Joetsu, one year later

It's that time again--JET placements are coming out, and in the next few days 11 lucky people will be frantically scouring the internet for information about Joetsu. I wrote this post a little over a year ago, before I came to Japan, and apparently it's come up in Google searches about Joetsu, so I figure this is as good a time as any to update those impressions now that I've been here almost a year.

(I also posted these pictures from Google Earth, which I now find hilarious because you know that "OMG, snow" picture of Takada? That's clearly beginning-of-winter snow. That's PUSSY snow. Two months later, shit gets real.)

Um... anyway, I may or may not continue to indulge in this kind of good-natured hazing, but the truth is that I love it here. I was more or less bang-on with my attempt to describe the layout in that old post: there's a town center (Naoetsu is north, Takada is south), and outside that, miles and miles of rice fields and some teacher housing. Joetsu itself isn't total inaka; there's a JUSCO, a Uniqlo, a movie theater, restaurants, a coffee shop, three McDonalds, a nice park, some okay bars (though the regular Saturday night crowd is nothing to write home about). There are also a ton of big box stores, which might surprise you if you've never been to Japan; apparently suburban sprawl and architectural eyesores are not unique to my homeland. It ain't San Francisco, but it has more or less everything you need.

And then there's the rest. There are still vast parts of it that I haven't explored (a project for an upcoming weekend, I think), but Yoshikawa, where I live, is a more or less typical example. It takes 30 to 40 minutes to get here from town. There are a few shops (conbini, pharmacy, gas station) within about 10 minutes' walk, and a bit farther out there's a 7-11, a sake brewery, and a nice little onsen with a restaurant (typical teishoku fare). There are two mountains, Yoneyama and Okamidake. The nearest supermarket is about a 10 minute drive away, in the next ward. Other than that, Yoshikawa consists entirely of rice fields. 

I probably haven't sold anyone on it with what I've said here, but Joetsu can be a great place if you let it. I was never a nature type before I got here but watching the changes in the rice fields throughout the seasons is an awesome thing (awesome as in "full of awe," not "totally tubular"). The mountains, the coastline, the snow--all of them are absolutely stunning. We're no more than an hour away from awesome snowboarding (by that I DO mean "totally tubular"), and Nagano City is a lovely little city (with real shopping, jazz bars, Starbucks, Thai food and a famous temple) that's about an hour and a half away by train. 

It has been a pretty intense year, but Joetsu has been good to me, good enough that I've signed up for another year. Bring on the snow!

Workshops they would offer at Tokyo Orientation if I was in any way representative of this year's JET noobs

• Life as a halfie yonsei JET: Getting used to making really long explanations involving visual aids and family trees
• Financial Matters for REALLY STUPID people
• Sorta-mid-level-intermediate-but-actually-you-skipped-everything-in-the-textbook-that-had-to-do-with-numbers-or-kanji Japanese
• Advanced Cockblocking
• Inaka Life: HELL YEAH!

誕生日おめでとう

Last year my birthday was my first day of Japanese class at Soko Gakuen.* I was in Beginning 3.

This year, my birthday was the day of LA's pre-departure orientation for departing JETs. I got to dress up,

and eat a fancy lunch with people from my region in Japan (including two going to Niigata Prefecture).

Sometimes it doesn't feel like I'm moving forward at all in life, but sometimes I'm surprised by how far I've come. 25 days till Japan.

*I highly recommend Soko Gakuen for anyone wanting to learn Japanese in San Francisco! The books they use (Basic Functional Japanese and Situational Functional Japanese) are a little ridiculous, but the class sizes are quite small (7-12 people) and the teachers are great. They're quite reasonably priced, and not nearly as overwhelming as the 5-unit classes at CCSF and SFSU, for people who want to learn but aren't able to devote their ENTIRE LIFE to studying.

Whenever I get a card from someone I haven't spoken with in a while, I can usually tell before I open it if my parents have already told them I'm going to Japan.

My aunt makes beautiful cards like this one by hand. I think I'm going to use the crane ribbon as a bookmark.

The package also included some stationery to keep in touch. First assignment: write to my dad to get him to stop laughing at my aunt.

Japan is becoming more and more real every day. I just received a welcome letter from the Joetsu Board of Education--including me, there are 8 new ALTs coming to the city this year and they haven't figured out our specific assignments yet, but they said it should come in the next week or so. Pre-departure orientation is in two weeks (on my birthday!), and I'll be putting in my two weeks' notice at work soon after that. I'm buying clothes for school and starting to think about packing. Everything is coming together.

A couple more pictures of Joetsu

This is a street in the town center, Takada. Don't even try to tell me that this is not the most awesome goddamn thing you have ever seen in your entire life. I know you're jealous.

A shrine, also in Takada. From what I hear all the JETs in the area are a good 30-40 minute drive from Takada, but it's sort of a central meeting place.

This is on the beach toward Itoigawa, the next town south of Joetsu.

I found out that I'll be teaching at one junior high school, and probably also visit several elementary schools on a regular basis, which sounds pretty much perfect!

Joetsu-shi, Niigata-ken (上越市, 新潟県)

(I copy-pasted that kanji from Wikipedia. Come on, you think I know how to write that on my own?)

I just received word of my placement on the JET program. I'll be in Joetsu, which is a city in Niigata Prefecture.

Niigata is the only prefecture I requested, and it's where my great-grandparents were born, so I'm super stoked! I'm not sure I really have a feel for what it's like yet, but these are some of the things I found out:

• The "city" is really an amalgamation of various towns and villages that have undergone mergers to become one municipality. I can't seem to find a good map or photos, but I believe there's a central urban area and then some smaller villages with lots of nature and countryside in between. The population is just over 200,000, but the total area of the city is larger than LA, bringing the population density to 212 people per km². (For comparison, Folsom is 318/km²; San Francisco is 6,688.4/km².)
• Niigata-ken in general is known for rice farming, excellent sake (made from the rice, duh), SNOW and onsens (hot springs). Joetsu-shi seems to be no exception.
• Joetsu is about 2.5 hours from Tokyo by shinkansen. That becomes 5 or 6 hours when you take a regular train or bus. Shinkansen is pretty expensive but I'll be making a lot so maybe I'll be able to pop out to Tokyo for the weekend once in a while!
• In addition to the summer fireworks festivals and springtime cherry blossom festivals (which are common to most places in Japan), Joetsu hosts a Lotus Festival, a sake festival, a firefly festival and a snow candle festival. 

• There are also temples, castles, an aquarium and a planetarium. It sounds like there's a lot to do!

I still haven't gotten in contact with my predecessor and may not hear from them for several more weeks, so all the specifics of my situation (apartment, rent, car) are still up in the air. Chances are I'll be teaching middle or elementary school, though.

Here are a few extra links:

Joetsu city English website
Joetsu tourism guide
Joetsu region guide on the Niigata JET page
Joetsu Wikipedia entry

JAPAN JAPAN JAPAN

A little over a year ago I was browsing Facebook and came across a photo album by an acquaintance from high school who I never talk to. His younger brother was leaving on study abroad for Japan, and there were pictures from goodbye parties and airport photos, and I suddenly realized that every single time I heard about someone leaving on study abroad--but especially if it was a Japanese American friend going to Japan--I felt incredibly, incredibly jealous. I'm a little embarrassed that instead of having a more positive reason, I basically decided to go to Japan for fear of feeling this way every time someone mentioned going abroad for the rest of my life, but that was when I started looking into study abroad options. When it turned out that the Japanese programs didn't work very well with my major and minor, I found out about JET, waited, applied, and a year later here I am.

(Pro tip for those applying next year: You will have a story like this too. Don't put that crap in your application essay because no one at the embassy gives a shit. Save it for a blog post when you get in so your friends and family can act like they care.)

So most of you know by now that I've been accepted to the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Program and am going to Japan on July 25, in a little under three months. I don't know yet where I am going, what grade level I'll be teaching, whether I'll be driving or what my housing will be like (though I know I'll live alone). I do know that my airfare to Japan will be paid by JET, that I'll spend three days at orientation in Tokyo before traveling by bus, train or plane to my future home, and that I'm going to meet some fucking awesome people who went through every step of this crazy process with me in person for the first time. I also know what my pay will be, and let me tell you I am less stressed now than I have been since I was laid off from my office job while still in school.

I'll remain Hella Angeleno in spirit, but I'll have to think of a new name for my blog while I'm in Japan. I seriously considered "Not a White Guy in Japan," but I think that may have seemed like a much better idea after three beers.