Culture & Education

I stayed in Japan for five years, but when I first arrived I didn’t know if I’d even survive the summer. JETs touch down in their new home at the height of the heat, when the air shimmers, paper fans flap weakly and everybody wilts in 35°+ heat.
Arriving in Japan was like having many of my life skills turned back to zero. After functioning comfortably for years in Ireland, all of a sudden I didn’t know how to read my post, identify half of the food I was eating or locate anything at the supermarket. It was unsettling and humbling, but also incredibly exciting to be learning masses of new things every day, such as the correct way to bathe at an ‘onsen’ hot spring, or why people slurp their noodles.

I was fortunate to be placed in the heart of Osaka, a raucous merchant city that’s so crazy about food that it has a word, ‘kuidaore’, for ‘eating yourself bankrupt’. I lived near a dozen other JETs and a short bike ride from my senior high school. Before I arrived inJapan, being an ALT was the means to live in Japan, not the purpose. But I was soon utterly charmed by my students, teachers and the role itself. Having kids cheer when you
enter a classroom never gets old, and watching students grow in confidence and English ability over time is incredibly rewarding. It helped that I was learning Japanese from the ground up as they were wrestling with English, so I could definitely relate to their language struggles.

Deciding to recontract and stay for the maximum three years in Osaka was an easy decision, but as my time there came to an end I realised I wasn’t ready to leave Japan. So I applied for a transfer and landed a position as a junior high ALT in a town in rural Yamaguchi prefecture. Moving into the countryside was like arriving in Japan all over again: there was another learning curve to negotiate as I adjusted to the rhythms of ‘inaka’ life. I’ll never quite get used to trains and buses that only come on the half hour instead of every three minutes, but my spacious flat is only ten minutes from a beautiful beach, the air feels fresher and my bike commute takes me past serene rice fields and beautiful mountains views.

I started an English conversation group for adults through one of my schools, and now I have a lively group of 15 retirees who love to chat and are always giving me veggies from their gardens. This is one of the great aspects of the JET Programme: placing you in a school plugs you into your community and gives you many opportunities to experience real Japanese life as you adjust to a whole new culture.

Now I'm a bowing machine, I take my shoes off even in my own flat, I love my rice cooker and I’ve slept on my tatami floor on a futon for years. I know why people get the urge to climb a mountain on the first of January, how to cleanse myself before I enter a shrine, and why you rarely see a room of four tatami mats. I’ve joined tea ceremonies and had a go at calligraphy and flower-arranging. I’ve attended a myriad of festivals in all seasons. I’ve made visits to shrines and temples on the first day of January, I’ve thrown beans and worn an ogre mask to mark Setsubun in February, I took my kit off for the Naked Man Festival, I mucked in at a tug of war festival, and I paid my respects to Ebisu, the god of commerce, one cold January morning in Osaka.

I've received chocolates on Valentine’s Day and given chocolates on White Day. I’ve eaten picnics under fluffy cherry blossoms in April. I’ve hiked out to see the leaves change in autumn. I’ve skied in Gifu and snowboarded in Fukui. I've swum at beaches and rafted in rivers. I've slept in temples and risen at dawn for prayer chants with monks. I've done my share of glorious nude communal bathing. I’ve travelled east to lose myself in the
glittering metropolis of Tokyo, west to wander the ancient and spooky forest that inspired Princess Mononoke, been all the way north to the natural beauty of Hokkaido and way down south to the tropical wonders of Okinawa and Ogasawara. I’ve ridden more trains, bullet trains, country buses, ferries and rattly ‘mamachari’ bikes than I care to remember.

I’ve stood on volcanoes, weathered rain and typhoon seasons, been shaken awake by quakes. On trust I’ve eaten octopus, squid, fish eggs, sea urchin, flying fish, offal, horse, whale and a lot of things I couldn't identify. I love to sit around a nabe hot pot with friends in winter, and now my idea of comfort food is a steaming bowl of ramen or a crispy tonkatsu’ breaded cutlet.

I don’t pretend that I’ve turned Japanese, but living here has taught me to appreciate Japan’s rich culture as well as treasure my own, and it is this lesson that I will bring home with me, along with memories of the many friends, teachers and students who have made my time in Japan so rich and memorable.