Yesterday marked my last day at work though, so that was nice. Today I've done.... well, a whole lot of nothing. I can tell you all about progress! ;)
I've learned a lot more about my placement since my last post. My predecessor has been wonderful in answering my questions about my tiny town. First and foremost, I will be teaching at 5 elementary schools and 2 junior highs. Three of them (2 elementary, 1 junior high, + BOE) are within walking distance from my house. Yes, house. Rent is only 3,500 yen a month (~$50 USD). There are a few drawbacks though - the biggest being the toilet.
Basically, I have a western-style toilet, but it does not flush. You simply do your *filing* into a hole in the ground (I wonder if it goes all the way to America?). Oh joy, the smell. Next, we have the shower. The shower is not actually attached to my house. Instead it looks to be about 2-3 feet away from the house. I dont really have a problem with this on paper, especially considering the shower room appears huge and *has a window*, but you know, this could change once I'm there. Finally, we have the bugs. Big, scary, gnarly bugs all the way from the moon. Maybe I'll get a cat. If not, a bed net for the win.
I also mentioned in my last blog that I wont be needing to drive, but I'm beginning to question this. If it gets to the point where the one-two punch of the toilet/shower combo is too much for me to handle, I might be moving (assuming my BOE is okay with it). If it comes to that, I'm thinking I'd probably go to the next town just to the south called Owase. My commute would be 25 minutes max to my farthest school.
This is not to say that I am already dead-set on moving. Criminey, I'm not even there yet. It's just something I'm keeping in the back of my mind. Going into this, I want to stay as long as possible (obviously subject to change) so something like housing is critical for my own comfort/sanity/nose-hairs.
More on my town: the population is around 10,000. Fishing is big. There is one convenience store and two grocery stores. There is a train station, though service is infrequent (read: every 1.5 hours, give or take). One of my elementary schools has a table tennis club, so you can rest easy knowing I'll have 10 year olds schooling me.
I'm pretty darn ecstatic. Bring on the adventure, good company, and great eatin!
More pictures (click to enlarge):
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| A beach-side park about 20 min from my house by car. There are some nice tennis courts nearby. |
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| My largest Junior High. About a 5 minute walk from my house. |
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| One of my elementary schools (not the one I live next door to). |
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| Pretty sure I'll be doing some hiking. This leaves me speechless. |
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| Can you say %^&#@*!! Beautiful beach about 25 min from my house by car. |
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| Thats my town way out in the distance. Just below is a pretty nice camping site. |
Hey, hopefully you don't mind me commenting, but this shows up on my Facebook feed, so... (also, posting this here where your pred can easily read it makes me seem like less of a jerk, possibly? Heh.)
ReplyDeleteGetting a car would be more of a personal thing than a work thing. Chances are your BOE (board of education) won't let you drive to work if they can help it, for insurance reasons. Regardless, I still think you should think again about getting a car, though, especially if you're staying for more than a year. Just to be able to easily get to places to shop for things you can't get at the grocery store like clothes, visit people without needing to leave early to run for the last train, travel on your own terms, etc. I definitely would not have stayed here as long as I have if I didn't have my car - I'd have gone stir crazy for sure! Perhaps you'll understand when you get here.
Anyhow, if you do end up trying to move, you'd probably do it sooner rather than later. There have been many ALTs who lived there before you and stuck it out, so you'll probably have to put your foot down right away if you're going to, because if you live with it for a while they won't understand why you can't just live with it longer... make sense? It's sort of the Japanese way. Good luck!
Oh, and if you do want a cat, I actually have new kittens now, hahaha. :X
-Marissa