I finally got an email from my predecessor! She writes the following about my position:

“You’re a city JET, and you have a cute little (about 350sq. feet) apartment a 10 minute walk away from the main train/bus station, shopping, etc. The apartment is also right on a little river that winds through downtown, and your apartment has a balcony   By bus, you are 2 hours from Kobe, and 2.5-3 hours away from Osaka.”

Ooooo, doesn’t that sound excellent?!

“Your main school is called J High School, it’s a very academic school, with a big new school building that is the envy of all the schools in the area (haha). You’ll be there 4 days a week. Your teaching schedule won’t be that heavy (I teach an average of 10 classes a week at the moment), but you may do a lot of grading. I spend a lot of my school time grading papers   J is a 10 minute bike ride from your apartment (the bike is provided by the school).”

Yes! Yes! A bike! That is such happy happy news to me! If there is one thing that I already miss from college (besides all the papers I got to write), it’s zipping around town on my bicycle.

Now, here is there things get neat:

“Your other school, which you’ll go to every Tuesday, is called R (The School for the Deaf)”

School for the Deaf?!

J has a strong exchange program going on with a high school in France. Every 2 years, a group of French high school students comes to visit… …in October 2008, the French students will be coming. I’m sure J will be asking for your help preparing for their arrival, doing some translating, etc etc.”

En Français?! But for sure you are joking! No way! The last thing I thought I would have to do for this job was brush off my ASL dictionary… and the second to last thing I thought I’d have to do was keep up with my French.

Japanese sign language is called Shuwa, and is obviously different from ASL… one more new thing I get to learn, I guess. What a cool opportunity. Paul (currently teaching, renewing contract) advised me to ditch all my preconceived ideas about what the job and the country would entail, so that all my experiences would be that much more fresh and hilarious. That’s a hard thing to do when all I can do lately is think about what’s coming at me in a month.

So, to sum up… Yes! Yes! A hundred times yes!