting and no dice. With so many different ways to play out there, I sincerely think that we are all gamers at heart and there is a game for everyone to enjoy. If you don't believe me, watch Will Wheaton's show Tabletop and tell me there isn't something in there you want to try.
In the end, games are all about make-believe no matter what medium you do it through and sports are no different. For a period of time, like-minded individuals come together to pretend that how we throw a ball around a field to reach a certain goal matters. In the end, it really doesn't. The value we put in sports besides the physical is like the value we put in money- socially constructed and meaningless in reality. A dollar bill isn't worth anything unless enough people agree that it's worth one dollar and throwing a ball around doesn't really have any value until enough people think it's interesting enough to charge money for and invest in.
With so many different options available, there has to be a sport for everyone out there.
"Sports" vs. "Martial Arts"
As I mentioned above, the problem with sports in high school and college is that the barrier to entry is pretty high. Even if you make the team, there's a chance you'll be warming the bench almost every game. This makes overweight people lacking the ideal "athletic" body extremely discouraged from joining a mainstream sport at all.
This is why I'm an archer and martial artist. These haven't fallen victim to the institutionalization and commercialization of mainstream sports (even if movies still tend to perpetuate the image that fencing is a sport for uppity rich people. Believe me, it's not!). Anyone can join, your skill level doesn't matter, and the emphasis is on your own self-improvement instead of whether you can "make the team". There can be financial hurdles, but most martial arts clubs allow students to borrow equipment until they can afford their own. Students progress at their own pace and often have more personal attention from trainers since clubs tend to be smaller.
And the rest of world's beginning to notice. The Stoughton Archery club went nuts when The Hunger Games came out and now Arrow is causing huge waves.
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Since coming to Japan, I feel like I've found my niche in the physical activity world. I'm starting to drop pounds and I respect my body so much more than before. I've found ways to be active that are both enjoyable and continually motivating with instructors that are patient and welcoming. I feel so lucky to have found this great environment to start my wellness journey and I sincerely think we should fight to make something similar available to everyone.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
So You Received Your JET placement...What Now?
Alright! I hope you're requests were honored, but if not, don't worry! Take it from a big city-girl in little Nikaho City- you can still have a great experience. With less than a few months to go, you should be just about done with your paperwork, starting to get your personal affairs in order, and planning some kick-ass farewell parties.
Now that you know or have a rough idea of where you're going, there are a few (more) things you should take care of. Some of you may need to wait a bit longer to find out where in your prefecture you're headed, but it would still be helpful to do the following:
-Make a for sure, final-answer, decision about your placement
This is your final chance to bow out, but keep in mind you won't be able to apply again for one year, and I would be surprised if you weren't asked about why you dropped out after placement if you were awarded an interview in the future.
You're going to be charged with some hefty fines for things such as your airfare if you decide to drop out further down the road so think carefully if you're hesitant about your placement. Do the research and make sure you can survive for a year (or longer!) in your new home.
**Things to consider when making your final decision:
-Look for goups and online resources for your prefecture
Now that you know where you're going, you can start doing some serious research. All prefectures have their own wiki made and run by fellow JETs that you should look for. Furthermore, Japan and each prefecture are each broken up into "blocks". The blocks for all of Japan start in the north with 1 (Hokkaido and the northeast region) and prefectures are divided according to area (Nikaho city is in the South block of Akita prefecture). All blocks have their own "block leaders" in charge of area events, maintaining contacts, and organizing the conferences. All prefectures also have a a bunch of "prefectural advisors" (PAs) in charge of taking care of their local area and the JETs who reside there.
In essence, you will be well taken care of here!
-Read your terms and conditions thoroughly
You're going to get a package in the mail from your board of education or municipality soon which contains a generic welcome letter filled out with your specific information (board of education, supervisor, apartment details, renumeration, etc.) and a copy of the terms and conditions of your contract. Read both of them thoroughly and make sure you understand everything. If you can read Japanese, compare it to the English version to make sure there are no discrepancies (my English version had an extra 0 in the renumeration amount and one version had an error in my new address). You should also receive a brochure or something with a little more information about your location such as famous places, sights, and things to do.
-Introduce yourself to your supervisor
Send an email to your supervisor introducing yourself (contact information should be in your info packet). If they don't speak English, this is a good chance to give your Japanese self-introduction a test-run! They are going to be greeting you at whichever transportation hub your destined for at your placement so breaking the ice now should make things go a little more smoothly.
-Find your predecessor (if you have one)
There is some strange rule out there where predecessors are not allowed to speak to you until a certain time (perhaps until certain details are ironed out/made official???). Put some feelers out there on facebook groups or other message forums and see what comes back. They want to get a hold of you too so you should connect at some point.
Once you find them, drill them with questions. Go crazy and ask as many as you can. Have a skype conversation if you can or ask if they would record a short video of your new home. See if they will still be there when you arrive (if this happens, one of you will need different accomodations until they leave).
Here is a list of things to consider asking about:
Ask your predecessor how to they get to work and whether there are any other options open to you.
I live about 15-minute's walk inland from the train station and my junior high school is located in town even further from the coast. Train wasn't going to help me at all. I can either walk 30 minutes to school or bike maybe ten minutes, but both are unpleasant in the rain and dangerous in the winter time. My choices were extremely limited.
If it turns out you'll be able to manage without a car, congradulations. Unless you have a bike that you spent a ton of money on and really really like, I would leave it at home. It'll take up a whole other checked bag in your luggage and who knows if it'll get damaged in-transit. You can buy a really simple bike here for 20,000-3,000yen. If you decide you can't live without your awesome bike, make sure whatever box you put it in is within dimension and weight limits with generous wiggle room just in case or be prepared for ridiculous overage charges.
If you need a car and your predecessor offers to sell their car to you, ask them for make, model, year, and pictures. Ask them about sha-ken (車検)- the mandatory car maintenance and compulsory insurance renewal that must be carried out every two years. Ask how much their voluntary (but your boe will make compulsory) insurance is. Ask them how much it takes to fill up the tank. I bought my car from my predecessor for about 200,000yen which wasn't a bad deal. It takes 5,000-6,000yen to fill an empty tank and on a busy month I fill it up twice. Ask if it is a kei or white-plate car (white-plate cars are normal cars that have a white license plate while kei cars have a smaller engine and have yellow license plates).
*Some notes about driving in Japan:
As I mentioned before, many JETs end up getting a car even though they planned on getting by without one. You may also find yourself in a situation where it would be helpful if you drove (maybe your driver is too tired/ill/drunk?).
You can get one very easily through AAA, you get it the same day, and costs less than $20. When you apply for one, you will specify what date you will arrive in Japan and this will serve as the effective date it becomes valid.
If you're doing this last minute, make sure you're aware of your local AAA office's business hours. They tend to be open only 2-3 days a week.
-Solidify your packing situation
You probably have a good idea of what you'd like to bring and leave behind. If you find that you lack anything you need, now is a good time to do some shopping.
Unfortunately, there are some things you will not be able to find in Japan.
Some things to consider stocking up on:
This is also obvious, but take care to store it in a place you or someone you trust can easily get to in case you need something overnighted. No matter how many times you make that list and check it twice, chances are you will either forget something or change your mind about wanting it with you.
There is a JET here who recently realized she brought the wrong display adapter for her macbook and her things are stored somewhere in Arizona (she's from southern California). Make sure a person you trust has access to your things and is willing to ship things to you! Keep things organized so your trusted person can easily find things for you if you need them.
-Finalize your budget
Hopefully you've saved up a bit of cash by now and you can finally start factoring in things like your initial rent payments, any car-related fees, and what you'll need to spend on any furnishings. Whatever your situation, over-budget. You don't want to end up broke and who knows how far you'll be from an international bank that'll take your foreign debit card (if your bank even allows it).
Ask your predecessor whether your boe will give you a loan to settle bigger payments like buying a car. They may also furnish your apartment for you, but anything the boe buys becomes their property and therefore you won't be able to get rid of it without their permission.
I wish every one of you the best in your pre-flight preparations. Keep searching for tips and tricks to make things easier for yourself and double-check everything. Hang in there: pre-departure orientation will be here before you know it!
Now that you know or have a rough idea of where you're going, there are a few (more) things you should take care of. Some of you may need to wait a bit longer to find out where in your prefecture you're headed, but it would still be helpful to do the following:
-Make a for sure, final-answer, decision about your placement
This is your final chance to bow out, but keep in mind you won't be able to apply again for one year, and I would be surprised if you weren't asked about why you dropped out after placement if you were awarded an interview in the future.
You're going to be charged with some hefty fines for things such as your airfare if you decide to drop out further down the road so think carefully if you're hesitant about your placement. Do the research and make sure you can survive for a year (or longer!) in your new home.
**Things to consider when making your final decision:
- Weather and climate- hopefully, you already did some research about Japan before you decided you wanted to come live here which means you know that Japan is hot and humid in the summer months and very cold and wet in winter. Now you can see just how hot or cold or precipitous it will be for you. Weather and climate is variable dependent not only on how far south or north you are, but also how inland or near the coast you are.
**keep in mind how this will match up with your daily life. EI: residential buildings DON'T have central heating, digging out your car from 10 feet of snow in the morning, dealing with seasonal affective disorder (I assure you that it's VERY real), and it's best friend, isolation.
- Your assigned grade level (if you are a prefectural ALT, you will be assigned high schools)- maybe you aren't being assigned to the grade level you wanted.
- City population/size- we all knew going on the JET program meant risking being sent to tiny villages in the middle of nowhere, but sometimes you can't anticipate what "small" means until you receive your placement. Check out your city population, how many conveniences and stores there are, how far it is to the nearest city, and so on.
- Surrounding environment- find out just how much nature you'll have to deal with.
-Look for goups and online resources for your prefecture
Now that you know where you're going, you can start doing some serious research. All prefectures have their own wiki made and run by fellow JETs that you should look for. Furthermore, Japan and each prefecture are each broken up into "blocks". The blocks for all of Japan start in the north with 1 (Hokkaido and the northeast region) and prefectures are divided according to area (Nikaho city is in the South block of Akita prefecture). All blocks have their own "block leaders" in charge of area events, maintaining contacts, and organizing the conferences. All prefectures also have a a bunch of "prefectural advisors" (PAs) in charge of taking care of their local area and the JETs who reside there.
In essence, you will be well taken care of here!
-Read your terms and conditions thoroughly
You're going to get a package in the mail from your board of education or municipality soon which contains a generic welcome letter filled out with your specific information (board of education, supervisor, apartment details, renumeration, etc.) and a copy of the terms and conditions of your contract. Read both of them thoroughly and make sure you understand everything. If you can read Japanese, compare it to the English version to make sure there are no discrepancies (my English version had an extra 0 in the renumeration amount and one version had an error in my new address). You should also receive a brochure or something with a little more information about your location such as famous places, sights, and things to do.
-Introduce yourself to your supervisor
Send an email to your supervisor introducing yourself (contact information should be in your info packet). If they don't speak English, this is a good chance to give your Japanese self-introduction a test-run! They are going to be greeting you at whichever transportation hub your destined for at your placement so breaking the ice now should make things go a little more smoothly.
-Find your predecessor (if you have one)
There is some strange rule out there where predecessors are not allowed to speak to you until a certain time (perhaps until certain details are ironed out/made official???). Put some feelers out there on facebook groups or other message forums and see what comes back. They want to get a hold of you too so you should connect at some point.
Once you find them, drill them with questions. Go crazy and ask as many as you can. Have a skype conversation if you can or ask if they would record a short video of your new home. See if they will still be there when you arrive (if this happens, one of you will need different accomodations until they leave).
Here is a list of things to consider asking about:
- state of the apartment (new? old? house? tatami mats or wood floors? futon or western bed) *video conference sessions are extremely helpful!
- what they're leaving behind in the apartment and what they want to sell
- rent and upfront payment
- how they get around
- whether your supervisor speaks English
- how much they spend a month on needs such as groceries and gas
- how much a typical electricity and water/gas bill are a month
- work dress code
- what you can expect from classes
- impression of your JTEs and co-workers
- any other work responsibilities
- information about any other schools or pre-schools you may work at
- how to dress for the weather and climate at work
- community activities (evening conversation classes, sister city exchanges, etc.)
- extracurriculars open to you
- the best phone service in your area
Ask your predecessor how to they get to work and whether there are any other options open to you.
I live about 15-minute's walk inland from the train station and my junior high school is located in town even further from the coast. Train wasn't going to help me at all. I can either walk 30 minutes to school or bike maybe ten minutes, but both are unpleasant in the rain and dangerous in the winter time. My choices were extremely limited.
If it turns out you'll be able to manage without a car, congradulations. Unless you have a bike that you spent a ton of money on and really really like, I would leave it at home. It'll take up a whole other checked bag in your luggage and who knows if it'll get damaged in-transit. You can buy a really simple bike here for 20,000-3,000yen. If you decide you can't live without your awesome bike, make sure whatever box you put it in is within dimension and weight limits with generous wiggle room just in case or be prepared for ridiculous overage charges.
If you need a car and your predecessor offers to sell their car to you, ask them for make, model, year, and pictures. Ask them about sha-ken (車検)- the mandatory car maintenance and compulsory insurance renewal that must be carried out every two years. Ask how much their voluntary (but your boe will make compulsory) insurance is. Ask them how much it takes to fill up the tank. I bought my car from my predecessor for about 200,000yen which wasn't a bad deal. It takes 5,000-6,000yen to fill an empty tank and on a busy month I fill it up twice. Ask if it is a kei or white-plate car (white-plate cars are normal cars that have a white license plate while kei cars have a smaller engine and have yellow license plates).
*Some notes about driving in Japan:
- DO. NOT. DRIVE. DRUNK. at all. as in, no alcohol can be in your system when you are driving. JETs are civil servants which means they fall under stricter penalites than other Japanese employees.
The penalty? Deportation. Go back to your home country. Do not pass GO. Do not collect 20,000yen (in fact, you'll end up paying quite a bit in terms of legal fees, airfare, possible imprisonment, etc).
You will hear horror stories that I hope scare the pants off you. Don't take the risk.
- There are options open to you in terms of drinking. These include: a service called daikou (代行) where a taxi drives you home while an addtional taxi driver takes your car home for you, and 0-alcohol beer.
- It's not as scary as it seems. If you're from the US, yeah, you'll have to drive on the opposite side of the road, but you'll be surprised how quickly you get used to it.
- There are a few dangerous things to watch out for: little white kei-trucks- you will know them when you see them. They're so tiny they zip around the road and in front of other drivers like they own the place, and old people- Japan is an aging society (in fact, Akita has the highest elderly population in Japan!) which means a lot of old people on the road both driving into incoming traffic and walking down the middle of the street because, let's face it, if you're that old, who gives a damn?
- There is NO "right-on-red" rule.
- Speed limits are much slower than in many other countries, but oddly, no one seems to follow them...
As I mentioned before, many JETs end up getting a car even though they planned on getting by without one. You may also find yourself in a situation where it would be helpful if you drove (maybe your driver is too tired/ill/drunk?).
You can get one very easily through AAA, you get it the same day, and costs less than $20. When you apply for one, you will specify what date you will arrive in Japan and this will serve as the effective date it becomes valid.
If you're doing this last minute, make sure you're aware of your local AAA office's business hours. They tend to be open only 2-3 days a week.
-Solidify your packing situation
You probably have a good idea of what you'd like to bring and leave behind. If you find that you lack anything you need, now is a good time to do some shopping.
Unfortunately, there are some things you will not be able to find in Japan.
Some things to consider stocking up on:
- deoderant: Japanese kinds tend to be spray-on and only contain scents to cover up smell instead of preventing sweat from forming in the first place. Brands that actually deoderize tend to not be strong enough for foreigners.
- make-up: make-up here is designed and marketed towards a south-east asian complexion. There's also a trend here where super-white skin is highly desirable so people with darker skin tones will have difficulties finding something for themselves.
- clothes: seems obvious, but Japanese clothing is cut for Japanese bodies and therefore shopping for clothes here is a challenge. I was surprised to find that there are sizes all the way up to XXXL, but the cut and proportion of the clothing remains the same no matter how big it gets. If you have any hint of curves, you will find that most clothes will seem baggy in areas and tight in others.
Clothes that you definitely WILL NOT be able to fit into: bras, shoes, and pants. I've bought stretch pants that work fine since I'm usually wearing them under something, but they still fit weird.
- compatible electronics: as I've mentioned in previous posts, make sure you bring media that's compatible what you already have or what you plan to buy later. Ask your predecessor if there are any DVD players or game consoles they are leaving behind and what they are compatible with.
- any importable foods you can't live without. There are 3 main foods that I get regular cravings for: burritos, pizza, and Culver's (American style burgers and cheese curds). The Japanese countryside is extremely lacking in authentic international food. Chances are there is an international market in your closest metropolitan area, but there are things that are either not sold or too expensive to justify buying in large quantities (a box of Kraft mac 'n cheese is almost $4 a box!).
- OTC drugs that are legal to import. You can bring two-month's worth of LEGAL (no cold meds or stimulants) over the counter drugs. If you have a chronic gastrointestinal illness and don't want to visit the doctor here for a prescription, bring your own loperimides. They are a prescription drug here and most of the OTC substitutes have little affect on foreigners. Bring any pain medications that you won't be able to find here if it makes you more comfortable than going with a Japanese brand you don't know or seeing a doctor.
Get any family planning needs in order. Men find that Japanese condoms don't fit very well and probably want to bring their own or buy them online. Ladies, getting birth control in your home country will probably be less of a pain than getting it here.
For those who need to bring prescription meds, get your yakkan shoumei done! Ask your consulate for the application and instructions
- Books in your native language or an e-reader (which I HIGHLY recommend since it'll save on weight)
This is also obvious, but take care to store it in a place you or someone you trust can easily get to in case you need something overnighted. No matter how many times you make that list and check it twice, chances are you will either forget something or change your mind about wanting it with you.
There is a JET here who recently realized she brought the wrong display adapter for her macbook and her things are stored somewhere in Arizona (she's from southern California). Make sure a person you trust has access to your things and is willing to ship things to you! Keep things organized so your trusted person can easily find things for you if you need them.
-Finalize your budget
Hopefully you've saved up a bit of cash by now and you can finally start factoring in things like your initial rent payments, any car-related fees, and what you'll need to spend on any furnishings. Whatever your situation, over-budget. You don't want to end up broke and who knows how far you'll be from an international bank that'll take your foreign debit card (if your bank even allows it).
Ask your predecessor whether your boe will give you a loan to settle bigger payments like buying a car. They may also furnish your apartment for you, but anything the boe buys becomes their property and therefore you won't be able to get rid of it without their permission.
I wish every one of you the best in your pre-flight preparations. Keep searching for tips and tricks to make things easier for yourself and double-check everything. Hang in there: pre-departure orientation will be here before you know it!
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