So for last 4 weeks or so, I've been sent to work in Okayama prefecture. I won't name the specific city that I'm working at, but I will say that it is a rural port city. I have been filling in as a temporary teacher in this city, and it has been quite fun. For some background information, this city has not had the budget to have ALTs working in their schools for some years, and this year is the first time in a while that the city has the budget for ALTs. Before this, schools were apparently studying English through online teachers. As a result, I have found that the students I have been working with to be very keen and excited to interact with a foreigner, even if their English is far from perfect, but they are willing to try.
For me, it has been a good opportunity to get away from the office, as March and April were incredibly busy, and I had just been assigned to work at one of the company's Tokyo offices, which I did not (and still don't) enjoy. The quietness of this city compared to Tokyo is something I welcome. While I have no problem going to Tokyo for the occasional day trip or holiday, I cannot stand commuting to Tokyo on a daily basis. I find that compared to the rural areas, Tokyo folk are too busy to be polite. Most tourists won't notice, but if you spend enough time in a rural area, and then compare it to Tokyo, you'll pick up on the subtleties.
In terms of the work, it is also a chance for me to brush up on my ALT skills. Compared to the past where I was using Japanese quite a lot with students, I have deliberately minimized the amount of Japanese I use where possible with students. The students will in most cases speak to me in Japanese, or at least attempt to speak to me in English, but in almost every case, I will reply in English.
Since it is unreasonable for me to go back to Saitama every weekend (it costs me nearly 20,000 yen one way on the shinkansen), I have spent some time looking around the town, trying some of the local cafes and restaurants, and even finding time to go to a local gym. While they don't have the franchise gym I'm signed up with, the local community gym has been sufficient for my needs.
On a different topic, my mother came to visit me recently. While I was not able to get all the days off that I wanted from my employer, I was able to spend a full 7 days with my mother doing shopping and sightseeing, and even brought her out to where I was working. On the days that I was working, my mother would either stay at the hotel, or have a look around the surrounding area, before I came back in the afternoon, and we would go out for dinner. However, I noticed that the rural city I'm working in does not have much open in the way of dining outside of franchise/chain restaurants. I noticed that many of the local restaurants and cafes close pretty early.
It was good to see my mum after nearly 4 years, and she made sure to make the visit count by bringing a lot of snacks and other gifts from Australia. The only regret is that my dad could not come and see Japan for himself before he died a few years back. I'm finally comfortable in saying that out loud after 2 years. Perhaps I will go in to more detail about it in a future post.
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