My Predecessor

Well, the e-mail I’ve been waiting for finally came. My predecessor for the JET Programme has contacted me to let me know what my job will be and more importantly where I’ll be situated. For all intents and purposes, it looks like I’ve lucked out in a very big way. I’ll be in Kobe, one of Japans larger cities and pretty much bang in the middle of Japan. It’s very much a transport hub as it’s on the main bullet train line to Tokyo and just a short half an hour hop via train to Osaka, the largest city in the region. The population of Kobe is about 1.7 million or so and you’ve probably either heard of it due to the beef they produce (the cows are fed beer) or the fact that in 1995 an earthquake ripped through it basically levelling the city and killing about 5500 people. Ominous, no?

I’ll be teaching at Suzurandai Nishi Senior High School, which looks to be a pretty cool school. Hell, they’ve even got their own website which when you dig a little shows up some nice photos of the place. It’s also a two ALT school, which means I’ll have another native english speaking face around which I think will be a good thing. Hopefully aren’t the little bastards I’ve heard so much about when people talk about JET. Oh well, Dan-sensei will lay the smack well and truly down on unruly students. I figure making them eat a tub of vegemite is punishment enough for anything really serious.

The apartment factor looks pretty good as well. For one, I’m living in subsidised housing which means rent is a fraction of what JETs usually pay. I think I’m paying roughly 9,200 Yen a month whereas some JETs get fleeced to the tune of nearly 50,000 Yen. Given my monthly salary is 300,000 Yen and I don’t have to buy a car I think I’ll have build myself a nice big scrooge money pit within a couple of months. Downside are the fact that the apartment doesn’t have running hot water in the bathroom and has a traditional Japanese bath to boot. Means I’m going to have to spend 40 minutes heating water up in the freezing winters, joy of joys.

Anyway, I’m feeling pretty positive about the whole thing at this stage. Talking to people at the orientation today and it seems that most of them are in rural god knows where miles from anything. So, I’m counting my lucky stars at the moment.

Posted in Japan on Sunday July 6, 2003.