Toji's Guide/Thoughts on Being an ALT

Ms. Baker (left) is best ALT waifu

In a rare change of pace, I'll be posting a kind of guide here today. I had actually written this up a few months earlier, but decided to hold off on uploading it until it was much closer to the end of my current ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) contract. I figured that since I'll be moving on to a new job at the beginning of next month, I should probably summarize what it's been like for me to be an ALT out in the woop woop parts (a.k.a rural) of Ibaraki  and things to be aware of, for anybody who is thinking of wanting to come to Japan to work. While some might think that ALT work is incredibly easy work, that's not always the case.

Note that these are purely from my own experiences only, and while some of these experiences and pointers may vary from place to place, other pointers are generally applicable to all schools.

1) ALT work does not pay much these days*. 

When I first started working as an ALT in Kamisu city back in mid-2016, I was earning about 13,000 yen a day - approximately 260,000 yen a month. However, after having to move to a different city, my pay was reduced to about 12,500 yen a day - around 250,000. In my current city now? I'm not even earning that. Due to some number manipulating on my employer's part, I'm earning about 12,000 yen a day - 240,000 yen a month. However, this includes the expenses to cover commuting to school. In my previous two cities, the commuting pay was separate from my regular pay.

Regardless of the company, anyone who has been an ALT will generally agree that these days, it's a race to the bottom for companies to pay as little as legally possible to ALTs. While it would seem at first glance that dispatch companies are being tight with money, it's more to do with the Board of Education being tight with the money - but not necessarily by choice. The problem is that the budgets assigned to them by their local/prefectural governments are getting smaller. Despite this, Boards of Education still want good quality ALTs, even if they can't/won't pay accordingly for said ALTs. Dispatch companies want to pay their ALTs more so they'll stay on, but they also want to win more contracts and build up their reputation throughout the country. So it's a snowball effect, starting with governments being stingy on children's education.

While I won't say avoid ALT work like the plague, I would advise that you carefully check how much you will get paid per day - or at the very least, per month. Some job advertisements will show the annual pay, but it seems to be an attempt to hide how little you will be paid. If you can, only take the jobs that pay at least 250,000 yen a month. Also, with the current situation of the CCP virus, dispatch companies are desperate for ALTs right now, and I would dare say that you might have a bit of room to negotiate. Just don't be too greedy if you do try negotiating.

This won't be a problem if you're only thinking of doing a year or two in Japan as an ALT, or using ALT work as a means to get a better job as soon as possible in Japan, but this is not the kind of work you would want to do long term. Some people can make this their living, but I've found those sorts of people tend to be few and far between.

*... However, this is from my experience working for a ALT dispatch company. Companies like Interac and Altia Central are examples of such dispatch companies. If you get lucky and work directly for a city's Board of Education, you will get paid significantly more (I spotted a job-ad not too long ago that was offering 290,000 yen a month), as there is no middle-man taking a cut out of your pay. However, from my own observations, it's rare to see a city's Board of Education advertise for an ALT. In my 5 years in Japan, I've probably seen only 2 - 3 positions advertised, and heard of a co-worker successfully get a direct-hire position. Also, you will most likely need a Japanese driver's license to be eligible for a direct-hire position.

2) Your role will vary depending on your schools. 

Officially, ALTs are there to assist the teacher in teaching English to students. In Junior High School and High School, this will generally ring true. At those schools, there will already be dedicated Japanese Teachers of English (JTEs) to teach English. Your role there will usually be reading from the textbook, checking the students' work, and preparing any extra material that you think may be useful, such as English boards, worksheets and so on. Basically, you get the easy work, and it's no surprise that many ALTs would prefer to work at a JHS or HS. 

Elementary Schools on the other hand... well, that's a different story. Unlike JHS and HS, there's not always going to be a dedicated JTE at an elementary school. There will more often than not be at least one teacher there that can speak English, and therefore, your only point of contact if you have questions or concerns regarding day to day operations at the school (unless you've got some Japanese ability under your belt), but will either not be confident enough to run an English class, or may have other responsibilities running classes for their assigned grade. This means that you will more than likely be preparing the lessons, preparing the materials (assuming the previous ALT didn't leave any materials for you to use) and running the classes, with the homeroom teacher usually playing the assistant role. You may get lucky and have some teachers that will get involved in the lessons and planning process, but I have found that to be the exception, rather than the rule. If you're lucky to have a head teacher who has experience teaching English, and takes charge of lesson planning and running classes for some of the grades - enjoy it while you can. In my five years, I've only encountered two or three teachers who took the lead for the class; two of those teachers were involved in the planning process, while one planned the entire lesson, and kept me in the loop on what they would be doing for what lesson, occasionally asking for my input or ideas.

3) Not all students are created equal.

Presumably, if you're wanting to be an ALT, you should at least have a little bit of experience working with children, or at the very least have the patience to work with children. I mean, you are going to be working at a school after all. A school. Full of children.

While I have been very fortunate to have had pretty good students overall, that streak came to an end this year, with my 6th graders at my elementary school. One class is usually ok, but the other... fucking hell. I hate the class, and I have found that the source of why the class is so bad is down to most of the boys in that class being absolute pieces of shit - disruptive, won't listen, then complain they don't understand because they're disruptive and won't listen. You need to have patience with children, and if you don't have patience for children, or willing to learn patience, do not bother becoming an ALT. 
Generally 6th graders can be arrogant, because they are essentially the kings of Elementary school - of course this comes to a crashing halt the second they go in to Junior high school. But basically, you need to learn to keep your cool in front of the kids, regardless of what happens in the classroom.

In my experience, 4th graders can also be a handful. Oddly enough, despite my earlier comment about 6th graders being arrogant, my experiences have been generally positive aside from this year. The 6th graders I have worked with have mostly been shy, but rarely have they been disruptive. Though the 6th graders that I have worked with for more than 1 year I have found to be a bit more lively, but again, rarely are they disruptive, and I have found those kinds of students to be fun. 
This does carry on a little bit in to junior high school. The 1st graders are usually still full of energy and enthusiasm, though by the time they reach 3rd grade, it's pretty much non-existent - the weight of trying to pass their entrance exams to get in to their desired high school is on their shoulders, and I do not envy the kind of pressure that has been put on them. All I can do for them is help where I can. If they ask for my help, great. If they don't it, that's fine too.

More importantly, what you need to realize is that because you'll be working in a public school, not every student is going to be enthusiastic about learning another language, let alone English. Yes, you'll have a few that genuinely want to learn and improve their English, and in my experience - not just schools in Japan, but language learning in general - girls tend to take English (and language learning) more seriously than boys. That's not to say that there aren't boys who want to learn and improve their English, but you'll find it more likely that girls will be studying harder for English. So, if you aren't getting a good reaction from your students, it could simply be that they're not really in to English, and not necessarily a problem with you personally.
Of course, if you decide to work in an Eikaiwa, most of your students are there because they want to improve their English (or at least, their parents want them to).

4) Welcome to the rice fields, motherfucker. 

While you might get assigned to a major city, and be able to get by with zero or very little Japanese (more on that in the next section), chances are, you're going to be assigned to work in a rural city. Depending on your personal preference, this could be seen as a paradise of peace and quiet, or it could be absolute torture and boredom. If you're in the latter category, I'd suggest finding an apartment near a train station that can take you somewhere more lively for the weekend.

On the other hand, while it is possible to get to your school by bike or walking, having a driver's license from your home country will make you more appealing to ALT dispatch companies, as it means they can assign you to cities and schools where you might need a car. Most companies will provide a car  (for a certain monthly fee) to get to school and to allow you to go about your day to day business. If you do decide to go for a company car, the company will reimburse you for the daily cost of commutes to school, and will pay for the regular car inspections (the shaken/車検). In addition, they will cover any repairs to the car, provided it wasn't your fault. If you have a valid license from your home country, it means you have the opportunity to transfer it in to a Japanese driver's license. 

Also, being in a small rural town means news travels around fast. This also means that as an ALT, you could potentially face greater scrutiny if you're caught doing something you're not supposed to or, just as bad, be accused of something you didn't do (especially if you're a man). Potential punishment can vary between having to leave the city (and your employer having to assign you somewhere else quickly), to being outright fired by the company. I have known this to happen to some friends who are no longer ALTs, but have fortunately bounced back and are still living and working in Japan.

5) If you want better work in Japan, git gud at Japanese, gaijin.

While ALT dispatch companies will advertise that Japanese ability isn't required, it's partly true. While you might not need Japanese to teach English at your schools, you will definitely need Japanese ability to get by outside of school. If you happen to be assigned to a rural city as discussed above, Japanese ability is a must. Need to go to the doctor? You're going to need Japanese to adequately tell them what's wrong. Need to set up an account for your apartment's utilities or phone? You're going to need Japanese. Need to go to city hall for anything? You will need Japanese, but some city halls will have a booth dedicated to assisting foreigners, though I am not sure if this is standard across the country or not. Fortunately, some cities have night schools for learning Japanese, and it might be an idea to take it up if you're thinking of living in Japan long term.

Alternatively, you could work at an Eikaiwa school, which pays more than typical ALT work. However if you want a job in Japan beyond being an ALT or Eikaiwa instructor, you will need Japanese proficiency, along with physical proof of that proficiency. By that, I mean you need to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test - more commonly known as the JLPT (or 能力試験). Most non-ALT jobs these days will require that you at least have JLPT N2 certification, which is roughly the equivalent of advanced/business level Japanese, with N1 being considered the equivalent of native level Japanese. If you can at least get N2 certification, it will open up a lot more job opportunities for you within the country.

If you're intending to take the JLPT, there are plenty of textbooks available to purchase to cover vocabulary, grammar, kanji, reading and listening. The JLPT is held twice a year in Japan (first Sunday of July and December), whereas most other countries only hold it once a year in December. Registering for the test isn't cheap, but the benefit of having that certification is worth it.

6) The Summer Vacation - the good and the bad.

There are two things you need to be aware of concerning working as an ALT in public schools: Your schedule follows that of the school year, and you're paid based on the number of days you work each month. But the thing is, you will receive your pay the following month. For example, your pay for January will arrive in February. Since you won't be working in August because of the summer vacation, come September... see where I'm getting at here?

Some companies will pay between 50-75% of your regular monthly pay to help you get by until you receive your September pay in October. I believe Interac is one of the dispatch companies that does this. Unfortunately, my employer is not so gracious, though they do offer a little extra work during the summer break so I got a little bit of pay to get me through the following month, which was why I loved only having two weeks of summer vacation last year. In any case, it's recommended that before the summer break, you save up some money to help you get through September.

Also, be especially aware if you're starting in August (or even April), this is even more important, as your first pay won't arrive until two months later. Fortunately, my employer was upfront about this part before I moved to Japan to start work. At the very least, you should ask your employer what their policy is regarding pay for the summer break when factoring in the initial cost of moving to Japan.

In Conclusion

Those are my pointers for the moment, though I will be sure to update this post if there are any other key points that I think would be important for anybody who is wanting to become an ALT in Japan. However, due to the coronavirus, it's more difficult to enter the country at the moment, so you'll need to factor the cost of quarantine on top of everything else if you are able to get in to Japan

Lastly, while this post could be seen as hating on ALT work (and there are plenty of former ALTs out there who do hate the job with a passion), ALT work is not all bad. There is some joy in teaching students English, and see them improve over time. But as I mentioned earlier, this is not a long term job. At the very least, it's a good experience, and also a good way to move on to better jobs in Japan - provided you're willing to put that extra work in to be eligible for a better job. On top of that, though, you need to be prepared to accept that Japan is not exactly like what you see in anime and pop-culture. It's quite different from western culture in some ways, but in others it borrows a lot from it too, creating this weird fusion between old and modern. In any case, the first few weeks will be a little bumpy as you acclimate to your new environment, but if you're able to stick it out, you'll come out of it for the better.

At some point, I will probably shift this guide over to my main site, as this will probably get buried by future posts.

Life in Chikusei: One Month Later

After nearly a month since I moved to Chikusei, I figured I should write on my thoughts of living in Chikusei so far, and how it compares to life in Kamisu.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my apartment is in a surprisingly convenient location for the daily necessities. From my apartment, I can walk to the supermarket, convenience store, city hall, a 100 yen store, bank, and even a train station that can take me to Tokyo (in 2 hours, but しょうがない ). Unlike my apartment in Kamisu, which was actually a shed converted in to an apartment, my Chikusei apartment is well insulated, so I'm comfortably warm in the winter. In addition, my apartment in Chikusei is furnished. The downsides I've found are that the kitchen is smaller (making storing everything troublesome), and since I'm renting this apartment through the company, rent is more expensive.

In terms of daily goods, Chikusei is straight up more expensive. While it is possible to find cheap things around when it comes to food, I find I have to look a bit harder for cheaper things. For example, I'll go to one supermarket for cheaper meat, but I will go to another supermarket (that is not too far away) for most other things since they usually sell most other goods cheaper. I am also paying more attention to specials and anything in the bargain bin. Actually, I bought two bags of cereal for a cost that is actually cheaper than buying 1 big bag of brand name cereal. Oddly enough, I can't find cheap 5 pack yakisoba like I in Kamisu. Apparently, ramen is the thing around here, as no matter what supermarket I go to, they have plenty of packs of ramen, but hardly anything for yakisoba. As a result of the increase in costs, I'm cooking more often and finding ways to make my meals last longer - though it does give me the opportunity to try and cook new things. Just recently, I tried cooking Jamaican style chicken curry. Eating it with a small amount of rice, I can make it last for three meals - a feat that is tied with the curry rice I some times cook.

For the schools I go to, there are some aspects between Kamisu and Chikusei that I like over the other. For example, I like that the elementary school I go to in Chikusei provides me with my own classroom, with plenty of materials, a computer, and a TV connected to it to use with the text books, though the students (especially the 6th graders) are a bit slow to get things done. The JTE has told me that the 6th graders are constantly being scolded by teachers for this, but it seems to have no effect. Whereas in Kamisu, I had no such problems, though I was constantly having to come up with my own material for lessons (hurting my wallet in the process). In addition, it was a much more casual atmosphere, though it was probably due to most of the teachers in my Kamisu schools being younger than me. For the Junior High School I go to in Chikusei, I have no point of reference to compare in Kamisu, as I was working at elementary schools for those 6 months, so I can't really say which is better. However, I will say that it is nice to be slipping in to the support role and helping answer students' questions, checking their work and whatnot, rather than coming up with lesson plans - though their lessons are a lot more thorough, as they not only learn vocabulary, but also grammar, reading, listening and writing.

In terms of recreation, I have not done all that much admittedly. However, I have been able to find a community center gym that I go to twice a week. I have tried out what seem to be the only two community center gyms available in Chikusei, according to the city's official website anyway. The first one I went to in Shimodate (下館) costs 300 yen per session, but I can work out for up to three hours. However, before that, I had to make a booking for a mandatory orientation session, and those only happen a handful of days in the month. The gym was good, though the lack of free weight equipment left me a little disappointed. However, that gym seems to be really popular, so there aren't many opportunities to use certain pieces of equipment for an extended period, especially if you want to do super sets. However, I went to another gym just recently in Kyowanomori (協和の杜). It's a little bit further from the one in Shimodate, but the best part of this gym is that is free of charge. Yeah, you read that right. Free. I was expecting that the gym would be run down or small, considering I'm paying nothing for it, but to my surprise, it does have a lot of equipment on offer. The equipment seems a bit older compared to the first gym and what I've used in Kamisu, though I will admit that the equipment is at least well looked after. Again, no free weights available, but given that most of the time I have the gym to myself, using equipment for extended periods for super sets has not been a problem, and there is enough variety of equipment to make up for the lack of bar bells and dumbbells. The opening hours are a bit weird though, in that it is open from 9:30am - 4:30pm, and then 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm. It makes getting to the gym after school impossible, but on the other hand, it gives me something to do on the weekend.

Finally, would be the other ALTs. I've only met the other Chikusei ALTs twice, though I have started catching up with one of the ALTs once a week, and helping him out wherever I can with logistics stuff. However, I still I try to keep in touch with some of the Kamisu ALTs. I caught up with one just before school started, and I asked him to let me know whenever he's planning basketball, as I'm always up for it (after doing a few games with him and other friends in Kamisu, and I've surprisingly improved a lot during those games, but that's a story for another time).

So the overall verdict? In terms of accommodation - Chikusei is the winner. In terms of the cost of living, and the schools - Kamisu. It is a shame I had to leave Kamisu, but sometimes these things cannot be avoided. Hopefully, I can go back to Kamisu someday, even if only for brief visit.

New life in Chikusei

Wow, it's been over 3 months since I last posted any entry for this blog. I could explain the various reasons for why I've not been updating, but I'll just skip to my current situation in Japan.

Just last week, I moved from Kamisu city to Chikusei city. The reason for this, was that I found out in early January that the Board of Education in Kamisu would not renew its contract with my employer. It shocked them, as they believed that they had a good chance of having another 3 years in Kamisu, but I heard that the past 2 were not exactly the best for the company and its ALTs in Kamisu. In any case, all ALTs working for the company had to move out on the 27th of last month. Some ALTs decided to return to their home countries at the end of the semester; others - including most of my friends - chose to find work in other companies in Japan (ALT or otherwise); while a few (including myself) opted to stay on with the company. In my case, I have only worked with the company for 6 months, and to take a chance to go with another company, and deal with all the costs associated with moving to wherever another company would place me, I felt it would have set all my plans back - including the decision to go back to my home country during the summer break, and to go to Kyoto during the winter break to visit my girlfriend.

Just before leaving Kamisu, the company offered me a few choices on where I could work. All of them unfortunately offered less pay than what I was receiving in Kamisu, though I ultimately decided on Chikusei. While the pay is still less than Kamisu's, it was probably the highest paying out of all the options that were given to me.

Despite only having been in Chikusei for over a week, and not having the chance to fully explore the wider area, I'm certainly happy with my apartment, and ease of access to most necessities from my apartment. Unlike where I was living in Kamisu, I can easily walk to a supermarket, city hall, post office, convenience store, and even a train station within 5 minutes of my apartment. The train station especially is convenient when I went to Tokyo for a week to see my mother, who was visiting. Because of this, I'm not having to use my car so much to get around - usually for getting to the two schools I'll be working at.
Speaking of which, I had the opportunity to visit the two schools. Unlike in Kamisu where I was working at elementary schools only, I'll be working at a Junior High School and an elementary school. The Junior High School staff seemed to be really busy in preparing for the opening ceremony happening either today or tomorrow, but the elementary school staff seemed nice. In addition, they seem to be really on board for the team teaching, in that they want to hold a regular meeting once a week so that we can plan the lesson together. I welcome this, compared to when I was in Kamisu where I was effectively given free reign on what to teach the children, using the Kamisu plan as a loose guide on topic ideas. Do not get me wrong, I have no hard feelings against those teachers, but for new ALTs, the kind of support that this school is providing would have really helped for those 6 months, though the teachers seemed to be really happy with my work, so it all worked out in the end.

I will be starting school next Monday. I am a little bit nervous, simply because I have never worked at a Junior High School before, though I have been told that it is vastly different compared to an Elementary School, where the ALT's role is more to support the teacher, rather than running the class. I will just wait and see how that goes.

あけましておめでとうございます！

遅れてしまいましたけど、あけましておめでとうございます！ (A bit late, but Happy New Year!)

Wow, a lot has happened since I last posted. I will briefly talked about what's been happening, and (hopefully) go into more detail in future posts.

During December, I attended two kindergartens for Christmas-related activities. More specifically, I dressed up as Santa and played with the children. It was a bit daunting at first, but fortunately it was not that hard at all. I went there early with another staff member from my company and met some of the kindergarten staff and principal, and talked about a variety of topics, before getting briefing on what would be happening during the Christmas activities. After the briefing, I finally got into my Santa costume, and got to meet the children at the assembly where I participated in a song with the teachers, helped give out presents, and finally took pictures with all the children. At one of the kindergartens, I was treated to morning tea with some of the staff after finishing the activities, before they gave another gift bag full of snacks and sweets. Since the visit was only for the morning, I went back to my usual elementary schools to resume lessons for the remainder of the day.
In addition, it was winter break from the 23rd of December until the 9th of January. I took this chance to go to Kyoto to visit my girlfriend and spend time with her for Christmas and New Year. Having been 4 months since I last saw her, it was great to spend time together, even if only for less than 2 weeks.

The other bit of news that has happened is that due to my employer not winning the contract for Kamisu, all the company's Kamisu ALTs will have to move out at the end of the semester. I am trying to weigh up my options at the moment, between staying on with the company and seeing what other city they will offer me; or jump ship and apply for the company that won the Kamisu contract to stay in Kamisu and hope that I will be allowed to continue working at my current schools. At the moment, my coordinator is checking on other positions available, after knocking back a position in Kitaibaraki (after finding out it's right next to Fukushima). It seems that whatever I decide to choose, I will at least have a new 1 year contract with a company, so I don't have to worry about uncertainty of employment.

I hope to go into greater detail for my time in Kyoto, and about my future in Kamisu in a future post. Until then, at least you know that I am still alive (laughs).

Company Meeting: The Other ALTs

On Thursday, there was a meeting for all the other company ALTs working in Kamisu. I have been told that this is a monthly thing, but more importantly, it was an opportunity to meet the other Kamisu ALTs that work for the company. Before this, I had only met two that lived next to me, and one other I met at the ALT barbeque that was held just before the semester began.

While it was mostly an introduction session for the new ALTs (specifically me, and one other person), it was also gave an insight as to what everyone did during the summer break. Some went back to their home countries to visit family and friends, some traveled to other parts of Japan, while others just stayed in Kamisu for whatever reason. In addition, I was able to speak to some of the ALTs as to their thoughts on the company and working as an ALT in Kamisu. Most were critical of the company as a whole, but had no problem with the current coordinators for Kamisu - I agreed with them regarding the coordinators, as they come across as being particularly friendly people, and easy to approach for any questions that I had. 

I also had a chance to speak with ALTs who used to work at the schools that I am working at now. One of the schools I work at 3 days a week, one ALT said was a pretty good school, and very few troublemakers. However, the other school where I work 2 days a week didn't get such praise, something I started to take notice of when I was teaching there earlier that day. I found that the home room teachers were either busy doing their own thing, or were just not in the classroom. In any case, I was left to run the entire class on my own, with little assistance - and this did become a little problematic when trying to demonstrate a game to the students, and despite being able to speak Japanese, I am not allowed under any circumstances to speak it while running the class - that responsibility is left to the teacher that is supposed to be there. Fortunately, I was able to make do with what I had.  In any case, I suspect it's not because they don't like me personally (I've only been there for a total of 3 days so far), but it seems it's more of a case of being cautious of ALTs in general. I have heard both from Japanese teachers and fellow ALTs that earlier this year, there was a high turnover of ALTs, which has led some schools to be bit wary of incoming ALTs. I have noted that at the 2 day a week school, I do not feel welcome. Of course, there is the typical Japanese polite to your face act that I'm familiar with, but I feel that behind that, the teachers just do not want me around. This is completely the opposite to the 3 day a week school, where some of the teachers will come up and talk to me and ask how things are going, and generally just want to get to know me, and usually stay in the classroom, follow the lesson, help me out when I ask, and translate my instructions in Japanese for the students so they understand. After these 6 months, I would gladly stay on at the 3-day a week school if given the offer. However, for the 2-day a week school, I have no problems going to a different school if given the opportunity. 

After the meeting, I decided to go hang out with some of the ALTs for food at Gusto, and just chatted about general things. However, they did give me some advice about the shower in my apartment, which has proven to be problematic with hot water. Turns out I need to completely max out the hot water before slowly introducing cold water. Yesterday, I had the first comfortable shower since arriving in Kamisu 3 weeks ago.

Being able to meet the other ALTs proved to be a good experience. On top of meeting new people, I also got a better understanding of life in Kamisu, and some useful tips on work and living matters.

Passing the Time Outside Work

For the second weekend since starting work, I have to admit that it's been fairly tricky finding things to do to pass the time, besides preparing for the following week's lessons. I have read and heard from others that there is not all that much to do in Kamisu, and that most foreigners seem to prefer to go to Tokyo over the weekend to pass the time. However, as I'm not all that interested in going to Tokyo on a regular basis, I find my options limited, though it hasn't been impossible for me to find things to do.

For the past two weekends, I've been going out to restaurants or cafes to study for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). As I have little time on weekdays to do any solid study, I try to make up for it by doing a few hours on the weekend. Usually, I'll order something inexpensive, and just pass the time studying. I started off with studying at Starbucks, but alas, just like my experiences in Kyoto, even the Starbucks out here in Kamisu is usually full, and the one time I was able to study there appeared to be a stroke of good luck. I had considered going to Saizeria, but compared to Starbucks, it's a further drive away, and I usually am not out that far unless I have some errand in that area to attend to. Instead, I've been going to Gusto, which is closer to me than Starbucks and Saizeria. The food is a little more expensive than Saizeria, but I usually order some inexpensive dessert, plus the drink bar, and I study away while drinking coffees or teas. Also, if it's later in the afternoon and after lunch, it's fairly quiet there, so I don't have to worry about noise.
Another particular activity I have just started doing yesterday is going to the gym. In one of my earlier posts, I mentioned that I had heard of a cheap, goverment-funded gym around. Well, after asking around, I managed to find it. It happens to be close to Kamisu's City Hall. As promised, the gym is very cheap, as in 50 yen for 1 hour. Fifty. Yen. That is less than $1 in my country. However, while it does sound too good to be true, it is and it isn't. The gym is very small, and the equipment is fairly old, and all of it centering on weight training. While it would have been nice for an exercise bike to be available, the equipment were in good enough condition in that I was able to utilize the full hour with a bit of creative thinking on how to best use the equipment for specific exercises. Because I haven't been to a gym since arriving in Japan three weeks ago, it's natural that my body is a bit stiff after yesterday's workout. Despite the small size of the gym, I'm satisfied with it in that I plan to go every weekend.
Other things I have been doing to pass the time includes having a look at WonderGoo, BookOff, and a place called Kanteidan, which seems to be a combination of a game center, electronics store, card game store, and toy store, and a couple of other stores. I usually look around for either gunpla or gunpla-accessories, or even games and music cds. When looking at the price of gunpla, I'm reminded that I was very fortunate to get the majority of my gunpla from Yodobashi at a cheaper price than recommended retail when I was in Kyoto. While I have been considering buying specific gunpla, I've been holding off on that kind of spending for the moment.

Finally, I got my Japanese phone sorted out today after a week and a bit. Now I've got a number, and on top of making calls, I have 5GB of data a month for around 2100 yen, and the setup fee waived. A pretty good deal I must admit.
On the other hand, the internet that my company has been providing me has proven to be insufficient for my data requirements after two weeks. Despite watching very few youtube videos, my skype calls to my parents and my girlfriend have been eating through my data allowance, and I'm down to 128 kbps speed of internet. Fortunately, my nextdoor neighbour earlier offered to let me use his internet in exchange for splitting the bill with him, so I was able overcome that problem. However, I intend to go for a more long term solution by getting a better internet service. I have been reading up on WiMAX2+ from Asahi Net and this month, they're waiving the fee for the device itself (around $200). On top of that, it's unlimited data, which will be perfect. I've already sent an inquiry to them to find out about the availability of WiMAX2+ in Kamisu, and my area, and if it is available, I may apply for it at the end of the month.

Despite being only the second week in Kamisu, I have been able to keep myself occupied outside of work with various activities and errands. Whether I can keep this up for at least six months is yet to be seen.

A storm is coming... Tomorrow

Because of the announcement of a typhoon approaching Kamisu, school has been cancelled (and confirmed by my employer) tomorrow. I decided to take the opportunity to go get some food, as I have no dinner tomorrow night. However, upon returning to my apartment, I find a notice in my mailbox about missed mail. It was just before I came home of all things too, which was a real pain.

Fortunately, I found an article that explained what to do in this sort of situation. After a bit of careful checking, I have managed to reschedule my delivery to come tomorrow morning - which is apparently the ideal time as the typhoon is coming in the afternoon.
As for what the mail was, I can narrow it down to one of two things: My bank card, or the sim card for my phone. I hope it is the sim card, as it is really starting to get inconvenient now to not have a working phone, especially when my pocket wifi is so limited in data allowance.

First Two Days of Work: Impressions

After two days of work, my first impression was that it wasn't all that bad. Admittedly for my first day on Thursday, I did no teaching at all. However, I had to do an introduction in front of the entire school during the school's opening ceremony for the new semester. After that, I was pretty much writing up lesson plans for next week. Despite not teaching any classes that day, it was still productive. The vice principal was pretty friendly too, and had no problems answering any of my questions.

The school I worked at yesterday was my first real test, in that I was teaching 6th graders across 3 periods. Despite having a lesson plan, it could have gone better for my first class. I could not believe that 45 minutes went by really quickly. Fortunately I had two more classes of 6th graders to address the problems, and with the help of the home room teacher, the lesson went a lot smoother. He had no problem participating in demonstrations, or just some silly talk, especially when I did my introduction. Furthermore, he also gave me advice and suggestions for future classes, and him being there really took the edge off. I also had lunch with the one of the 6th grader classes - a meal consisting of spaghetti and meat sauce, something which I can only describe as a prawn croquette, small salad, a mandarin, and milk. It was a pretty decent meal, and while it is not free (it will be deducted from my salary), the daily cost for a lunch of that portion is pretty good - less than 300 yen a day easily.
After lunch, I spent more time preparing lesson plans for next week. Also, the teacher who gave me the tour of the school on Wednesday invited me to help her and some of the other teachers to walk the younger students off campus to the nearest shopping center where many children's parents were waiting to pick them up. Naturally, all the children wanted to talk to me, especially since some of them have never seen a foreigner before. Being able to speak Japanese made it a lot easier when they wanted to ask me a variety of questions, including favourite foods, favourite colours, pets, bugs, etc.
It was kind of amusing to see their reactions when hear a foreigner speaking Japanese to them for the first time. Even funnier when I was listening to the conversation during lunch time, before I started asking them questions in Japanese, and they were shocked to realise that I understood what they said earlier.
As I mentioned in my previous post, most of the teachers at this school are young - some I think are younger than me. Including the home room teacher, and the teacher who gave me the tour, there was another teacher who seemed to really have fun talking with me in Japanese/English. He admits that his English isn't all that good, but it didn't seem to stop him from coming up to my desk to see how I was going for my first day at the school.

Between the two schools I am working at, I enjoyed being at the school I was working at yesterday. However, considering that I did not do any teaching on Thursday at school, I feel that this is an unfair comparison. On the other, I felt a bit more welcomed at the second school, though that is not to say that first school's staff are d*cks or anything, it might be because the teachers are a bit older, it might be they might have a harder time interacting with me because I'm younger than them. Or, it could be something different. In any case, I will wait and see in the following weeks to see how this turns out.

Overall, it was a good experience, and the one thing I learned was that 45 minutes can go by really quickly, and therefore, I need to be more strict on time management when it comes to teaching future lessons.

Before Work: Visiting the Schools

Today I went with my coordinators to visit the schools that I will be working at starting from tomorrow. For confidentiality purposes, I won't name the schools I will be working at, but I will describe my experiences from today's visit.

The first school we went to wasn't all that far from where I live. Maybe 10 minutes or so by car. We were greeted by one of the teachers who explained how things run at school, including my lesson plans, and the weekly schedule, and where and who I would be working with on Friday. We also had a tour of the school, which I noticed was a very wide school. Along the way I was introduced to the various teachers. I found them to be rather friendly people, and they all seemed to be surprised when I spoke to them in Japanese. I also had to introduce myself to everyone in the teacher's room in Japanese. One thing I noticed was that they're mostly young people (though the teacher who had been giving us a tour of the school and giving me the explanation really wanted to know my age, and told everyone my age *laughs*). My coordinator commented after that I probably be able to get along with them more easily because they're closer to my age.

The second school we went to is a bit further away compared to the first school - possibly 20 minutes. The visit was fairly brief, with an introduction to one of the teachers, along with the vice principal, and again, another self introduction in Japanese to everyone in the teacher's room. They also explained that while I will have no classes tomorrow, there will be a ceremony for the new semester, where I will have to introduce myself to all the children at school. Since it's the entire school, I can't really use flash cards to reinforce what I say. However, I plan to print out the Australian flag at least.

After school tomorrow, I plan to do my lesson plan for the first school on Friday. Fortunately, there were notes left from the previous ALT, so I do have something to work from. I also do not have class until 2 period, so I will have a bit more time to prepare.

Considering I have to wake up early tomorrow for an 8am start, I should probably go to sleep now. I will be sure to post about my first day experiences tomorrow.

Kamisu City - Initial Thoughts

After about an hour and a half of driving from Mito city, I finally arrived in Kamisu city yesterday afternoon. I had heard, and also read up about how you would need a car to get around. Man, they were not kidding. Since the driving system in Japan is pretty much the same in Australia (left hand drive, right hand steering wheel, etc), it was pretty easy to get to the hang of things. One thing I will say though: I'm not sure if this is just a Kamisu thing, or Japanese people in general, but for a country that is really hung up on following rules, nobody around Kamisu even tries to do the speed limit. On the major roads, I think it's about 50 km/h (which for me is pretty slow, since the average on most roads in my home city is 70 km/h), but it's not uncommon for people to be going faster. On top of that, I hardly saw any pedestrians out and about - at most I probably saw 10 people, with the majority getting around by car. When even the convenient stores have a sizeable car park, it's definitely a sign that Kamisu is car-dominated city.

Anyway, my apartment upon arrival was completely bare - no fridge, no washer, no microwave, not even any curtains. However, I was advised that the fridge/washer/microwave would be arriving on monday afternoon. On the other hand, I had to go out and buy everything else, and I also spent today purchasing the remainder of my necessities. Learning from my times as an international student, I've stuck to purchasing cheap things, including a cheap mattress, a cheap fold up table, and a cheap stool. As I'm not going to start getting paid until late October, I've been putting together goals, and keeping a closer eye on  my purchases so I can keep my expenditure as low as possible. As I also want to travel to Kyoto for Christmas for the 2 week winter break to visit my girlfriend, it's even more important that I try to get on top this now while I'm in the settling period. Fortunately, most of the necessities I've purchased are the sorts of things I can use in future accommodation, so it's short term pain for long term gain.

I will be starting my first day of work on Thursday. I am a bit nervous, especially because I did so-so on my demo lessons during the training, though I was told in feedback that my lesson plan is technically sound; I just need the confidence to be able to perform in front of a classroom of students, and I am hoping this will become easier after the first few days of work.

First evening in Mito City

After spending 1 week in Kyoto, I have finally arrived in Mito city in the Ibaraki prefecture. As I thought, it finally sank in during my time in Kyoto that I would be not only starting a new job, but a new job in a different country - where the rules are different from what I am used to. I feel like I've been putting a lot of pressure on myself to not mess this up, as I know that there is nothing back in my home country if this doesn't work out. Maybe in a few years time I might go back to work, but for the moment, I want to get experience in Japan, not only for work, but to also improve my Japanese, and finally get N2 and N1 certifications.

At the moment I'm staying in a hotel not too far from Mito train station. It's a good location, though I have to fork out of my own pocket until I move to Kamisu city. I also realise that unlike my time as an international student in Japan, there's much less support this time round in getting set up - specifically, I have to set up my own phone account, my own bank account, and my own internet service provider. This will be an interesting experience, though my girlfriend has reassured me that I will get a lot more out of it by doing these things on my own. Depending on the distance of the schools from where I will live in Kamisu, I'm also contemplating buying a bicycle as opposed to renting the company car, as the costs will pile up with the car ($200 a month, plus petrol costs out of my own pocket...); the bicycle will not only cut costs, but will serve to help me lose weight, which I gained a little while I was in Kyoto (laughs). I've also read that there is a cheap gym in a government-funded community center, which I want to look in to more once I move to Kamisu.

In the meantime, I have training next week, and I need to finish preparing my self introduction, which I will need to do for the training sessions, and for my first day at school as an English teacher.

Unlike my time as an international student, where I spent money on any and everything (gunpla, candy, game centers, other toys, etc), I want to be more conscious of my spending habits. A blog entry I found recently has inspired me to save, and from the looks of things, It's doable - especially if I put a lid on my spending habits, and try and cook at home more often. If I can pull this off, I can finally start paying off my student debt, and probably pay off the rest of my car, which I left in the care of my sister back home.