一年目

ichinenme - my first year

I applied to JET as a very tired senior at Smith College. Year after year, I'd look for summer internships in panic as I tried to keep up with school work. I would go to the Career Development Center many times a year to look for jobs and get guidance. I was so worried about my future, that I often couldn't enjoy 'the present'. Then senior year came, and I had very little to do to fulfill my major requirements. So, I took courses that seemed like fun. Two of them were foreign language courses -- Italian and Japanese. I was crazy to think this would be fun. It made me busy, but I still loved learning them. I think these two languages must be one of the most beautiful languages in the world. My interest in Japanese grew, thanks to great teachers. And JET seemed like a fun think to do. 'Fun' was a new thing to be considering for me. I spoke with career counselors and professors and came to the conclusion that I'd like to try it.

I applied, interviewed and got wait-listed. After waiting for about a month after graduating, I got an email saying I was accepted. I was excited. I would be going to Japan, and I'd be able to hear, speak and learn this beautiful language and I'd be able to do something I didn't have many chances to do -- travel. I thought I'd be put in one of my top three choices of location -- Tokyo, Yokohama or Chiba -- all in or near Tokyo. I was excited about being in the cool city of Tokyo, able to see and use all the cool little inventions that you'd only find in Japan.

I later found out that I was placed in Fukushima -- a four hour bus ride or a 1.5 hour bullet train ride away from Tokyo. I became nervous. Looking at pictures and reading the emails sent to me by my predecessor, all I could see were green rice paddies. Growing up in NYC and having spent my high school days in the suburbs of NY, I wondered how I'd get by in Fukushima, in the little town of Motomiya that I'd be sent to. A year suddenly seemed like such a long time and Japan started to feel like an even more foreign place to me. But I still decided to go.

Before coming to Japan, I met three friends at the NY orientation for JETs. These three girls were also wait-listed like me, also Asian-American and also placed in the countrysides of Japan. Although we were all sent off to 3 different islands -- me in Honshu, Amber in Shikoku, and Sheenae and Lily in Kyushu, we still had so much fun in Tokyo during orientation. We experienced our first konbini and kaiten zushi together. We bonded over various things and were finally sent off to each of our respective placements, only able to see each other while traveling or communicate to each other by phone or email.

We Fukushima JETs were sent here by bus. I complained to myself and to my roommate Sandhya, "Why can't we take a shinkansen? It's so much faster!" I began to see more and more rice paddies as we drew closer and closer to Fukushima. Then we were to meet our respective supervisors and do our very first (of MANY) self-introductions in Japanese. I came worried and timid and with a very bad cough (summer cold). On this day, I met Itagaki-san and Ito-sensei -- two people who would end up being a very big part of my life here.

Itagaki was a warm-hearted and funny woman. She was always worried about how young I was. She always asked if I was OK or if I was homesick. She worked so hard to speak to me in English. She was also the first and only person for a while who could make me laugh. I am now without her because she is on maternity leave, but I'm so glad I had her for half a year. Then there was Saito-bucho, a man who always asked if I was having all three meals a day. My Board of Education was very tiny but overflowing with some of the most warm-hearted people I'd ever met.

On my second day, I was to start English speech contest practice. Only for a little bit. I was told to walk to school alone. It's only a seven minute walk to my school, but it seemed like it was miles and miles away. It looked like I had to walk by miles and miles of green rice paddies to get there. I asked Ito-sensei, "How do I get there?" He answered, "It's less than 10 minutes. You can see the school from your balcony." I wondered if he was right.

I walked by a few (not that many) rice fields, and reached Motomiya First Junior High School. My first student was Yaoita Shoko. She was a friendly 9th grader (sannensei). She had big friendly eyes and a big friendly smile. We were barely able to communicate with one another. But through our broken English and broken Japanese, we were able to build a teacher-student friendship through our shy smiles. After teaching her on that day, I began to look forward to all the other friendly smiles I'd soon get to meet each day as I walked by these rice paddies that would change each season.