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A year in the life of a Professional Gaijin
JET set and raring to go
Created on 2007-05-26 23:50:34 (#13027484), last updated 2008-12-18
8 comments received, 5 comments posted
Basic Account [Gift]
49 Journal Entries, 33 Tags, 0 Memories, 0 Virtual Gifts, 2 Userpics
Basic Info BioThis blog is all about the life and times of a small redheaded Australian girl and her crazy life in Japan working as an ALT (assistant language teacher).
Due to a technical failure, I’ve had to re-post a lot of these entries so entries after October 7th are just the backlog and the dates are all wrong. Sorry ごめんなさい
Feel free to friend me, ask me questions, or even visit me (I’m an addicted couch surfer)
Half of these posts are friends locked because of certain clauses in my contract.
How I came to be in Japan:
It all started with my parents moving to Frankston when I was conceived… (lol)
You see my home town back in Australia and Susono (Shizuoka 県, Japan) are sister cities, so I grew up with many hours spent at school writing letters to Susono pen pals, studying Japanese (so that when the Susono kids came to out school I would get invited to the welcome party with all the good food) and reading all about the little town with the amazing views of Mt.Fuji!
After doing Japanese for 6 years at high school (so maybe one year of actual study beyond the point of this is hiragana, learn it) and 3 years at Monash Univerity (love my useless Japanese major) I decided to go and live/work in Japan.
After a dinky interview:
FSFA: so why do you want to go to Japan?
Me: I’ve studied Japanese for about 6 years all up and…
FSFA: *interrupting* apply for your passport…
And I was off!
After 2 months of waiting round my small town for my visa to come though (that should tell you all you need to know about my company) I started work at my own little slice of Junior high school paradise (from now on known as da school). And here I shall stay, until I die or start my zany travels around the world.
My program is a lot like JET (ALT job, some of the same language classes offered, some seminars etc I have to attend) but I also get a free apartment, the whole of the summer holidays off, the winter holidays off and spring holidays off if I like, as well as 20 days of nenkyuu (no sick leave though). pay is 270,000 ￥ a month (not bad for a private ALT), I can also stay in this job until I die.
There are 5 ALTs here and 3 of them have settled down, had kids, gotten married and plan to be an ALT forever (not)
It’s a great job, I love where I am, love my school and I am even starting to love my 3rd years.
About my town:
Susono is located 175km South West of Tokyo, in Shizuoka Prefecture. It’s a nice, quiet semi-rural slice of Japan that specializes in rice, strawberries and tea, with some light industry thrown in because that’s what the Japanese do. Susono has a population of approximately 52,000 people, most of which are either small children or elderly obaachans who spy me from afar and get all gooey eyed.
Nearby cities include:
Mishima (nice temple)
Numazu (English bookshop and curry
and Gotemba (shopping, outlets and some nice onsens).
It’s a very tranquil place, there actually isn’t a night life here, we have like 3 bars (for Japan that’s quiet), and most shops close by 7. The 24 hour supermarket is the place to be after sundown with the under 20’s set. thus you can get why Numazu sees a lot of bored Susono teenagers! And a few very bored ALT’s.
We have a big gaijin population, what with the JET, the 5 SOFA ALT’s and then the FIA people (45 yrs old whose midlife crisis saw them coming to Japan…lots of perplexed Canadians) and a lot of Brazilians.
Our claim to fame in these here parts is that we have an amusement park, a safari park, a large ranch (blanche) and a few onsens in the hills.
We have an amusement park!!!!!
I love living here
Due to a technical failure, I’ve had to re-post a lot of these entries so entries after October 7th are just the backlog and the dates are all wrong. Sorry ごめんなさい
Feel free to friend me, ask me questions, or even visit me (I’m an addicted couch surfer)
Half of these posts are friends locked because of certain clauses in my contract.
How I came to be in Japan:
It all started with my parents moving to Frankston when I was conceived… (lol)
You see my home town back in Australia and Susono (Shizuoka 県, Japan) are sister cities, so I grew up with many hours spent at school writing letters to Susono pen pals, studying Japanese (so that when the Susono kids came to out school I would get invited to the welcome party with all the good food) and reading all about the little town with the amazing views of Mt.Fuji!
After doing Japanese for 6 years at high school (so maybe one year of actual study beyond the point of this is hiragana, learn it) and 3 years at Monash Univerity (love my useless Japanese major) I decided to go and live/work in Japan.
After a dinky interview:
FSFA: so why do you want to go to Japan?
Me: I’ve studied Japanese for about 6 years all up and…
FSFA: *interrupting* apply for your passport…
And I was off!
After 2 months of waiting round my small town for my visa to come though (that should tell you all you need to know about my company) I started work at my own little slice of Junior high school paradise (from now on known as da school). And here I shall stay, until I die or start my zany travels around the world.
My program is a lot like JET (ALT job, some of the same language classes offered, some seminars etc I have to attend) but I also get a free apartment, the whole of the summer holidays off, the winter holidays off and spring holidays off if I like, as well as 20 days of nenkyuu (no sick leave though). pay is 270,000 ￥ a month (not bad for a private ALT), I can also stay in this job until I die.
There are 5 ALTs here and 3 of them have settled down, had kids, gotten married and plan to be an ALT forever (not)
It’s a great job, I love where I am, love my school and I am even starting to love my 3rd years.
About my town:
Susono is located 175km South West of Tokyo, in Shizuoka Prefecture. It’s a nice, quiet semi-rural slice of Japan that specializes in rice, strawberries and tea, with some light industry thrown in because that’s what the Japanese do. Susono has a population of approximately 52,000 people, most of which are either small children or elderly obaachans who spy me from afar and get all gooey eyed.
Nearby cities include:
Mishima (nice temple)
Numazu (English bookshop and curry
and Gotemba (shopping, outlets and some nice onsens).
It’s a very tranquil place, there actually isn’t a night life here, we have like 3 bars (for Japan that’s quiet), and most shops close by 7. The 24 hour supermarket is the place to be after sundown with the under 20’s set. thus you can get why Numazu sees a lot of bored Susono teenagers! And a few very bored ALT’s.
We have a big gaijin population, what with the JET, the 5 SOFA ALT’s and then the FIA people (45 yrs old whose midlife crisis saw them coming to Japan…lots of perplexed Canadians) and a lot of Brazilians.
Our claim to fame in these here parts is that we have an amusement park, a safari park, a large ranch (blanche) and a few onsens in the hills.
We have an amusement park!!!!!
I love living here
ConnectInterests (59):
anime, art, beauty, blood and coffee, burlesque, butterflies, charles de lint, chili chocolate, chocolate, creative writing, creativity, dancing in the rain, dragons, dressing up, drinking tea, enchanting beauty, face paint, faerys, feathers, flowers, fransesca lia block, gilmore girls, ginger snaps, glamor, glitter, glitz, green eyes, halos, happiness, high heels, holly black, hugs, japan, japanese, kissing, korner, kushiels dart, languages, lanka girls, linguistics, love, marques, neil gaiman, people, playing in the rain, randomness, reading, stars, sushi, tart noir, tea, tuck everlasting, urban fantasy, used book stores, vintage clothes, walking places, warmth, wonderful people, writing
Schools:
Frankston High School - Frankston, VIC, Australia (1998 - 2004)Monash University - Clayton - Melbourne, VIC, Australia (2005 - 2007)
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