Fukushima Prefecture, Japan Video Introduction

As of August 2nd, I will have arrived in Japan and begun living and working here for the course of one year. I have never been to Japan before. I do not speak Japanese. I still don’t have a place to stay. All I can bring with me from my home that I’ve lived in for the last 25 years, must fit into two pieces of luggage and a carry-on. I don’t know anyone that I will be living with or working with. I could go on, but this list of unknowns will only grow deeper into a pit of daunting anxiousness and nervousness.

Instead, in the short time that I have before I leave (which is growing shorter by the minute) I am trying to build my understanding of Japan and where I am going. I’ve been doing my best to learn the language. I’ve “Google-Earthed” my main high school. I’ve made contact with some of the JET’s living in Fukushima Prefecture. I’ve emailed questions to my program coordinator. I’ve visited the Fukushima website. I feel that it is important that I do as much as I can to prepare myself for my experience in Japan. I am pretty sure that I will be overwhelmed and maybe even pushed beyond my comfort threshold. But I think that these cultural shocks will stem from the element of surprise. I figure that the more that I try to learn about Japan, the less there will be to surprise/shock me. I know that I will be shocked, but I also think that I should be able to have some control over how shocked I will be.

Included in this post is a link to a video sent to me by someone who is currently living in Iwaki. It is a promotional video of some kind that looks a bit dated, but interesting in that it gives me a sense of what I might be seeing in the region in which I will be living for at least a year. The subject of the video is actually about Fukushima Prefecture, but it does have a small portion that features Iwaki Beaches.

Where I'm At

I’m not sure who’s actually going to read any of this, but I should probably start off by mentioning that I am really excited about going to Japan this August. I leave August 1st from Vancouver and arrive in Tokyo on the 2nd. We’ll be having 3 days of conferences there before we get shipped out to our respective prefectures. What’s important for me here is that I get to go to Tokyo. I’ve heard that one can start driving from the downtown core for 30 minutes in a strait line and not reach any boundary to the immense skyscrapers and masses of people. Eventually however, I will end up in Iwaki, which is in Fukushima prefecture and is located about 200 kms north of Tokyo on the Pacific coast. Here I will be teaching at Iwaki High School as well as two others that I don’t know the names of yet.

I’ll be going to Japan via the JET Programme, which has involved quite a long process to get into. The deadline for applications was last November and I didn’t receive a letter for an interview until sometime in January. Then the interview was in mid February and I didn’t find out that I was accepted until sometime in April. Upon being accepted, I still had to wait until the end of May to find out where I had been placed. I am still waiting for them to arrange a place for me to stay. It will hopefully be within biking distance to my schools, as this will probably be my primary mode of transportation.

In the meantime, I have just over 5 weeks left in Vancouver before I fly out. The school year has ended, so I have very few obligations over the next little while. There are a few seminars that JET is hosting this weekend, and then another the day before we leave for Japan. Other than these, my major preparations will involve figuring out what/how to pack and learning as much Japanese as is humanly possible in this short amount of time (which has proved a very humbling experience and also one that I should probably devote more time to). I think that I will also try to finish watching the Shogun television series – actually, I think I might watch some of it now.

About this Blog

Hello readers,

This blog will hopefully serve as a record of events leading up to and including my experiences living and working in Japan. I'm not too sure what sort of format this blog will take, but it will include lots of postings and photos -- and hopefully, several comments from others who may be interested in such things.

Bryce