I’m Moving to Japan

I have absolutely no idea where in Japan, but I have been accepted and I am going on the JET program.  I leave July 26.  I am excited and terrified.  I have a lot of work to do in the next 3 months to get ready.  I am currently cleaning out my closet.   Ja, mata!

The Best Ads Ever

Rarely do advertisements leave me laughing out loud.  Once in a while, maybe a chuckle.  But, there has only been one brand that has consistently made me stop in my shoes and laugh.  That is Tui beer in Dunedin, New Zealand.  Walking around town I would look forward to the days they painted new ones.    I took some pictures of them when I thought of it figuring I’d do something fun with them later.   That never happened.  Until now.  Enjoy.

Smokey The 1992 Toyota Corona

The JET interview process forced me to do some reminiscing about my former travels abroad. I spend four and a half months abroad in 2007 in Dunedin, New Zealand and I rarely have talked about it to my friends until recently. Obviously no one understands what your experience is like, but I feel like being removed from it for a couple of years now has made me realize what I learned and how crazy some of the things I did were. Until I have new adventures, I am going to tell you about some of my old.

One thing I failed to understand before New Zealand was that old cars in the US don’t just get destroyed when owners are done with them. Oh no, that would be wasteful. They are exported to other countries, fixed up, and used for many more years. Never mind the black clouds of exhaust, these cars run until the wheels fall off.

Upon arriving in New Zealand, I was surprised to discover that the most cost efficient way to travel is to buy a car. My intimidated self did not think I was capable of driving on the other side of the car and road, so I dismissed this idea. Until I looked up bus fares.

You really haven’t lived until you’ve car shopped in a foreign country. Okay, that’s not true, but it is a unique experience. The first approach I took with a couple of friends was to buy a car directly from an owner. This seemed like the safer and more logical choice. My friend Elena and I found a flyer for a Chevy Pajero for sale and we decided to check it out. The owner lived at the top of a giant hill on the other end of town. We spent an hour walking uphill and met the owner, Mao. He introduced us to the car (which we also nicknamed Mao). This car was HUGE.

Elena drove it around the block and fell in love with this car. Being the level-headed one of this duo, I convinced her it was gas guzzling and completely impractical. It ran on diesel for goodness sake!  Not to mention how wide the car was and we already had to get used to driving on the other side of the road. She became obsessed, however. Finally, I refused to go in on it and so did the other 2 in our group.

The shopping continued. Elena dropped out of our car group and went in on a car from 1988  that didn’t have power steering.  Nikunj, Katie, and I continued on in search of our dream car. Next, I found a man named Colin, who sells cars for a living mainly to stupid Americans. Colin was a nice man and he really knew how to sell cars. I could only drive an automatic, so the options were fairly limited as to what he could sell us. He brought a car over to me that I had to test drive. I didn’t want to test it without my friends, but they weren’t around and he wanted to sell it right away since there are lots of stupid Americans that can’t drive a stick like me. It was a 1992 Toyota Corona (like the beer) with a hatchback. I got behind the wheel and realized I’ve been living in the wrong place my whole life! The other side of the car means that the shifter is on the left side and I’m left-handed. This was meant to be. The trick to driving on the other side of the car is to hug the center. Always always hug the center. The tendency is to think you are on the left side of the car and drift right. The car drove to my satisfaction and I verbally agreed pending my friends were okay with it. They were okay with it relieved that Mao was out of the picture and we purchased the car.

One thing we could have never known test driving it around the block was that when this car goes about 50-60 mph, it smokes. Not just a little, it blows smoke out the exhaust pipe like you wouldn’t believe. The first time this happened was when we were driving it up a large hill. The car wouldn’t give all it could when this smoke happened, so it was scary because we thought it was going to die. We pulled over wondering what on earth we should do. We ended up just waiting for a while and then getting back in and continuing on. Often times, we would get out and look at the car engine to see if there was anything we knew how to do. But, we never did.

We called Colin and told him about this little smoke issue and he agreed to get it fixed for us. The lovely thing about countries outside the US is that people won’t just give you the finger. They are obligated for the first couple of weeks to fix something that doesn’t work as promised. We ended up getting a whole new engine, however, by whole new I mean whole new very used. That did help the severity of the smoke problem, but didn’t fix it.

We had to sell this car at the end of our stay. We posted fliers everywhere and finally got a bite from a fellow student. We accidentally let it slip that we called the car Smokey, but claimed it was because of the color. I’m confident when he sells it, he’ll do the same.

The JET Interview for ALT

When I was preparing for the JET interview this week, I googled “JET program tips” and “JET interview” and was amazed at how many people have blogged with help in this interview process. One guy in Canada is a former participant/interviewer and even posted what they are looking for on the other side of the table. I feel like I should do my part and post my interview.

I interviewed in Chicago at 9:30 am, which is the first slot of the day. I was the second to arrive and was immediately greeted by a very tall American man, who checked me off the list and showed me to the coat rack. I found the bathroom and starred at myself nervously for a little while. It is important to be early to this interview (half hourish) because in Japan 15 min early is on time I’m told. I met two other interviewees when I went back to the waiting area who were watching the video they have set up. I heard it was important to watch the video because they may ask about it in the interview to make sure you were early. That didn’t happen to me though. I ended up chatting with the other interviewees and the reception guy more than watching the video. I also read that the greeters take notes on the applicants and give them to the panels later. It’s important to talk to them and make a good impression.

Like clockwork, at 9:30 on the dot, a man took me and the other 2 9:30 people into the room. The room was partitioned off into 3 panels. I took my seat across from 3 people – 1 former JET, 1 Japanese historian, and 1 man who works for the consulate I think. The JET shook my hand, the other two shook my hand and bowed greeting me in Japanese. I sat down and immediately they started asking me questions in Japanese! They were basic – like have I ever been to Japan? What kind of food do I like to eat? When did I study Japanese? Where? It completely threw me off because I had never heard anyone applying for the ALT job having to speak Japanese in the interview! I answered the questions calmly and ended up making everyone laugh when answering what kind of food do I like to eat with “gohan ga suki desu.” Translation: I like rice.

They switched to English at that point and said that was a new element they added to gauge where people’s Japanese is at. They said it was really good I was following all their questions. I put on my application that I had elementary levels of everything, so if you did that this your warning! I told them how rusty I am since it’s been 5 years since I’ve spoken Japanese to anyone! It actually was a good ice breaker and the rest of the interview was very relaxed.

They asked:

Motivation for the program:
Why do I want to go to Japan?
Why the JET program?
What do I find interesting about Japanese culture?
Do you have preference for location?
Do you have a backup plan if you don’t get in?

Situational questions:
Give a self introduction to a class.
If you had to give a lesson on a holiday 5 min from now, what would you do?
If a family member was really sick or dying while you were in Japan, what would you do?

Culture shock:
How would you deal with homesickness?
What is your greatest fear (about the program)?
What challanges did you face in NZ (insert study abroad country)?

Of course, do you have questions for us?

I won’t know if I got in for another month, but I feel pretty good about the interview. I think it does help to be relaxed and just be yourself. It seemed really fast and pretty painless. I know they try to break you somehow…I think that was the language questions for me.