It's real now.

I have now heard from my predecessor, received my contract, and emailed with two other Iiyama JETs. One is already there and will be starting her second year, and the other will be a newbie, just like me. The more information I get, the better I feel about this whole thing. It is so incredibly helpful to talk to people who have just spent a year teaching in Japan in Iiyama. What I need to remember is that there are lots of other JETs, and we are all going through this together. Granted ESID, (check the acronym list) but generally speaking, we are all moving to a new country, many of us have never lived abroad like this before, we will all be working in Japan, etc. etc. etc.

So, the contract:
It covers all the important information, age of students (I have junior high school, so essentially 5th-8th graders), work schedule, holidays (there are quite a few), paid leave, sick leave, responsibilities and duties as an ALT, etc. Nothing seemed unreasonable, and I will be making a good salary. My favorite part was the obligatory "other duties as assigned by your supervisor." I also have my apartment address now and my school address. And my supervisor's name. Apparently she does not speak English, so this will be fun. I will be learning Japanese, that's for sure. There are pictures of my apartment (I also got some from my pred, so that rocked) and TONS of brochures about Iiyama. The brochures are all in Japanese, so I honestly don't know what they say. The pictures are pretty, at least!

I am worried about teaching and getting the kids to open up and participate. I know from experience how hard it is to learn a new language and how intimidating it can be to have a native speaker in your classroom as your teacher (or as an assistant teacher, as is the case here). It took me several years of French before I realized that just speaking up and making mistakes is the best way to learn. By the time I took Russian and Spanish in college, I learned a lot because I just threw things out there and laughed at my mistakes. And now I am *trying* to learn Japanese, and making plenty of mistakes in the process, e.g. I said "it is mountain goat-ing" (mountain goats are falling from the sky) instead of "it is snowing" but I will forever know that mountain goat is yagi and snow is yuki. Someday, a mountain goat just may fall from the sky, and I can only hope that I will be there to see it.

Some Japan fun facts!

Purely for fun! Some of these facts are quite surprising.

• Japan is 70% mountains.
• The population of Japan is about 127 million.
• The population of Tokyo is over 12 million. (New York City is about 8 million)
  
• Japan is slightly smaller in area than California. (perspective: CA has a population of about 37 million)
  
• Normal Japanese kitchens do not have ovens.
• In Japan when you move into an apartment, you often have to bring your own light fixtures.
• You don't wear shoes in the house, you wear slippers.
• There are special slippers for the bathroom.
• You do not wear any slippers in a tatami mat room.
  
• The head of the Japanese state is the Emperor. Not to be confused with the head of government, the Prime Minister.
• In Japan, you drive on the left side of the road, and roads are very narrow.
  

A quick geography lesson

Here is a map of Japan that shows the regions and the prefectures. The four main islands are Hokkaido (salmon color), Kyuushuu (gray), Honshuu (multi-colored big island), and Shikoku (purple).

I am in Nagano, number 20 in the Chuubu (sky blue) region. I am up in the top by Niigata (#15). You should be able to click the map to make it bigger so the words are legible.

Plaaaaaaacement!

Looks like I will be in: 長野県 Nagano-ken (prefecture) 飯山市 Iiyama-shi (city)

Wikipedia (not the most reliable, but its probably close) says the city has a population of about 24,000, which I think will be a good mix of city and not city. I *should* have access to a post office, a bank, and the ever-necessary コンビニ (konbini-convenience store), but I will still get to experience Japan without it being completely Westernized. Apparently, to get to Iiyama from Tokyo takes 2.5-4 hours: take the train to Nagano-shi, then a bus or train to Iiyama (thanks for the info, Nic!)

If you want to check it out:

http://www.iiyama-ouendan.net/english/index.html (the city's tourism website)

http://tamagazou.machinami.net/iiyamashigaichi.htm (just pictures, and all the links are in Japanese so if you want to navigate to a different page, hold your mouse over a link and BEFORE you click, look in the bottom left corner of your browser. Usually you will see a copy of the web address which should be in a language you recognize. You will have to sort of decipher what is there, but you might know some names)

http://myoko-nojiri.com/madarao/ One more that is more tourist-oriented.

:-D