by Emily Law

Thoughts on Happy Eating in Japan: An Introduction.

“Lunch?” repeats the JET alumnus, leaning forward and cocking his head. “Well, kyuushoku school lunch wasn’t too bad,” he relays, “It was balanced, at least.” A slow, sheepish grin spreads across his face and crinkles his eyes. “I mean, like… it was a lot healthier than my usual instant curry sauce on spaghetti dinner,” he shrugs.

“Grooooosssss,” we all shudder collectively. Everyone is thinking, “Nope, that won’t be me. I just survived an eight-month long application process; I’ve been hand picked by the Japanese government to take part in the development of young minds. And I’ll be earning a nice chunk of cash. I totally, totally have this. Cheap beer and cereal are a thing of the past.  Hell, I’m a JET. I can take care of myself.”

“Plus,” I add, with all the naïve disdain of a twenty-three year old, Chinese-Italian, bourgeois-bohemian San Francisco food snob, “it’s not like it’s hard to whip up a batch of tomato sauce.”

Within a few weeks of arriving to Japan, I came crashing down from my Garden of Eden. In the Garden, there was time, space, variety, and vitality; in real life, I had none of these things. There were no more pots of bubbling tomato sauce or loaves of homemade bread; now, I was living on pre-made onigiri and canned coffee. I felt beaten, body and soul.

It’s easy for new residents of Japan to suffer from a series of factors that de-value the quality of their sustenance and, by extension, their well-being.  There’s the small space: the lack of counter, the tiny electric stove, and everything so close that cooking becomes an exercise in avoiding bruises.  The unknown: grocery shopping is a harrowing experience, and if there’s variety, it’s in the twenty mysterious, indecipherable types of seaweed on the shelf.  And the time and energy: we want to be good foreigners, to share our talents and to absorb, sponge-like, everything around us, only to come home each evening and find that the fibers of our beings have been wrung to exhaustion. Good food supports a happy person, and Japan is a food paradise. But how to get there often eludes us.

This column is about getting a taste of that food paradise. It’s about getting there within the dizzying confines of space, language, culture, time, and fatigue. I’ve tried and learned a lot in my year since coming to Japan. I don’t have a set recipe for culinary happiness, although I will drop you a cake recipe here and there. I only have a thirst for information, a need to experiment, and a deep love for food.

There’s that, and a strong awareness that we are, after all, what we eat.  Because while I’m sure that the life of Mr. Instant Curry Spaghetti isn’t too bad, I bet he gets some mighty terrible stomachaches sometimes.

Thoughts on Happy Eating in Japan: One Tool Wonder, The Rice Cooker, Part I.

“”… the rice cooker can bring a kind of liberation for women,’” remarked Shabnam Rezaei, former resident of Tehran, Iran, to the New York Times.[1] Iranian culture, she tells us, requires that a woman be able to make a perfect, fluffy dish of rice. With its flawless execution, and a preset function, the Persian rice cooker enables women to turn out beautiful tahdig no matter what. But what these women really gain is time. They simply press a button, and walk away.

Whether a constantly traveling lecturer, a busy mother, or a kitchen-less student in Tokyo, the rice cooker, or suihanki in Japanese, frees up time, energy, and tedious dish washing. Rice cookers work on moisture sensors, and therefore won’t burn the food they’re cooking, enabling you to wander off worry-free. The machine will sing a little song when it senses the food is ready, and then switch into warming mode. Greg Beck, former CIR for Hiroshima-ken, stated simply, “It’ll finish when it knows it’s finished.”[2]

Greg’s remark comes to us mid-video, as he whizzes around his kitchen showing us how to make something “yaki-nikku-y” in his electric one-pot wonder. He can do this because it’s possible to cook almost anything successfully in a rice cooker, and often all together. Greg makes tender marinated meat, apples, and rice. I make chocolate cake.

But as those Persian women know, no matter what novelties it can whip up, the rice cooker turns out a knock-your-pants-off, perfect, basic bowl of grain.

The ratio for white rice is one-to-one. Rinse your rice, throw it in the non-stick rice cooker bowl, add water, hit “start.” Go catch up on your email overflow. Come back to effortless, steaming bliss.

Brown rice, or genmai, takes a ratio of one part rice, two parts water. If you don’t want to bother with measuring, stick your index or middle finger in the bowl until it rests on top of the rice. Add water to just past the first knuckle for white rice, and just past the second for brown.

Almost all food follows the principles above. Make it exactly as you normally would, just don’t put it on the stove (or in the oven). Today, though, is about basics: the way a rice cooker functions on the simplest terms; the basic benefits of a cooking tool that requires no attention; making the undeniable staple of a Japanese meal. Or for that matter, making the staple grain of any culture’s meal. I wax nostalgic over my rice cooker oatmeal and Southern corn grits.

You’ve probably made rice in your rice cooker dozens of times. Today is rice, but next week is beans, the week after, cake. So tonight, give that plastic gadget a new respect. It might just be the key to your liberation.

[2] Picker, Luc-Yan. “Video: Rice Cooker Cooking.” Wide Island View, March 16, 2011.

JET Alum Natalie Oram in Russia

Hiroshima-ken JET alum Natalie Oram answers some questions about what she’s been up to post-JET and how the JET experience has helped her. If you’re a JET alum and would like to answer this questionnaire, please email the editor at wideislandview (atto) gmail (dotto) com!

Name: Natalie Oram

Age: 28

Location in Japan while on JET: Tadanoumi, Takehara-shi, Hiroshima-ken

Years on JET: 2006-2010

Currently living in: Moscow, Russia

Current occupation and jobs held since leaving JET: EFL teacher for BKC International House, Moscow. http://www.bkcih-moscow.com/

Highlight/funniest part of your JET experience: Far too many wonderful moments. I think one of the funniest moments was last year at the Miyatoko Festival in Tadanoumi. On the last day, at the Miyatoko Shrine on the beach, the priests stand on two tall towers and throw cardboard squares to the crowd. On the squares is written a prize. Most of the prizes were normal, everyday items like soap and beer. However, there were also three giant rice cakes to be won. If you win one of those you have good luck for the year. Tadanoumi is normally a very peaceful fishing village, but not when those cards go flying. At one point my friend, Rachel Gilmour, had her hand trod on when she went for a card. It was worth it though because she won the giant rice cake! Afterwards, Rachel was treated much like a celebrity walking down Tadanoumi’s main street carrying her rice cake like a baby.

How the JET Programme has benefited you career-wise: I learned to be very, very patient, especially when I was a prefectural advisor and dealing with all the red tape. After four years in Japan, very little gets my goat. This is very helpful, especially when dealing with Russian tweens. Through The JET Programme I was given the opportunity to live in a tiny town where very few people spoke English. This helped me to grow as a person and survive on my own in a foreign country. While I may be living in a big city now, few Russians speak English, and so I have learned to help myself. Basically, the same golden rule: speak to the old ladies/oba-san/ babushkas; they know everything about everything and are always keen to help.

 What transferable skills JET gives you: Would the Typhoon Game count? This is probably the best skill I learned from JET. I have taught it to teachers here and they, too, have found it very successful.  

What advice you would give to current JETs for getting the most out of the JET experience in order to further their career afterwards: With every new contract promise yourself you’ll learn a new skill or improve your CV, whether it be improving your Japanese, teaching at camp, or giving workshops.

 Any tips for job hunting after JET? Don’t wait till after JET. Look into your options months ahead and try to gain the necessary skills BEFORE you apply for your new job. A lot of EFL contracts start in August or September, so you don’t have much time after your JET contract is over. Moreoever, you will feel less stressed and happier come July when you know, more or less, what you are going to do post-JET.

JET Alum Jason Letts at a park in Kyoto

Hiroshima-ken JET alum Jason Letts answers some questions about what he’s been up to post-JET and how the JET experience has helped him. If you’re a JET alum and would like to answer this questionnaire, please email the editor at wideislandview (atto) gmail (dotto) com!

Name: Jason Letts

Age: 27

Location in Japan while on JET: Shobara-shi, Hiroshima-ken

Years on JET: 2008-2010

Currently Living in: Williamstown, MA, USA

Description of Current Occupation: Since leaving JET, I’ve been developing a career as an author of young-adult fiction. That usually means sitting in my pajamas and writing stories for months at a time, but it also means hearing from readers, which can be a lot of fun. You can check out my books on Amazon here!

Highlights of your JET experience: I had so many great experiences. Dancing through the streets with my coworkers at the Yoitoko Festival. Yuki-Gassen with my fellow JETs. My glorious, glorious elementary school in little Saijo. Cycling through the mountains of northern Hiroshima-ken. Taking trips and trekking all over Thailand and Okinawa’s tiny Kerama Islands. The friends I’ve made and the people I keep in contact with. The things that even though they were tough made me think. Big fat grapes from Miyoshi; you just can’t get them in the States!

How The JET Program benefited you career-wise: Every one of my stories has utilized some small part of my experience in Japan. Having that kind of familiarity with another culture has done a lot to give my work a more diverse, globalized perspective. I also got my start writing fiction while I was still on JET. It was a great way to spend quiet work nights and get out those little frustrations in a productive way.

What advice would you give current JETs for getting the most out of their JET experience in order to further their careers afterward? In addition to studying Japanese, I recommend doing everything you can to get yourself involved in the culture. Pay attention to what’s around you and how people are behaving. Travel and check out other cultures. There’s really always something new to learn.

Another important thing is to pursue your own interests and passions, whether they be artistic or what. Keep developing your own skills. The job market when I left was a horror show (and it remains so now). I applied to so many jobs, and it just didn’t matter how good I was because there were always hundreds of other candidates. If you’ve got a secret “in” somewhere, that’s great, but it might be helpful to think about what you would do if you had to make your own job. That’s what I had to do, and right now I’m doing a lot better than I would’ve been if I’d gotten any of those jobs I’d applied for. Plus, I’m doing what I love.

Any tips for job hunting after JET? I’d love to say something about networking and being persistent - and those have been helpful for me and my writing - but the job market for me was just a brick wall. Don’t just apply for your dream job. Get the job search started in earnest before you’ve even left JET. Because JET is a temporary position, you should always have a rough idea of where you want to go afterwards, and that can help get you thinking about what you need to do to get there. The most important thing you can do is be creative when it comes to applying your skills and imagining what you can do.

JET Alum Joe Meadows

Hiroshima City JET alum Joe Meadows answers some questions about what he’s been up to post-JET and how the JET experience has helped him. If you’re a JET alum and would like to answer this questionnaire, please email the editor at wideislandview (atto) gmail (dotto) com!

Name: Joseph Meadows

Age: 31

Location in Japan while on JET: Hiroshima-shi, Hiroshima-ken

Years on JET: 2007-2010

Currently living in: Plymouth, MI U.S.A.

Current occupation and jobs held since leaving JET: Quality Engineer for Fujitsu Ten of America.

Highlight/funniest part of your JET experience: I think the highlight
would be climbing Mount Fuji with AJET and watching the sunrise. I
remember looking down the side of the mountain in the morning light
and seeing all the folks that didn’t quite make it in time snaking up
the path.

How the JET Programme has benefited you career-wise: Not so much JET, but the whole experience of living in another country has given me a better sense of perspective that people who have never left their own country don’t always possess.

What transferable skills JET gives you: The transferable skills you learn on JET are hard to articulate in a CV or in an interview. The best skill I can think of is the ability to be truly flexible and adaptable. Many others may claim to have this, but haven’t always had to prove it like you do when you come to Japan.

What advice you would give to current JETs for getting the most out of the JET experience in order to further their career afterwards: Learn Japanese, but don’t expect this skill alone to land you a job when you return to your home country. A second language is a really great skill to have and one that looks really great on your CV.

Any tips for job hunting after JET? Clean up your Facebook profile and Google yourself to make sure you don’t have something horrible pop up. Get an e-mail address with you name in it so you can put it on your CV. (i.e. NO cutiekittyunderpants@hotmail.com) Make a nice professional looking LinkedIn profile that lists all your good points. After that, network, network, network.

This is a hectic time for schools around Japan, in both the inconsistency of day-to-day work, and the fundamental changes that occur. Some of these changes happen without the prior knowledge of ALTs, even though they greatly affect our jobs and often we may want to give a lot of input. It is the culmination of a working year, and simultaneous end and beginning of a three year trek of schooling for the junior and senior high school students. This transitional period may seem like limbo, but if you didn’t have a particularly good schedule or a tough time in classes last year and you don’t act now, the next school year may turn into purgatory.

What can ALTs do? The books you will use for each class are usually decided in late fall/early winter and have already been sent in to boards of education to be approved, with or without your knowledge. The “syllabi” has also been sent in, but this is not concrete. They are often just a completely arbitrary list of the months of the year written next to a facsimile of the table of contents of the textbook(s) for that class. The number of hours per week per class has been decided. The yearly schedule is probably mostly finished and someone who probably knows nothing about your situation is creating the general weekly schedule, of which only half of the school weeks will follow anyways.

Three syllabus books, divided by year, sit atop a pile of papers over 7 cm thick (all photos taken by Matt Nelson)

All duplicates or completely unnecessary papers were amassed for one school year to show how much paper is wasted on one teacher. The syllabi are included in this pile because they literally had no real importance, even though we supposedly followed them. Can either problem be changed?

Despite all these things being “prepared” beforehand, probably without your input, things are not set in stone. In fact, it is far from it. This transition time brings about the most change to an ALT’s working conditions. Much of it is out of your control: who is transferring, which teachers teach which classes, which classes you will teach, how many students per class, etc. But this time is also the best, and perhaps only, time to actually affect a lot of change in your work.

The key is to have patience, honesty, and consistency. If you demand things, you will lose. Learning how to plant the seed of an idea and letting others help you see them through is key to any job, but perhaps none more than that of ALT where you have very little “real” authority in the work place. It may technically be the end of the school year, but it is also the beginning of the next school year and is the preamble to everything you will do.

Before we can set the right mood and implant our ideas, we have to do some preparation. Cleaning and organizing your desk and materials better will help your day-to-day routine run smoother and be more consistent. This will help your mental health as well as probably your working relationships.

Matt’s desk after a good cleaning & re-organization

Most ALTs don’t get enough feedback, so you have to ask. Do your research by talking to teachers about classes you taught together and the materials you used. What worked, what didn’t? This should have already been done, obviously, but now many teachers have more free time to discuss these things, and a lot of teachers may be surprised when you give your feedback about a class.

An evaluation form may be your best option. The ones schools make are definitely lacking in any real value. You could even do this with students and on a regular basis to improve your classes throughout the year. Make it simple and concise. Get help creating the Japanese questions, but make the answers multiple choice or scalable so that you can interpret the results yourself. Or, make a simple English one as another tool to teach English. You may need to get permission first, so make a rough draft and show someone. They may also give you some useful advice about it.

Once you’ve got feedback, take the materials, activities, and lesson plans that worked in a class and organize that into a folder so you can follow it again. Ask for materials, syllabi, class rosters, and calendars as soon as possible so you can prepare in advance.

One advantage ALTs have is that we probably know which classes we will teach. If it is different from last year, you probably already know. If you don’t, you should probably ask. Use your experience in the same class to be an important resource for the new year planning and use this time, when other teachers are waiting to find out which classes they’ll teach, to prepare for the classes you know you’ll teach.

A clock showing Japan’s school year schedule…

In reality, we can’t change anything except ourselves. Think about small things you can personally do to improve like participating outside of class more, smiling more, not saying certain things, doing your work differently, making a healthier bento. Again, talking to colleagues may reveal something they would like you to change, and it may be a personal revelation for you. Making a new school year’s resolution could be very helpful. Writing it down always makes it stronger, and you could even ask colleagues to help remind you.

But if you really want something to change, that feedback you got is your first step. And since ALTs don’t have much authority in school planning, you will have to use some seemingly indirect tools that may be unfamiliar to you. No, you probably can’t change some fundamental things, but you may not need to.

Consider the physical environment you teach in. Often ALTs end up teaching in designated Language Labs (LL Rooms). These ironically named death traps often have unusable computer screens and or TVs built into desks that cannot move and are made for herds of 40 students or more. None of these rooms tend to be really made for conducing communicative and active language lessons. If you know there is a better room for your class, now is the time to talk about it.

Or consider the outline of a class. You would like to see more emphasis on grades given for daily vocab quizzes or homework. Or maybe you want to start an ongoing project. Simply put, you want to start something that was previously non-existent or under-emphasized and you want it to be more consistently implemented. Start planning now and discuss it with your colleagues. If you’ve already gotten feedback about that subject, you may have evidence to support new ideas.

Maybe you just don’t teach well with a particular teacher because you do too much of the work or not enough. Perhaps something happens in class that you can’t cope with and your previous attempts at communicating your frustration have been less than successful. If you don’t speak up now or plan ahead for future instances those bad habits will continue, and they get harder and harder to break.

In all three of these cases (and there are many more examples of things you can change), your first step will always be to get feedback and prepare. How you discuss it with teachers outside of meetings will be up to you. You may not even know when some of the meetings are which determine the next year of your working life, but if you express interest in the planning they may ask you to come, or at the very least you can ask them to convey your ideas to others at such meetings. Prepare clear examples or an outline of what you are suggesting happen or an alternative solution to help facilitate discussion, and if they seem skeptical use feedback from others to back it up.

Not having direct authority may seem difficult, but some tricks can make it easier. First, if you talk to one teacher beforehand about an idea you have, they are more likely to voice their support and agreement. Second, if they taught that class with you they may also give helpful input that you may not have thought of. Third, your JTE colleagues do have authority and may know how to deal with certain people that you cannot. If it is a superior, for example the head of the English Department, all the better! It is their job to communicate between departments, including those in charge of planning and scheduling, and to help address issues and grey areas between personnel.

If something really worked well last year and none of the teachers are teaching that class again, your colleagues can explain that activity to new teachers and even insist it be implemented again. If you still have problems with a teacher after repeated attempts to compromise, a much more senior teacher is in the position to confront those issues and try and talk to the other teacher behind the scenes. You probably won’t see a complete 180° turnaround, but something is better than nothing.

Go slow and certainly don’t be spiteful. Teachers may be truly surprised when they hear about a class if you just state the situation, rather than stating the “problem” or how you don’t like it. You don’t need to be emotional and, again, feedback will help back it up. They will draw their own conclusions and may be shocked by the difference between what they thought was happening and reality.

Obviously, the more people you talk to the better. Consensus is important, and even the most stubborn of people will (usually) concede. Be aware that you may be the stubborn one; you just don’t know it yet. The manifestation of previously unknown inter-human relationships at work and their reactions, good or bad, may surprise you. Someone maybe agreed with you all along, but was just scared to say anything. You’ll definitely learn a thing or two about how to handle people better and about compromise. And if a request or idea does get shot down, at least you’ll know the reason why it can’t/won’t be done, which is probably the most important thing you’ll learn.

No matter the age, language, or culture, human relations and communication are still the most important things for a good working environment and improving problems there. And if you want to improve the situation you’re in, this is the time of year to communicate your wishes and intentions because no one can read minds (I think). Just be prepared and use subtlety. In reality, ALTs usually have little direct input in schools, so the give and take of working with people is important to get things done. Most of this has nothing to do with Japan; it’s called LIFE and happens at virtually every other job. No matter the issue, while it would have been prudent to start this process earlier, this is the time of year to really start addressing areas of concern by talking to teachers and laying the seeds of change. Otherwise you’ll never get out of limbo.

Vounteers at the Sanbien Children’s Home Christmas party.

by Dan Moeller

1. Tell us a little about the orphanage. Where is it? What kind of kids attend? What ages?

The orphanage is called Sanbien Children’s Home (子供の家三美園) and it is located on the north side of Onomichi, right next to Kurihara Kita Elementary School (a school I teach at).  There’s a whole range of kids that live there, from four years old up to 17 years old.

2. What is your relation to the whole group? Who’s in charge?

Who’s the organizer? Me.  I don’t like to think of myself as being in charge of Kokoro Hiroshima (the Hiroshima branch of Smile Kids Japan). I just happen to be a guy in the right place at the right time. I liaison the orphanage staff to set up visits and events, coordinate with the volunteers to put our monthly visits into action, and I do my best to keep up with the kids, just like everyone else.

3. How long has the volunteer program been running?

I most definitely need to give a shout out to Smile Kids Japan. http://www.smilekidsjapan.org/lang/en/about/

Smile Kids Japan is an ALT-run organization that originated out of Fukui in Fukui-ken and has grown to 18 programs, all running independently across Japan, but all based on the same principle: reaching out to the kids in communities we ALTs live and work in.

That being said, the Onomichi branch just turned a year last month. Our first visit was February 2010 and it’s still going strong thanks to the volunteers.

A finished craft project volunteers completed with the kids.

4. Who looks forward to the program more, the kids or the volunteers?

It’s really hard to say who looks forward to the visits more. Obviously, the volunteers get a lot out of it. I mean, c’mon, we’re on the JET Program, in one of the most beautiful countries in the world, and are in the neighborhood of half a dozen more beautiful countries a weekend trip away. My point is there is plenty to do other than play with kids on a Sunday afternoon, especially after maybe seeing them all week long, but that doesn’t matter to our volunteers. I’m not far off in saying that a good number of the volunteers, including myself, build their month and week around that one visit that rolls around every 30-odd days. There’s nothing else like it. The kids just want attention, whether that’s someone to catch a ball, give a piggy-back ride, draw a few pictures, or talk manga with.

The more I think about it, though, it’s probably the kids who look forward to the visits. I teach all the kids at two of my schools. I see them weekly and every - not kidding - every time I go there I get bombarded with questions of when we (the volunteers) are coming next. This comes from kids that don’t speak a lick of English, can’t sit still in class, and who maybe have shown a distinct dislike towards me before I started visiting their home. These visits have changed a lot for them, in the classroom and at home.

5. One visit a month…does this really help these kids?

One visit a month does wonders. The anticipation that builds up from one visit to the next is dumbfounding. I’ll have kids not pay attention in class just to ask me when we are coming back and what we’re going to be doing. That right there is how I know we are making at least a bit of a difference. There’s expectations there, excitement. Not all these kids are parent-less. Some have families that are unable to support them for a variety of reasons (sickness, money, etc.), so they need to live in the orphanage.

And it’s not a place out of Oliver Twist. It’s a nice facility with a great staff, but still what it comes down to is that these kids have been, at some point in their lives and in some shape or form, abandoned by people that were supposed to be there for them. By no means do our volunteers replace family. That’s not the idea at all. We do, however, provide as much of a community and consistency as one visit a month allows. We give out birthday cakes every month. We hand out prizes for competitions. We have clothing and toy drives. We have Christmas parties with Santa suits and carols. There’s a lot that we can’t do for these kids, but by giving a little time and a little effort we give them at least one bright spot every few weeks. It’s nice to know someone is out there.

Working on another craft project together.

6. What are the current setbacks of the program? For example, can anyone help out?

Unfortunately, the orphanage we work with is a little strict on who can be a volunteer. I’ve made them aware that there is a larger community of volunteers (Japanese, non-JET, etc.) out there that wants to participate. However, the orphanage seems very comfortable with the fact that ALTs are forced to have a background check before coming over, something a friend of a friend may not have. Also, as far as Japanese volunteers, Kokoro Hiroshima welcomes volunteers from the community as well, but, unfortunately, we are at the mercy of the guidelines the orphanage lays out for us, as we are their guests.

“As of yet we haven’t received an OK for Japanese volunteers…but it doesn’t mean I’ve stopped asking.”

Other setbacks revolve around funding. We are a volunteer organization and independent from the larger Smile Kids Japan in that we don’t receive funding from them. We run on donations made by volunteers and members of the community. Everything received goes into the visits we make. Paper, crayons, paint, balls, balloons, and cakes are all paid for by our volunteers and charitable donations. Unfortunately, that means that we don’t have a consistent flow coming in for every visit, so it can be a little tricky some months.

7. I’ve attended a few times. These kids are crazy. A few are in desperate need of some role models and adult interaction. Are there any other volunteers in contact with these kids?

Not that I’m aware of. There seems to be a rotating staff there, as I see a few new faces every time I visit, but I believe they are indeed working there. There are few regular volunteer groups in Japan, which is part of what makes Kokoro Hiroshima so special.

A cookie tower made by volunteers and kids at the orphanage.

8. I heard there’s a video. Is it viewable anywhere…maybe online?

There is a video. Unfortunately since these are technically students and we are JET teachers, I don’t know if it’s going to be made available any time soon.

9. Speaking of videos, the Horror Film Festival had a great showing. Nice video, by the way. The food and beverage proceeds went to Sanbien, right? How much did you guys pull together?

Yes, the Horror Film Fest was a hit, and we did have a bake sale there to help raise money, with all proceeds going to our activities with the kids. What we got will help us for a visit or two, but I’m interested in holding another fundraiser at the next film festival this summer. I don’t know the details yet, but donations are ALWAYS welcome outside of fundraisers.

10. There has been some buzz going around about a Saijo location.

We wanted to have two locations within Hiroshima-ken, especially since a good amount of the volunteers come from the Hiroshima City side of the prefecture, but that fizzled out and right now we’re just focusing on the one.

11. Who could we contact to get some more info or get involved? Donations, even?

Smile Kids Japan is active in several different locations all over Japan. So, check out the website to get in touch with a coordinator near you. As for Onomichi and Kokoro Hiroshima, you can contact me personally if you want more information, want to volunteer, or are interested in making a donation. The more, the merrier.

Contact Info:

Chris Rudski
Kokoro Hiroshima
Cell: 080-3885-2675
Email: kokorohiroshima@gmail.com

A short documentary about Onomichi City.

Attendees at the 2011 Conference for Returning JETs (Photo credit: Dan Moeller) 

NOTE: The reference numbers following each paragraph refer to footnotes at the end of the article.

by Dan Moeller

For some of us, we’re currently packing up (mentally) and getting ready to be shipped back into the oh-so-inviting economy of our home countries. I’m sure the recent Returner’s Conference in Yokohama loomed in a lot of returning JETs’ minds as a great opportunity. The problem is that attendance was limited to 500 participants and not everyone had the time and money to attend. For me, the round-trip shink fare and hotel were enough to cause me to get all my meals at a nearby konbini. It’s a shame attendance to this conference is such a burden; it was a three day professional bonanza chocked full of important career tips, interview and resume help, as well as all-around guidance. It’s a great thing I have an outlet like the Wide Island View to let everyone in on ten golden nuggets I garnered from the event. Drum roll please…

10. Microsoft Word – Take Word off your resume. Knowing Word these days is like knowing how to breathe! No one is impressed by simple word processing skills anymore and, in fact, such skills are generally expected. What is important? Skills that are directly applicable to the position you’re applying for. If you’re shooting for that Times journalist position that opened up, it would be relevant to mention you know your way around Adobe Premier and most video cameras, and that photography has been your hobby for the past ten years (assuming that you do really know these skills).  (ref. 6)

9. Required Experience – Don’t vote yourself out of a job because you don’t meet the “2+ years experience” requirement. The position description includes all the desired traits of an ideal candidate. People are hired that don’t meet all of the requirements. The question now becomes why are you qualified. Explain what sets you apart from the next applicant in your cover letter/email. Surely, your JET experience counts for something more than “experience teaching large groups of uninterested and/or shy students whose progress left something to be desired.” Hint: I’m not going to work this one out for you.  (ref. 4)

8. Japan Stories – “Oh no! Here comes another one of [insert name here]’s Japan stories!” If you haven’t heard this yet, you will. It’s very alienating going back to your home country with a brain bursting full of years of experience in Japan with no one to really listen or understand the comments and stories you want to share. You can suppress the stories and general Japan reflection in a way that silences it forever. Or, you can find outlets – local AJET groups, travelers of the world, friends with experience abroad, etc – to cultivate your Japan memories into something I like to call “growth.” Inevitably, you will meet people with mindsets not yet exposed to some of the enlightenment that we have unconsciously accumulated over the years. These different mindsets may vary from odd biases to stark racism. The solution is to breathe, take your time, and answer thoughtfully.  (ref. 5)

7. Volunteer – It’s a giver’s game. The time you put in on, for example, the board of the local AJET team will surely be noticed and rewarded in some sort of holy/karma/pay-it-forward occurrence. Really. This could mean just getting your name out there, paired with a little “I give my time to the community” line on your resume. This could also mean bumping into your future reference for landing your dream job at the embassy. Also, the experience can be priceless, and is most always transferable.  (ref. 1,4)

6. LinkedIn – Get a free account. The effort put into building a profile is quite minimal compared to the exposure, references, networking, etc.  You profile is a virtual business card and can be linked anywhere (even your resume and email signatures). Also, considering your future employers will be perusing your page be sure to include any of your (professional) websites and/or websites you have contributed to. LinkedIn is also a great resource to ask for an informational interview from an employee of a company you’ve had in mind. This is as simple as a 15 minute chat over a cup of coffee (which you sprung for, of course) while you barrage this person with all of the questions you have about this company. This person may like you enough to run your resume to his boss. Wait, did you forget your resume?  (ref. 1,4,6)

5. Internet Dirt – 45% of employers use social media sites to research job candidates. 35% of those employers found reason not to hire said candidates. Don’t be a part of this statistic. Do an extensive Google, Yahoo, and/or Bing search for your name in all its forms. Clean up your Internet dirt before you begin your job search. It would be a shame to be wholly qualified for a position and then not get it because of those pictures of you and your drunken buddies throwing slabs of meat at the beer pong losers in the frat house basement (although there was a perfectly reasonable explanation, I just…can’t…remember…it). Don’t think that something of yours can’t be found online. It would also be advantageous to begin monitoring your comments and tweets.  (ref. 1)

4. Flat Lining Resumes – How can you shock them back to life? The first method is qualitative. Google “resume action verbs” and you’ll find a plethora of websites listing these strong words, search-able by category. You will find words to help you say exactly what you mean, but in a gripping tone. The second method is quantitative. Which is better: “Started English club and pen pal system” or “Founded weekly English club involving 25 students and 10 teachers; initiated 50 student pen pal exchange program with three schools in Mexico”? Surely you were much more interested in the latter description. Finally, be sure to list anything that you have done or achieved as the “first, youngest, only, or best” to do so.  (ref. 2,3)

3. PAR – It is a good idea to already have thought about your answers before being questioned at an interview. Hop on Youtube and catch up on some of the numerous interview question videos available. Of course, practicing these questions implies that you know and can reference your resume with ease. The PAR (Problem, Action, Result) comes in handy when the interviewer hits you with a tell-me-about-a-time-you-encountered-a-tough-problem question. This is the time to wax about your problem solving history. “I was having trouble with the TPS cover sheets so I invented an email system that bypassed it. All eight of my bosses commended me on my good work and I was elected employee of the month.” You should have three to five of these experiences memorized to some extent (although I’m having trouble rounding up three from the dusty corners of my brain).  Ganbatte! (ref. 2)

2. Your References – When you hear “your references” I’m sure you have two or three candidates in mind. Stay in touch with them! You should communicate with them more than just the email asking them for the reference letter. Maybe you haven’t talked to them in years. Find out what recent papers they wrote. Are you sure they remember you? Shoot them an email catching them up on your current life. Ask about theirs. Tell them why you loved their lecture on “The Mating Habits of Earthworms.” The point is: a busy professor will not drop what they’re doing to help a student they can’t remember. If you’re looking to beg a Japanese colleague whose English is not perfect (or not present at all) it seems the best way is to write it for them and let them review it and sign it. (ref. 1,3)

1. Walk Me through Your Resume – This is a very common line used by interviewers. They are testing if you know your facts and if you can really sell yourself with a good attitude. Although you should give them an ascending chronological account of your education and experience, don’t just spout out what they can read from the document in front of them. Bring life to your resume. You should make it seem as if every action was a choice you wanted to make (rather than a friend’s suggestion that seemed slightly better than your current job at the time). I chose “A education” and learned “B skill,” then I chose “C job” and gained “D experience,” etc. Every action should shoot right into the next step up until now, in which this position/grad program is the next logical step. (It is the next logical step, right?)  (ref. 2,3)

I hope you give these suggestions some thought and put some to use. My information comes from these conference presenters (please peruse their helpful sites!):

1. Ryan Hart – Kibble & Prentice Sales and Communication Services Coordinator

2. Vince Ricci– VincePrep Founder and Owner

3. Leah Gowron– Monterey Institute of International Studies Director, Alumni Relations and Annual Fund

4. Jim Weisser – PBXL Inc Co-founder and CEO

5. Adam Komisarof– Associate Professor at Reitaku University (thoughtfully, slowly)

6. Justin McCurry – Guardian Correspondent

(Photo credit: Matt Nelson)

by Kelly Jackson

I never thought that I would need a credit card while in Japan. Before coming to Japan I had a debit card from my local credit union that could also be used as a credit card. Since I’d heard that Japan was a cash-based society, I was confident that I would be set. Yet, in my third year on JET, it became necessary for me to buy an airplane ticket with a credit card. I immediately applied for one with my local bank of three years and was promptly rejected.

Fast forward a year. I tried again to apply for a credit card, but this time with au, my cell phone company. By chance, when I tried (and eventually failed) to get a cell phone at Softbank in the same period, I was also was asked to sign up for a credit card. A few days after my Softbank rejection, which stated “Something came back on the credit check,” I received a letter in the mail from a credit card company. It stated in the politest keigo possible that I was not eligible for a credit card. Does this sound familiar to those of you who have tried (and failed) to get a credit card in Japan?

Well, I’m going to tell you how I eventually got mine, and thinking back it was quite easy. After re-reading the letter I gave the card company a call. I stated my query and a day or two later I received a call from a supervisor authorized to answer my question. She asked if I had applied for and been rejected for a credit card before (no), if I had any outstanding loans (no), and assured me that my foreigner status had nothing to do with their application criteria.

So, why was I rejected? Her answer was “There’s no credit record of you in Japan.” She offered to put the Softbank card application through, but I told her to find the au one (my application from a month earlier still had no response). A few weeks later I was the owner of a brand-sparkling-new au Jibun credit card.

The main point is that you shouldn’t give up easily. If you are not approved, call up the company and ask why. It could be something as simple as not having an established line of credit in Japan. You never know if you don’t ask. Furthermore, obtaining a credit card should have nothing to do with your visa status. When I was approved I was in my fourth year with one year left on my visa. If you are going to a bank, ask to speak to a supervisor. If they say that you can’t be approved, ask them who has the ultimate decision on approval, and get that person’s phone number and call them!

I am certain that this advice sounds simple, and I hope that getting approved for a card turns out to be as relatively simple a process for you as it ended up being for me. Good luck!

(Photo credit: Matt Nelson)

Note: “Health Corner” is a recurring feature on the Wide Island View, with tips and ideas being shared by different writers. If you have any tips on health-related topics - anything from physical exercise to nutrition to reducing stress, etc. – please get in touch with JET Life Editor, Matt Nelson, at matthew.nelson.j [at] gmail [dot] com. We’d love to hear what you have to say!

by Fiona Jenkins

You wake up at 4 am. You eat vegan food, and only before noon. The two pieces of fruit you can eat during the rest of the day are a treat. No drinking, flirting, touching, reading, listening to music, exercising (except walking), or even speaking for 10 days. Does that sound like heaven or hell, a prison or freedom?

One man’s prison is another man’s freedom; one man’s hell is another man’s – or in this case a woman’s – chance to experience a little piece of heaven. In 2005 I took my first course as a student of Vipassana meditation and I returned in 2006 as a volunteer working behind the scenes, mainly in the kitchen. Both experiences were amazing, and if you have 10 days to spare I highly recommend you do the same. I can describe my own experiences, but the only way to really know what it is like is to do it for yourself!

What is “Vipassana meditation”?

First – what it is not – it is not a cult or brainwashing, and it is certainly not a retreat from reality or a holiday! It is hard work, but extremely rewarding. According to the Vipassana website, Vipassana means “seeing things as they really are,” and it was taught in India more than 2500 years ago as a universal remedy for ills, an “Art of Living.” There is a wealth of information on the website www.dhamma.org, where I watched a video before going on my first course. I have to admit, I was quite apprehensive beforehand, but the speaker seemed so normal and made so much sense that it reassured my skeptical side.

Vipassana is a technique for training your mind, “self-transformation through self-observation.” You will be alone with your own mind for nine out of the 10 days. If that scares you, maybe you should ask yourself why. If you are prepared to look deeply into something for nine days, you can start to get to know it and how it works. I was worried that I would be bored. I certainly was not. I ended up finding that observing the sensations in a tiny part of my body for hours on end was absolutely fascinating! Ten days is both a long and a short time. I felt that I revisited every single room I had ever been in during my whole life. The longest conversation I had for nine days was with a cat that lived near the centre and obviously enjoyed the peaceful vibes! There was little talk during my time as a volunteer, just as much as was needed to get our jobs done. I have never before or since worked in such a harmonious environment. It was inspiring.

Students practicing Vipassana meditation at Dhamma Santi in Brazil (Photo credit: Luiza)

Getting Started

You can apply online for a course, which is free. At the end of the course you can make a donation in order for someone else to be able to benefit from the same teaching you have received. You can decide how much you think your experience was worth.

There are centres for learning the practice all over the world. In Japan there are centres in Kyoto and Chiba. When I was a volunteer in the UK centre we had some students whose first language was not English. They listened to the daily lessons in their own languages and I would imagine the same arrangements are in place everywhere. Basically, language is not a barrier to learning the technique; you can take a course wherever you are in the world. After your course, there are also groups where you can practice with other course graduates dotted around the world. I even tracked one down in an anonymous apartment in the suburbs of Moscow when I lived there!

At the centres in Kyoto and Chiba there are courses running regularly (one or two per month), but you should plan a couple of months in advance because the courses get booked up. You are sitting and meditating for about 10 hours a day. I took my courses in mild weather. I would imagine sitting a course in a Japanese summer or winter would add another dimension and challenge to the experience!

Students learning Vipassana meditation in Chiang Mai, Thailand (Photo credit: The Philosophy of Photography)

Pretty much any adult can attend, although the course is not recommended for people who have experienced bereavement recently, or for people with psychiatric problems or those addicted to drugs. Pregnant women are well supported and encouraged to attend. Children’s and teen’s courses are run in some places, but these do not follow the 10 days or the same rules. The technique taught to them is like a taster rather than the main course.

Why would you not want to know yourself better, how to live better, and how to be happier? If you feel that you cannot “spare” 10 days ask yourself why. There are 365 days in every year. In perspective, 10 days is a very short time, though many people don’t have a lot of work leave. If you are in a transitional period, perhaps between jobs, it may be a great opportunity to take the course and discover yourself.

If you are interested in finding out more, but are apprehensive, there is unfortunately no such thing as “Vipassana lite.” I am sorry, but you have to do the 10 days to learn the technique. However, if you are curious or just looking for an introduction to a form of relaxation, meditation, and mind-body training, yoga is a good start. For 10 minutes of guided relaxation at the beginning and end of each class, I highly recommend the yoga taught by a British couple, Carla and Andrew, in Hiroshima City. Class is held on Thursday nights from 6:30 to 7:30 and Sunday mornings from 10:30-11:30. They have both trained in Vipassana and bring their awareness of the technique to their yoga.