Aizu Homestay

This weekend all the new junior high school Jets were made to go to Aizu in the West of the prefecture to participate in a homestay so that we could experience 'real' Japanese family life and also do some Japanese lectures.

The last homestay I did which was when I was living in Yokohama went pretty badly, with me being the only person not to have a great family and I actually ended up leaving early as the experience was so awkward and boring.
Needless to say, that made me a tad nervous about doing it again and this time it would be for two nights and if I didn't like my family there was no escape, I would just have to gaman suru (endure it) or sleep on the streets.

We all arrived in Aizu on the Friday afternoon, paid our homestay and course fees then filed into a room full of desks. On the board were our class groups and where our seats were in the room. On each of the desks lay a brown envelope and when I found mine I pulled out random bits of paper with all sorts of informationa about Aizu and earthquakes that I expect I will never bother read. But, nestled among those bits of paper was the information about my homestay family. I was so nervous when I looked at it and everyone else had found their's... there were families with small kids, cats, dogs, who had requested certain kinds of people and had written about what kind of things they would do with their token homestay gaijin.

And then there was mine... three people and the youngest of them was 66. Oh dear. The section about what kind of person they would like... nothing written. The part about what cool Japanesey things they would like to do with their gaijin.... again, nothing at all.
I was totally gutted but not overly surprised. Just my homestay family luck!!!

However, when the time came to meet my host grandparents and be taken back to their place, it soon became clear that there wasn't any need to worry.
Although shy at first, they became chattier over dinner (and alcohol of course) and I had a really nice time with them. They were very keen to show me some good old Japanese culture so in the morning we woke up early to go and have a look at a near-by temple and then after a days worth of Japanese lessons and the most boring history lecture I have ever ever ever sat through, I was picked up by my grandparents and taken to some hot springs followed by some good old Karaoke.
I can't think of a more Japanese experience if I tried! I even had a man at the karaoke bar be rude and racist toward me. So Japanese!


They eventually sent me off with bags of rice and vegetables which they had grown themselves (as they are farmers) and told me to come back soon.

It's sad that I massively judged them before I met them but still, hanging out with an old couple really wasnt what I was expecting to be my 'real' Japanese homestay experience.

Fukushima in Beautiful!

I have been in Fukushima for three weeks now and for most of that time the weather has been pretty disappointing with it generally being cloudy and muggy.

But, last Friday the weather totally changed and the skies became bright blue and there were no clouds at all. As soon as I woke up and looked out of my window I knew I had to go outside and sit in the sunshine for as long as humanly possible (and without burning) and as I had a day off I messaged all the Fukushima JET crew to see if there was anything going on.
Luckily, I managed to get myself invited/ invited myself to a trip to the river about 1 hour north of where I live. So with the others we drove up there and spent half a day jumping off rocks, sunbathing and relaxing.

The weather stayed pretty sweet for the rest of the weekend which was great as I went down to a party in Iwaki on the beach with many of the other JET's in the prefecture.

Fukushima is jam-packed full of hills and mountains and is incredibly green. Before the good weather the mountains which surround the area couldn't actually be seen but now they look beautiful (well not right now, the weather is shitty again today).


Anyway, I think the point I am making with this post is that it is great to know that I am living somewhere which is actually pretty and nice and is far away from the industrial uglyness of many parts of Japan. And to let you know that Japan also has stunning countryside along with big buildings and robots.

Back in Japan!

I have decided to give this whole blog malarkey another go as, so far, I seem to have much more spare time on my hands than the last time I was in the Land of the Rising Sun.

So... where am I?

Well, last time I was in Japan I was in Yokohama, Japan's second biggest city (since it is pretty much attached to Tokyo), which is a huge meteropolitan area. And this time? If you haven't heard of Yokohama before then I am fairly sure you wont have heard of my new town... it's a place called Adachi which is in a city called Nihonmatsu which is in a prefecture called Fukushima... still no idea? oh well, just check out the map.

Last time I was in Japan I came as a student but this time I am here on the JET programme and that basically means I am an assistant language teacher and work in two junior high schools for kids from the age 12 to 15.
There are around 1500 new JETs sent to Japan each year and from most people that I have spoken to, I seem to be the only one who has actually started work! Not that I could really call it work yet- for this first week I have been coaching some of the kids who are entering an English speech contest, helping them with pronunciation and intonation, which essentially requires the skill of being a native speaker and not much else. All the kids are really nice though so I don't mind.
However, I finish doing this by about 2pm each day and am kind of at a loss for what to do for the last three hours of my working day. So far I have filled my time by reading a lot of wikipedia, learning about Japanese cooking and ingrediants and doing a little but of Japanese study.

The summer holidays will finish in a couple of weeks and proper school will be on again so I am looking forward to getting into the swing of things and actually teaching something- from next week I will use my free time at work more wisely and start preparing my intro lessons and get photos together for it.

So that's what I am doing in Japan answered... anything else?

I think I will leave it at that for now, will try to write something again soon