#jet program 2017

I haven’t written here in awhile!  tbh I’ve been slacking.  Not on work but on blogging and doing anything really creative.  Or I guess I’ve been channeling my creative energy into lesson plans and activities.  There’s nothing left afterward, so I just watch K-dramas.  Such is the life.

But if anyone out there is following this tumblr (maybe some incoming JETs, helloooo thar!) then I figured I should write something and share a bit about life in the wilds of peach country.

So it’s almost almost ALMOST summer vacation.  I am. counting. down. the days.  I’ve got one full week left of school/actual classes, and then this weekend is a long weekend because Monday is 海の日 aka Ocean Day.  No plans for this weekend as of right now (if it doesn’t rain, I should work on weeding around my apartment) but I’m thinking of going to the mall and going to see a movie.

One thing I love doing here is going to a late show at the movies.  For one thing, there are way fewer people, especially if you go on a Friday night.  For another thing, it’s like 500 yen cheaper than a normal priced ticket.  I like just going by myself, getting some Cinemike popcorn and a drink and escaping for an hour or two.  It’s a nice thing to do when you want to do something but everyone is busy.

So my plans for summer are...work.  Not all the time.  I’m luck that my elementary schools don’t require me to come in during summer unless I need to get something done.  And my JHS don curr either, but I go in every so often and spend a few hours browsing the web or working on YETI stuff.  I’m on the council for our Yamanashi group.  It’s not AJET, just a general all-inclusive Yamanashi community.

We’re doing dinners for our new ‘nash arrivals for Group A and Group B during Tokyo orientation.  Then we’re getting one newbie ALT here in Hokuto, and my supervisor asked if I could go around with her to help with bank and cellphone and all of that stuff.  She speaks Japanese, so I know she’d be fine on her own but it’s kinda nice just having someone there who knows how things go.  Especially since our supervisor this year speaks ZERO English and kind of has a complex about it.

Then we have the BIGGEST fireworks festival this side of Tokyo in August called Ichikawadaimon Fireworks Festival.  We always claim a place so everyone will have an area to go to and won’t have to fend for themselves the day of the event.

Not only that but July 22nd starts the AKENO SUNFLOWER FESTIVAL!!!  I’m so excited cause it’s a full month where you can just go and take pictures of sunflowers and eat delicious sunflower ice cream and bask in the sun.  Akeno is where I teach.  IT’S MY PLACE.  So I’m quite fond of it.  Also, fair warning if anyone wants to come here for the sunflowers...we get the most sunlight in ALLL of Japan.

I also volunteered to do presentations at the JET Local Orientation about teaching at JHS and ES.  They’re throwing them both together and I’m like...erm...Cause elementary school is a completely different beast.  One that will melt your heart every day.  But I’ll do mah best, sir.

Oy vey. Six months, a lot of phone calls, visits, frustration, and stress later, I’m not going to Japan after all. Tbh, I feel like the program is a joke. My contact claims that my situation was preventable when it wasn’t. I was literally fighting the American health system for the past six months that had screwed with my coverage, preventing me from getting **ONE** form signed that boiled down to saying “Yes this person is fit to work in Japan”. I kept my coordinator in the loop every step of the way. It wasn’t like I was just sitting on my hands doing nothing about the situation. 

So now, after the joy of getting placed, of talking to tons of current JETs and talking to people who lived in the city I was going to teach in, of practically seeing one of my lifetime dreams come true, I get slapped in the face by my coordinator claiming my circumstances were preventable, being barred from applying in 2018, and likely having to pay out the ass for travel fees. Oh, and it gets better: I could’ve avoided having to pay those fees if my coordinator had told me that I should contact the travel agency about my situation too. 

This is all on top of the $500+ startup costs for applications, requests for documents, and medical tests I managed to get at my workplace that JET didn’t mention.

I genuinely wish everyone who’s able to participate in the program well, but I wish I’d heard more about the downfalls of the program before I wasted the time and money. At least then, I would’ve been more informed. 

Now commencing internal screaming for the next few months.