Tag: placement

Placement Received!

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So I received my placement yesterday afternoon! HOORAY!! Drumroll please!

Amakusa-shi, Kumamoto-ken (天草市、熊本県)　！！

I am so excited to be returning to Kyuushu. I was previously placed in Kyuushu in 2006 for an intensive language homestay over the summer. Because I know you’ll ask, it wasn’t one of my preferences, but honestly, I only filled those out because previous JETs seem to recommend it.

That aside, I’ve experienced some great feedback from Kumamoto area JETs and a few Amakusa JETs currently working in the area. It has only made me more excited to be embarking to this island in the inaka!  Also got a little info from a contact: Group A arrivals to the area are going to fly from Haneda to Kumamoto on the 31st after orientation. So I’ll get to spend a little more time in the air! ;)

I am a little phased by the idea of getting a car (and Japanese Driving License) but hopefully my predecessor will have one to hand down to me via transfer. Either way I’m determined!

Now to begin buying Texas souvenirs for my new acquaintances, coworkers, and Texas-themed rewards for the students!!  This part actually makes me glad that Texas is such a well-recognized (and stereotyped) state, lololol!

It’s getting pretty exciting ^___^ Now the items on the waiting list are to hear from my CO (contracting organization) and pred (predecessor). Whee!! Now I’m weirdly excited for acronyms & highly anticipated emails!

テンションアップ！！

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Hey everyone, how’s it going? Great Friday! There was ボーリング at work, then I came home to my cat child and watched The Office finale episode, and I’m about to head out to see the new Star Trek movie! :) :) Can’t wait. 

First things first though. My FBI report got to the consulate this week and all my paperwork is in for them! Now all I’m waiting on are my residency certificates from the IRS, which is something I’ll hand over to someone at my CO in Japan. Been reading up a bit on bringing medication to Japan as well, and hearing about the やっかん証明, basically for bringing any meds that last for a duration longer than two months. I think I’m going to do it, just so I can have enough of what I need (which isn’t much) until I can find a replacement or something. 

But here’s what is really on my agenda to write about. A week or so I was cool with waiting for placement and stuff. Yeah, of course I wanted to know, but I was at a point of ‘It’ll get here when it gets here.’ 

Well, throw that out the window! Someone asked about plane tickets/placement in our Google group and the coordinator said ‘June. If you’re lucky.’ D: So I was a little distraught that it would be a bit further in the distance. (Was still okay at this point, though a little shocked by the timeline.) And then someone referred us to this little gem, which appeared in the JET forums:

Placement release history:
2006 – 2007 JETs: May 16th ~
2007 – 2008 JETs: May 16th ~
2008 – 2009 JETs: May 22nd ~
2009 – 2010 JETs: May 24th ~
2010 – 2011 JETs: May 15th ~
2011 – 2012 JETs: June 15th (US) ~
2012 – 2013 JETs: May 22nd~

Of course, it’s pretty unofficial, but dates were collected from the forums where previous JET’s around the world started posting their placements.  The key factor here, the thing that has my テンション at a super high level right now, is the fact that info has been pretty consistently released in the latter end of May.

……. IT’S MAY 17TH. 

Whoa town. My head was spinning when I put it together.

Since then, I’ve relaunched myself into research mode for the third time since being told I was to be interviewed and again when I was shortlisted. People might ask why we get so worked up about it, but for me personally, being able to look at the map and see where you’re going makes it that much more real! I’m sure it’s the same for quite a few new incoming JET’s. 

So now I’ve got one eye on the forums and another eye on my email. I’ve even got a finger  constantly poking F5 on my email window. So for those of you who think you might be crazy or too excited because you’re doing the same thing, I know that feel bro. 

And I think it’s okay to be a little bit manic. On this occasion. ;)

Waiting for Placement…

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It’s been a little over a month since I was notified that I was on the shortlist to participate in JET and my excitement still has not quelled. But my anticipated mission does not begin until July 27th! What to do in the meantime? What to doooo?!

For now we wait for placement information, and I know it’s going to be coming any day (it has to be right?), but now I’ve had about three weird dreams about it.  So the wait is more torturous than anything else… particularly waiting on the documents as well.  The FBI & IRS docs should be well on their way (or being processed), so other than the paperwork everything is going well. Mainly because I sent off my paperwork as soon as I was notified!

Aside from that I find that I am getting increasingly immersed in Japanese and Japan again. For a couple of years I took a hiatus from most things related to Japan. You might wonder why I did that, but I think I came to a point where I had to firmly evaluate the idea of me and Japan and figure out whether that relationship would help me achieve the things I’d like to in life or not. Another contributing factor was the fact that many people who are into Japan seem to have only one thing: Japan. To flesh it out more clearly, if you were to take that aspect of their personality away from them, there would be a blank canvas. I didn’t want that. I find that the more well-rounded a person is the more intriguing they are, and there are endless combinations. So, after a series of fluctuations and permutations I slowly but surely heard Japan calling out to me again.

And so here we are now full circle.

76 DAYS TO GO!