帰：Return

Here you have a map of Japan with my current base of operations highlighted in red. I will be living in the city of Fukui in the prefecture of Fukui for at least the next year as an English teaching assistant in a technical high school. My limit is 3 years with the JET Programme (Language teaching assistant hunting organization), but I really have no idea how long I will end up in Japan. Some people give up before boarding the plane, others stay several years and some even settle down, marry and never leave.

This is the view from my one bedroom apartment. The bedroom doubles as an entertainment room, the kitchen doubles as a welcome room and the bathroom is really more of a small closet than an actual room. On a clear day you can see the trees on the mountains from my back window.

I came to Fukui with a group of about 20 new ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers). Surprisingly enough, I am one of only 3 or 4 people in the group that speaks Japanese and has lived in Japan previously. This, apparently, makes me actually useful at times. An example from a trip yesterday to the beach:

Two girls approach a surfer from South Africa (not a joke, we have a surfer from South Africa in the group) and start speaking in Japanese, "Hello, what country are you from?"
...he replies with a blank stare
I glide over, "he's from South Africa"
"Africa?! You're both from Africa?"
...blank stare
"no, just him. I'm from the states"
"you speak English in South Africa?"
..."uh, yes? English."
The rest of the conversation pivoted around my ability to translate back and forth between the young women and the guy with whom they really wanted to speak. Sure, they'd rather only speak with the cute long-haired foreigner, but without the nerd associate all they'd have for conversation is blank stares.


It's good to be back.