The JET Programme

My niece who just graduated college leaves tomorrow for Tokoyo. She will be there 3 days for Orientation into the JET Programme then she will be given her destination at the end of the orientation. She will be working with Japanese teachers, teaching them English, while they teach her Japanese. She will be in Japan for a year, and then her contract will be up and she will either be asked to stay on, or she will just come back home and go on to other pursuits. She is really excited about this new adventure with the Japanese Exchange and Teaching Programme. I have been reading up on it and they are allowed to stay as long as three years than they are asked to leave or to join the team that puts this programme together.

That is so cool!!! Tell her we send our congrats!!! And tell her to eat some sushi for me, I love sushi!!!!

wow that is soooo awesome!!!

How Cool -I wish I could have done something like that when I was younger - She is very fortunate to have wonderful opportunity like this!! Send her my jealousy… LOL!

I can't she already has been sent mine!

My sister went in the Peace Corps right after she graduated from college, so Shawn doing this does not surprise me in the least. Plus Shawn has been around the world with my sister more times than some folks change their linens. I am concerned though, she was brought up very pampered and protected. Being blonde, good looking makes her a target in the real world. My hope is her over the top intelligence will help keep her safe as she has always been a exceptional person. When she took drivers ed in high school, the instructor sent a note home with my sister, telling her how Shawn's driving abilities and judgements had made him re-evaluate how he drove and taught others to drive. He told Gwen that having Shawn in his class, ultimately made HIM a better driver!

Originally posted by hissy
...... the instructor sent a note home with my sister, telling her how Shawn's driving abilities and judgements had made him re-evaluate how he drove and taught others to drive. He told Gwen that having Shawn in his class, ultimately made HIM a better driver!

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LOL!!! That is hilarious, Maryanne!! She sounds like a very exceptional young lady!
Still green with envy

My daughter dream is to go to Japan, she draws japanese style Anime, and is very good at it. She is 19 and wants to go there sooo bad!

That is awesome!!! I hope your niece has a great time!!! That will be a great experience for her!!

sorry for mass email to friends and family but its so much easier and this
keyboard is driving me nuts! I actually managed to find internet here in
Iwaki that's free for up to an hour! cool, eh? so Japan has been wicked cool
so far. BEAUTIFUL country, so clean, and the people are cool... the
stereotypes get solidified and broken every minute of every day! didn't see
much of tokyo unfortunately though i know i'll be back. orientation was long
and tiring and jetlag still lingers. some info was helpful though mostly
just reading you stuff out of numerous handouts. i have a stack of papers
about a foot high to go thru and read and digest. Iwaki is very cool,
luckily not nearly as hot as other cities since we're near the sea,
apparently it's still a ways to the sea though 15 mins. by train then 15
mins by foot. very hot a humid though definitely bearable coming from
Savannah! My apartment is very big i guess for what i expected... doors are
very low... we have one guy who's 6 foot 5!! he's having a time of it! the
apartments have 3 rooms, a kitchen, bathroom area, washer, mini-fridge and
freezer, microwave, rice cooker. my predecessor was a guy so of course
there's not a whole lot leftover but i do have an iron and board, nice tv,
shelf, small coffee table.. we have rental futons but will get new ones in a
few weeks. had sushi today for lunch! wasn:t too adventurous though stuck to
tuna and salmon. was yummy! there's supermarket within 5 mins walk and other
stuff. we all live in same building but living alone in an apt gets lonely.
will set up internet but cant til i recieve my alien resident card and wont
get that for a week maybe. setup bank acct today too. ‚“‚‰‚‡‚Ž‚…‚„ up for
cheap phone service today so i can call the US for 13 cents a minute and
gets billed to my credit card when you use it ... no start up fees or
monthly access fees. they only charge if i use! but again, wont get that
info for another week too as i just faxed application in today. will get a
cell phone too but not for calling as its 3 times as expensive. yikes!
mostly to text other JETS because its only like 1 yen to text. everyone has
one too so its kind of a must. bikes arent as cheap as i thought as its
rainy season here its best to get a rustproof nicer bike if i plan on using
it a lot which is about 150 more expensive (dollars that is)... sorry my
english and stuff is atrocious on this machine as keyboard is way messed up.
gonna go now.. have is way messed up. gonna go now.. have to buy some
necessities like towels for my apartment. promise will call as soon as i
can. have to be at work but we dont do anything but sit there and read.
today was first day but we did things like setup bank acct, etc. i also
registered for japanese classes (beginner beginner which starts in Sept and
was 20 bucks. 10 week class. not much else now. other ALTs here are pretty
cool some are surprisingly annoying and arrogant considering but ill deal
with them. its still crazy to be here but somehow feels natural. its great
to not be the only one though as there are 6 other newbies and returning
ALTS to bother with questions. oh yeah, and our 2 supervisors are the most
AMAZING guys ever! when we ‚—‚…‚Ž‚†to Koriyama with the rest of the
Fukushima JETs to meet our supervisors ours were the only ones to jump out
of their chairs and point to signs with their names spelled out, smiling and
laughing and@yelling. every other table was silent and stern. and they were
OUR supervisors! what luck! they have very good english and are hilarious
and try hard. i can tell its going to be great working with them. they love
to laugh and are so interested in everything about us! i feel so welcome!
although Iwaki is big population wise (360,000) we still get stares
everywhere, more so from children, and smiles and laughter. its very cute
and flattering in a way. the most surprising thing about being here and in
Tokyo is that Tokyo is so much like New York and London with skyscrapers and
buildings and everything and people everywhere... but EVERYONE is Japanese,
which is so very strange. theres just no diversity. its the end of the rainy
season so everything is very green and gorgeous. theres a fireworks festival
Sat we:re going to go to... we went to a bar with DJs and crazy Japanese
techno hip hop music. let me tell you how weird it was to see strangely
dressed Japanese dancing like crazy to techno! i got introduced to about 10
of them and i dont remember a single name! oh well, it was fun.

more later as i have to go! love you all!
shawn