Joshua Does Japan

Golden Week, April 29th and May 3rd-5th of each year, is a number of national holidays in Japan that just so happen to fall when the weather is at its absolute zenith. Unsurprisingly in a country which averages the fewest vacation days taken, this is cause for a slight uptake in travel nationwide. Three days off work leading into a weekend was too good to resist, so like everyone else I planned to make the most of it. Things didn’t quite go to said plan. The week started as I had hoped. With the weather hitting a lavish 22 degrees celsius, myself and a few other ALTs from Nasushiobara headed to Nikko, where the famous Toshogu shrine is located alongside various other shrines, temples and lakes. An hour and a half by train via Utsunomiya, the ever increasingly cramped carriages betrayed the tourist appeal Nikko has. By the time we arrived it seemed half of Japan had done likewise. The river that runs between the town of Nikko and the shrines. We made our way the coupl...

I’ve been working in a Junior High School in Japan for three weeks now, and I’ll preface everything I’m about to say with this: this is hands down the best job I’ve ever had. The competition wasn’t exactly stiff; between the factory jobs and administrative/data entry office roles I can’t say I’ve had a whirlwind of excitement in my professional life so far.  However, considering the radical changes to my life, working in both an entirely new environment and country, I expected there to be a longer adjustment period (plus, I had only applied 5 months ago). After a week of initial training, a week to settle in and a week with the local Board of Education, it was finally time to start at my school. I’d already met my co-workers, 10 minutes professionally during my introduction, and 4 hours slightly less professionally during the drinking party and karaoke. In hindsight that’s a terrifying thought.  I was once again ushered into the teacher’s room, shown to my desk and given...

This week I was invited to the welcoming Enkai (party) for new staff members at my school. A testament to how seriously they are taken in Japan, I was invited to the Enkai before I was even informed when I would be visiting the school for my Aisatsu (introduction) - just two hours prior to the Enkai. Meeting someone new can be stressful. Meeting around 40 new people is somewhat more stressful. Meeting 40 new people, most of whom don’t speak your language, with the knowledge that you will be spending a few hours drinking heavily with them before spending the next year working alongside them… My Aisatsu was in the late afternoon, when the few students who were coming in early to prepare for club activities and get a head start on their studies had left for the day. I was ushered into the main entrance, changing into my indoor shoes and leaving my outdoor shoes in a box which was unsurprisingly just a little bit too snug for my UK size 15s. This type of thing becomes a trend when...

So I moved. In fact, I left the UK a couple of weeks ago, having only planned to do so a couple of months prior. When most people decide it's time to move out of their parent's house and start their independent lives, they don't necessarily feel that they need to travel nearly 6000 miles to do so. Not a bad backdrop to have when all you're used to is low rolling hills. Like many other recent graduates yearning for something entirely different to do with their lives, I had been looking into teaching English as a foreign language for some time, though my target destination had flipped between China, South Korea and various other countries before I decided on Japan. Why Japan? A combination of having visited last February, it being a developed and connected country (as opposed to rural China for example) and not needing a TEFL certification pretty much cemented Japan as the place to go. Just before the new year, I decided to apply for a job as an ALT (Ass...