What Things Are Like Up Here
I mentioned in the last post that I was reluctant to say too much to soon about the new environment. After all first impressions are almost always mistaken. In the first couple months I was in Japan, I sent out a lot of e-mails containing a lot of misinformation, writing about things I didn't fully understand and making generalizations about isolated incidents.

But I've been getting asked a lot of questions, and I suppose I can't put this off forever. So I'm going to try and write about the new environment up here, and if I later find out some of my first impressions were mistaken, so be it.

A lot of people have asked about the distance between the new place and the old one. The best answer I can give of course is to just look at the map. I used to be in Oita prefecture. I'm now in Gifu prefecture. For anyone who doesn't have a map of Japan handy: it's pretty far. It took about four hours by Shinkansen (bullet train) to get up here, and if I make the trip again I think it is easier and cheaper to fly. I do hope to be going back to Oita a couple times throughout this year, but it is far enough away I can't just pop down for the weekend.

The new town I'm in is called Godo. In the Japanese classification, Godo is still a "machi" or town, just like my previous home in Ajimu. It is also technically considered part of the Japanese "inaka" or country side. But it is really nothing like Ajimu.

There is one other English teacher in Godo, which is reminiscent of my days in Ajimu. The first couple years in Ajimu it was just me and Ryan, and we kept each other sane. Then it was me and Mike. Now I am in a different town, but still have at least one other English teacher to confide my frustrations in. The difference is that the other teacher, Monika, is of the female persuasion. Which means (and anyone who has spent time in the Japanese country side will be able to see this coming) every time we are out in public together it is assumed we are a couple. I've already began battling the rumors.

Monika, like me, has spent the past couple years on the island of Kyushu. Together we've been making lists of all the things that we notice up here that are different from Kyushu.
Over the past 3 years I've been making a lot of generalizations about "Japan" in general, when in reality my experience was limited to a just a small part of Japan. One of the neat things about moving is I get to discover how many of my generalizations were wrong. Case in point: I used to tell people that Japan did not have suburbs in the sense that we have suburbs in West. There is either the city, where everyone lives on top of each other, or there is the country side, where almost no one lives.

This was true enough in Oita Prefecture, but the town I'm living in right now seems like the suburbs I grew up in back home. In some ways at least. There are no big yards or white fences. However All the luxuries of city life seem to be here, but spread out a bit more and designed for access by cars. There is a shopping mall and cinema complex nearby. Technically within walking distance from my apartment, but designed for access by cars. Monica commented that shopping mall/cinema "just screams `North American suburb'".

I sold my car to my successor, Josh, in Ajimu (who comments about it here), and am driving a company car up here. It is what is known as K-car in Japan, or small compact car. A bit tighter fit than my old car, and a bit slower as well. But on the plus side, a lot easier to maneuver on the small Japanese roads. As mentioned above, the city I'm in is designed for driving, but with a car just about everything is a short distance away. Shopping malls, movie theaters, western restaurants. After living for 3 years in the boon docks, I feel like a kid in a candy store. So many fun places to go to, I can't decide which one.

The job I'm doing is essentially the same job I was doing back in Ajimu, but the relationship between me and the schools is slightly different. In Ajimu I was employed directly by the town board of education. In Godo I'm employed by a private company, which has contracted me out to the schools. So instead of being in a employee-employer relationship, it's almost more like the schools are a client. Which means I'm on my best behavior. Not that my behavior was all that bad before, but I'm more careful about things like using the school computers for personal use. (Which, again, means my e-mailing and weblog updating during the next year might be a bit sporadic. Bear with me).

As in Ajimu, I'm teaching at a Junior High School and an Elementary school. In Ajimu I was juggling 7 schools which I visited. Here I'm just teaching at one Junior High School, and one Elementary school. I'm hoping this will give me a chance to get to know the students better.

The Junior high school is much bigger than any of the schools I taught in at Ajimu, but the students are very friendly. I was thinking that since I was moving into a bigger city in a more centrally located area, being a foreigner wouldn't be quite such a big deal. Not true. In fact if anything these students seem more fascinated with me than my students back in Ajimu. This could be partly due to the fact that the previous Assistant English Teacher had been a Japanese American.

The first few days in the Junior high school were filled with comments about how tall I was, how big my eyes were, and screaming junior high school girls. I've received a bit of flack about this back in the teachers' lounge from my Japanese colleagues. I thought I'd get brownie points for interacting with the students in my free time, but the other teachers have been teasing me and saying, "look at him, he just wants to go out and talk to the students because it makes him feel like a movie star." Or "Look, our very own pop idol Joel."

Although I did not receive quite this much attention back in Ajimu, the first few weeks were somewhat similar. I naively thought that this level of attention would continue for the rest of the year, but the students soon got used to me and calmed down, and some eventually even gave me a bit of attitude. I'm expecting the same will happen here after a while, but it is nice honey moon period.