I found out some of my placement details finally! And, when I say finally, I am very lucky. My shortened time frame means that I didn't wait a month or more to find out YAY ME!
I am a prefectural JET in Hiroshima, which I have already mentioned. My more specific details are that I will be an ALT in Onomichi primarily. I will spend three days a week at Onomichi Commercial High School, working with 2nd years. I will also spend one day each week at two other schools, Setoda High School and Innoshima High School.
The area seems lovely. There are lots of shrines and temples and some nice walks. It is right by the water and two of my schools are on little islands. I will probably need a car, I believe, but it shouldn't be too bad, plus my apartment's rent is cheap. I have lucked out a LOT because there are teacher's apartments involved and my rent will only be about 10,000 yen! It's probably going to be small, but that's okay, cheap and tiny is better than expensive and big (or expensive and small).
Things seem really great so far!
I have been following your blog off and on for a while, and I just had to comment on your placement. I was in JET from 2008-2010, and my now husband was in JET from 2007-2010 (we met there). We were both Onomichi city ALTs based in Innoshima, covering Innoshima and Ikuchijima (Setoda's island). You have one of the best placements ever! You will definitely need a car because the buses might not run early enough to get you to your island schools. You've got the benefit of the mainland of Onomichi, which is a Japanese tourist site with good transportation links. There's a nice sized ALT community with local Japanese classes that are well attended and quite fun. And you'll have the benefit of traveling across amazing bridges to some absolutely gorgeous islands twice a week. Even after 2 years, I would just stop in amazement to look at the islands, mountains, and Inland Sea. I'm really looking forward to reading about your experiences. Enjoy your time!
ReplyDeleteWow! This sounds fabulous and I am now even more excited than I was! I absolutely cannot wait to get there ^_^
DeleteHey, I've been looking through your blog over the last few days. Its been a good ready. I'm happy to hear you got your placement with the JET Programme. I will be applying this year and have been following the programme for the last 5 years but have had work commitments that prevented me from applying.
ReplyDeleteOnomichi's a great place, i've spent about 18 months over the last few years living and traveling through Japan. While Onomichi is not the main stop on most first Japan travels, it does have a nice little mountain with I believe what is called the 'path of literature' which you take a cable car to get up to (from memory). http://smitterstoger.wordpress.com/2010/11/27/japan-okayama-to-iwakuni-trip-august-2010-%E2%80%93-day-5-part-a-onomichi/
A blog I wrote about traveling there. I hope you have a great time with the JET programme and look forward to potentially being a fellow JET in the coming future.