The JET Programme Part I

When I first seriously started contemplating doing the "teaching English in Japan" thing and more specifically participating in the JET Programme, I had the mistaken belief that it would actually be possible to be placed in a big city such as Tokyo or Kyoto, and so on and so forth. Clearly, I didn't do my research. Fast forward three years, and there's a much more well informed guy, sitting here typing up this blog. This wasn't for the lack of interest in seeing other parts of Japan; I just didn't know any other parts of Japan at the time. Three years of University courses changed that.

At the beginning of last September, I went to a convention to get more information about the JET Programme. There was a JET spokesperson from New Zealand who had just finished her tenure on the program. It was at this convention that I picked up an application form, and got a clearer picture of how the application process would work. NOVA, another type of "teach English in Japan" employer also had a little table there with some brochures, etc. There was also one for teaching in Taiwan. I picked up a couple of brochures as back-ups in case things didn't work out as planned with the JET Programme.

Over the years, I heard a lot of good things about the JET Programme. It was heavily endorsed by my Japanese History professors and TAs as well as my Japanese language teachers, as an excellent opportunity to learn about Japan, and being a program with a good reputation, a decent employment opportunity coming out of University. Before this, I already had my sights set on travelling to Asia. I also had an interest in teaching because of my work with children, so upon hearing of the JET Programme, I was immediately interested.

The application process itself was quite hectic. The application booklet contained many pages which had to be filled out according to the guidelines set out in the first few pages. Actually, the application package was sort of a replacement for the handing in of resumes as most of the questions were about previous employment, volunteer work, etc., but in much more detail. Some typical questions were also about Japan-related interests, and international travel, and so on. These questions weren't hard to answer, but one stumped me - placements. They asked us to choose which cities or prefectures we would prefer to be placed in. For me, these types of questions always stump me, and end up making me wander around in circles for hours on end, seemingly coming to a conclusion only to ultimately end up back at square one. After consulting professors, friends, and actual Japanese people, I settled on Uji City, Kyoto Prefecture as my first choice, Miyagi prefecture as my second choice, and Kanagawa prefecture as my third choice (we were allowed to state which particular city we wanted to be stationed in for the first choice).

The application deadline was November 17, and I had picked up the application booklet in late September from the job fair. I thought I had plenty of time, but as most of us know, deadlines always seemingly creep up on unsuspecting victims very quickly. On top of the application booklet that needed to be filled out, a 500 word "statement of interest" was also required, as well as two reference letters which needed to come from either a professor or an employer or both. Let's just say it took a while to get all these things in order, on top of all the school work that was piling up on my desk. Strangely enough, the application directions also asked the applicant to sign each page of the packages and to make three copies of every document, placing them in three different envelopes and finally sending them all off in one larger package. Confusing? Yes, very much so. Only later was it confirmed that yes, the interview would consist of three interviewers, and yes, each person would have a copy of all your documents in front of them while interviewing you. After a lot of second-guessing, downright anxiety (didn't wanna screw anything up for this thing we've been planning on for three years now would we?), and phone calling the JET office, I was finally able to send the package off on November 16, just a day before the deadline. To make sure it arrived on time, I added the signature service, and soon enough, I received confirmation that my package had been received.

JET also gave us the option of including a self-marked postcard in the application package for them to send back to us to confirm their receiving the package. I included one of the CN Tower, and sure enough, I received it a couple weeks later. Whew...they received it. So now what? Well, it was time to play the "waiting game". From November 17, the deadline for sending in applications, until late December, the JET people would be screening all the applications from the entire JET pool to, for a lack of a better term, "weed out" applicants whom they thought were not qualified enough to warrant an interview. So...after two months of anxiety and nervousness over the actual applications, I had about 2 weeks to relax and actually be satisfied about sending that sucker in, only to have to go through all that anxiety all over again all the way till Christmas.

Sounds like fun doesn't it? Now since my head is unfortunately keeping me from being able to continue to write clearly (it is quite late isn't it..and I need to buy luggage tomorrow), I think I'll save the rest for later.

Stay tuned~

Cleaning Out My Closet

I spent the last week cleaning out the storage room and my closet in my small, dinky family apartment. One thing that struck me was how much stuff I actually still had from my childhood. Whoever's been to my home, or seen pictures of it, it really is quite tiny. Yet when I started cleaning out my stuff, throwing old junk out, and figuring out what to do with things I wanted to keep, boxes and boxes just kept appearing. A 1 day job ended up taking me 4 days, and causing me a lot of back pain. Great~ Who knew a box stuffed with paper could be THAT heavy?!

It was definitely amazing seeing projects I had worked on in elementary school, and essays that I wrote in highschool, and so on and so forth. One thing I noticed was that I was a pretty hyper kid, in that I used A LOT of exclamation marks in the stories that I wrote. Haha. A bit over-intense in my writing. But I do remember being a pretty quiet guy in school - I guess I put all my energy into my writing. Another thing I realized was that I was a pretty lucky kid - I found at least four boxes of Legos and Transformer toys - wow. I remember being a Lego and Transformers-obsessed kid when I was younger, but I had no idea just how much I had. After working with children for the last five years and chatting with their parents, I think I have a better idea of just how much I had. I guess I have to think twice next time I say my family's from a lower income bracket than most Canadians. Haha. Jokes aside, we may have had barely enough money to get by at times, but my parents didn't hesitate in showing their love. That's definitely something I'm thankful for~

A lot of people say I'm a sentimental guy - at least they used to. Now people usually say I'm strange or crazy or something weird like that. Usually these comments come from people my own age... At the same time, I get a lot crazy comments from my kids. Boy..children can be mean sometimes, even if they're just making jokes just to be "funny", (and this is about 110% of the time~haha). But, looking at the boxes of things I kept since I was a first grader, I think my sentimental side's having a resurgence.

It took me from Tuesday morning to Thursday night to finish the job, but all my things are "neatly" packed into no less than 10 boxes, and stuffed into the back of my closet. The amount of "trash" I threw out to be able to fit everything into 10 boxes is undecipherable. At one point, the entire garbage room was full of my things - old university notes, ruined shoes, a humungous fido cellphone (that's almost the same size as the cordless phone my family now uses), and old ruined clothes. Even after that, 10 boxes remained. Pretty much, everything I have from my life from when I was a first-grader to now are packed into those boxes. Funny how that works.

Speaking to fellow JETs, it seems that a lot of people want to pack their entire lives and take it with them to Japan. I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to take a suitcase of clothes, and some bare essentials, and pick up whatever I need after I get to Japan. It was great reminiscing for the past week about the last fifteen or so years of my life. Now it's time to move on, and get ready for a new life in Japan.

Time Flies~

I'm leaving Toronto in exactly two and a half weeks. Wow, it's finally starting to hit me now. Three years of hard work is finally paying off and I'm heading to Japan as part of the JET Programme in early August. When I look back on the last three to four years of my life, I'm pretty amazed at how things have changed. In High School, I had no thoughts of leaving Toronto, or traveling to a place as far as Japan. In fact, I really knew nothing about the area, except that my parents were from Hong Kong, a city located in a place somewhere in "East Asia". My geography outside of North America was terrible, and it wasn't helped by the fact that Toronto High Schools never taught us a thing other than North American and European geography, history, and culture. In fact, I would have to go as far as saying I learned basically nothing in High School, but fortunately, I was able to get high enough marks to be admitted into a decent University. My fellow 2003 double cohort people know just how freaky that year was, but I'll save that story for another day...

Now how exactly did I become interested in East Asia, and specifically Japan? Well, after locking myself up in my room, and forcing myself to conjure up memories three to four years in the making, I've come to the conclusion that it was an accumulation of various things. In my first year of University, I had no idea what I wanted to do. All I knew was that I was interested in history, and Ancient civilizations, so I ended up taking an amalgamation of courses from various disciplines including psychology (OUCH..big regret there), politics, history, english literature, and greek mythology. I still had one space open, and had no clue what to take, so I asked my cousin who was also a University of Toronto student, what courses she recommended. She told me to take a course called "Introduction to East Asian Civilizations". Let's just say that that course ended up being the most interesting, and fun course I took all year. From being immediately captivated by cultures and histories I knew nothing about , yet felt a deep connection with, from there on out, I knew East Asian Studies was what I wanted to do.

At the same time, I had been working at a local community centre close to my home. Originally, I had only taken up a job there as a volunteer in their summer camp because it was a requirement for all High School students to do 40 hours of community service in order to graduate. Originally, I had no intention of staying more than 2 weeks (which would amount to 80 hours). However, it turned out to be the most fun and enjoyable experience of my life up to that point, and I ended up volunteering for the rest of the summer. Go figure. After that, I promptly applied for a job in their afterschool programs, and was hired without an interview - I guess they liked me..! Sweet. Since then, I've been working there for the past 5 years in the summer camps and afterschool programs. During my time there, I was fortunate enough to be exposed to people of various backgrounds. Downtown Toronto, and I mean DOWNTOWN Toronto is definitely a sight to behold. Being able to walk down the street and see Asians, African Canadians, South Americans, etc. is pretty amazing (and I'm taking a wild stab in the dark here, but I'll go as far as to say it'll probably seem even more shockingly amazing after I spend a year in homogeneous Japan).

My local community centre was a very interesting place, in that many of the children were from families that were newly immigrated from China and other countries. At the same time, there was a significant group of Japanese doctor/scientist families who had come to Toronto to work and study at various hospitals and institutions such as Sick Kids (Hospital for Sick Children). Who knew Toronto had one of the leading children's health institutions in the world?? I certainly didn't until just the last few years... There were also several children who's mothers had come from Japan on working holiday visas and had ended up liking Toronto so much they decided to stay and even get married to locals. I was fortunate enough to build some good friendships with these families, and that was a big reason why my interest in Japan increased over the years. It become strong enough that it convinced me to learn Japanese at university, and to switch my major from history to East Asian Studies. At the same time, exposure to various Chinese children and families ignited in me an interest to learn more about my own origins, and my family background.

Looking back at the last three to four years of my life, I feel pretty fortunate to be where I am right now. If a few things hadn't happened, or I had decided to go a different route in my studies or my work, things would probably be completely different at this point. However, I'm very happy how things turned out, and at this moment, I've never been so sure of something in my entire life. The JET Programme and teaching in Japan seems like a perfect fit - I get to work with kids, and I get to learn about Japan. And in terms of traveling around East Asia, Japan is a great location to operate out of.

So, farewell Toronto, thanks for all the good times and good memories. Thanks for all the bad times too, because without those, we wouldn't know what good times are would we?

So farewell, I have a feeling we'll be seeing each other again.

Vaccinations

So I'm going to Japan in less than four weeks. Apparently, as many of you probably already know, Japan is a pretty well developed country. However, there are still many places that are quite rural. One such place is where I will be going as part of the JET Programme. Over the last couple of weeks I've been hearing a lot about various vaccines, different countries in Asia, and what's recommended for which country. It's a bit mind-boggling that humans can die in so many different ways. It's actually quite frightening if you think about it - our bodies are pretty fragile. Living in Toronto for most of my life, I only got vaccines when the government told the schools to tell us to get them. Most of the vaccines I got were done by my family doctor, or at the public school I was at. These were mainly covered by Ontario Health insurance. Travel vaccinations on the other hand, aren't covered, and as I recently just found out, are pretty darn expensive.

One such vaccination is for the Japanese Encephalitis disease. This disease can apparently be pretty fatal in certain cases and is spread by mosquitoes who have been infected by the virus, perhaps contracting the disease by feeding on the blood of pigs and other infected animals, and then transmitting this disease into human blood streams like a reused needle. From what I've heard, Japan is pretty safe, and has been able to control and contain the disease unlike various other less developed Asian countries. However, at the same time, from what I've read, there is still a small risk of contracting this disease in very rural areas in Japan, and the consequences can be pretty fatal in certain cases. Now the debate is whether or not my town of 8100 that is supposedly surrounded by rice fields, should be considered rural or "in the danger zone" as one might say.

To compound matters, there seems to be a lack of the vaccine in Toronto at least at one clinic, and at the other clinic, three shots are required, with a rate of 115 dollars per shot for a whopping total of 345 dollars, making the 45 dollar "consultation fee" seem like chump change. Now seriously, I have no idea what goes into the process of creating a vaccine but I would have to guess that 345 dollars is a lot for most regular folk. I'm still debating on whether or not to get this shot. Most people have told me it's not necessary, while others are playing it ultra-safe and getting it done. For now, I think I'll play it by ear, and if it's really necessary, I'll get the vaccinations done in Japan.