A Tourist in Stanley Park

During our seminars the other day, several presenters suggested that photos are good to bring to Japan in that they provide a great way to share where we come from. These images make it easier to communicate where I live, how we live, and what people are like in Vancouver. They will also serve to help me remember where I come from. Given that I have less than 5 weeks left in Vancouver, I am making it a point to pay more attention to where I live and to take lots of photos.

Yesterday, my girlfriend Janice and I took the Skytrain down to Stanley Park to meet a couple of friends. Our intention was to circumnavigate the park in its entirety – which we not only managed, but also made our way along false creek back to Main St. Needless to say, the 6 hours of walking was quite a trek.

It was actually quite exciting to be a tourist within my own city for a day. Not only was the weather beautiful and sunny with a nice breeze coming in off of the water, but the odd cloud would drift in front of the sun to create some great overcast lighting for photos. Of course we saw all of the sites to see along the walk: Coal Harbour, 9 o’clock gun, Lion’s Gate Bridge, English Bay, Burrard St. Bridge, the Plaza of Nations, Science World – I could probably go on. What really stood out for me however, were the people. Janice had made the observation about all of the different languages and accents that we could hear as we were walking. Indeed, I couldn’t name them all here – nor could I even claim to recognize them all. While living and working in Japan will have its cultural benefits, I often forget how rich the cultural diversity is in Vancouver. And although I will learn much about Japanese culture, will Japan seem like a monoculture in comparison? I will have to make a point to bring a photo of one of my classrooms to show to the students in Japan. I hope to impress them not only by the beautiful scenery this city has to offer, but by the people that make it up as well.

JET Programme Preparation Seminars

This is actually a post from yesterday that i posted on my other blog. I'm still trying to figure out which host I like better.


I attended the “2009 JET Programme Preparation Seminar” yesterday and today I went to the “Teaching English in Japan Seminar.” More than anything, this was a chance for us to meet everyone else in the program and to talk to people that have been in the program recently.

At the JET preparation seminar, we learned a bit more about what living in Japan will be like, what to bring, what not to bring, the nature of the work, and such. The essential mantra from the day however, was that “every situation is different” – or “ESID” as they called it. What this means is that there are so many questions about where we will be living, how we will be living, how things work in japan, questions about work conditions, and so on. When we consider how large a country Japan is and the vast number of people in the country, it isn’t possible for the JET Programme to provide answers to these questions that will be applicable to everyone. We did however, hear several stories about certain experiences that related to these issues. So although we never received any straight answers, we did get several scenarios to consider, which helped us to visualize potential issues that may arise, and potential outcomes that we may have to deal with.

Here is a list of the topics that were covered during the seminar:

• Now in Tokyo
• Your first month in Japan
• Money and Taxes
• Culture Shock
• Living in Japan Workshop
• Working in Japan
• General Q&A
  

Most of the topics were covered in a lecture format and presented by former JET participants. The workshops were let by former JETs, but were based primarily on the discussion of current JETs. These were actually quite interesting as we were able to think through as a group through various scenarios that involved cultural differences or conflicts of interest in the workplace.

After the seminars, we went down the street to a pub where the JET programme provided some food and some mingle time. Overall, when I left to go home, I was more excited about going to Japan than ever. Again, the largest benefit from the seminars was the people that we were able to associate with. I met someone who has actually worked in the city that I will be living and working in and was able to get a great list of contacts in the area. I also found out that a few people had requested my area specifically, which for me, gives my destination an added sense of desirability.
Today’s seminars were quite a bit different. We got some more information on our actual working conditions, but again, we couldn’t get too much information as “every situation is different.” We were however provided with several activities and games that we can use in the classroom. Some of the activities were quite good and I would definitely bring them into my classrooms in the Lower Mainland.

If nothing else, these two days have given me a chance to get some scope of what I still need to prepare for before I leave. And once more, I’m definitely more anxious to get to Japan.

A call for Deoderant!

•June 28, 2009 • Leave a Comment (Edit)

I just got back from our JET information seminar in downtown VAncouver where pretty well every speaker today made sure to suggest that we bring our own deodorant because Japanese deodorant is apparently quite evil. Not only is it impossible to get solid deodorant sticks, but the ‘odd smelling’ sprays that they do sell over there are apparently quite ineffective — especially in the extremely hot and humid weather that we will be arriving to in Tokyo at early August. We heard stories about how bad they smell, how expensive it is, how ineffective it is, one speaker even claimed that it will make your skin fall off — although i’m pretty sure that was a joke. Anyway, that was the detail that stuck out most from 8 hours of seminars that we had today.

I’ve actually only got a few minutes here before i head to a dinner engagement, but i wanted to try and get a post in for all of my loyal readers out there — or whatever. But I will be sure to update with more info on the seminars (i’ve got more tomorrow) and maybe a couple of out of focus and blurry photos as well. Having mentioned this, i think that these will be goals for on this blog: that is, to try and make a post every day; and also that i will try to make use of a lot of my own pictures (photography being a bit of a hobby of mine). Anyway, just a short one for today.

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