Happy Easter everyone!
It’s been exactly a month since I boarded the plane to Japan and oh, so much has happened! I recently (finally!) got internet in my apartment so many posts about life and my observations/experiences so far are soon to come!
Today Christians all over the world are celebrating Easter, and I have to say, it’s the first day I’ve really been homesick at all for both America and my family. Today, my whole family congregates at my grandparents house after church services and we hunt for eggs, eat a ton of good food (ham!), and just enjoy being together for one of the maybe three times a year it actually happens.
This morning I all I wanted was to be back home eating chocolate and ham, and just celebrating probably the most important holiday in my religion (yes, even before Christmas!)
But after a quick and unexpected Skype session with my family back home (on their Saturday night) I went out and explored Japan with some of the great new friends I’ve made in my time here. Going back to a few posts ago, don’t let homesickness get the better of you! Get out and remind yourself why you left your old life and traveled halfway around the world to this new one!
I’m sorry my first post in a month hasn’t exactly been about Japan. I just want you all to know I’m alive and well and since that day when I boarded the biggest plane I’d ever been on (exactly a month ago now), with no clue about what I was doing and no idea how everything would turn out, life has been good. I’ll share with you some of my bigger observations about this wonderfully-foreign-and-yet-somehow-familiar place:
People are nice, the rules of the road are what you make them, no one is going to steal your car even if you leave it running on the street while you’re away for 20 minutes, internet is fast, soft jazz is kind of annoying, sakura is beautiful, wood floors are hard to keep clean, spring is cold everywhere but California, Mickey Mouse is an internationally beloved character, teenagers will totally work for tiny stickers, learning a new language is hard but rewarding, politicians on loudspeakers should be illegal on Sunday mornings, you can always hear yourself breathe, fighting in the hallways is a thing here, anything is good in tempura, futons are more comfortable than you think, and I’m always way overdressed.
Stay tuned for more whirlwind adventures!
Ja ne!
Oh, I am with you on the politicians on loudspeakers! >_
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So loud! haha Thank you and Happy Easter to you too! Those donuts looked amazing!!!
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Hi there!
Usually I don’t comment on blogs, I’m a lurker from birth, lol.
It’s been a while since you’ve put up this post, but I had to comment because I too want to teach English in Japan through the Interac route.
I read your posting about JET (which I had tried–and failed– as well) which is exceptionally hard to get through in my country unless you’re a trained teacher (which I’m not). As of now, I don’t have a driver’s licence or TEFL certificate but hope to get by December.
I just wanted to hear more about your experiences so far with Interac. Feel free to email me if you so wish, especially about how you’re handling everything as a Christian (I assume).
I look forward to hearing from you and enjoy the summer in Japan. I hope to get there next year God’s willing.
God bless and keep safe ^.^
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Good luck on getting here, I seriously recommend it! And I really think Interac is a great company! It depends on the branch but I haven’t heard anything concerning from friends I made at training around Japan. My branch is the Mito Branch and they cover a lot of Ibaraki as well as south Fukushima and I can’t sing their praises enought! Very helpful with even non-work related problems. They really want people to stay longer and so do a lot to make sure we settle in well and are having as easy a time with it as possible. If you’re curious about anything specific let me know (and I’m sorry this reply came so late!)
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Thanks so much for your response ^.^. A friend of mine has recently returned home from Japan and recommended the company to me. During that time I had also made friends living in Japan so I feel like everything is lining up for me to go. Thanks again and I look forward to getting my TEFL and learning even more Japanese
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