There were days while I was in Japan that I would spend indoors, even if the weather was nice. I would be on my computer or watching TV or reading books in English. While these are not bad things, these were things I could be doing back in America.
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A few weeks before returning to America, I was contacted by one of the Japanese teachers from my hometown in Iowa. She told me that she was going part-time and that the other 3 hours of Japanese were going to be available.
Excited, I applied for the job, even though I had not passed the Oral Proficiency Interview in Japanese that was required by my university in order for me to obtain my teaching license. I had taken the test before I left for Japan, but had only received Intermediate Mid. In order to pass, I need to be at the Advanced Low level. This list is in no particular order, just things that I miss about Japan that I cannot get/do here in Iowa.
"The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery." --Mark Van Doren Oh man was I bad at it when I first started. I didn't even know what I was supposed to be doing!
Sure, my predecessor(s) left me examples of what they did, but without the connection to the textbooks to see which grammar point they were using or a play-by-play of how it was supposed to go, I was totally lost. And it didn't exactly help when my JTEs gave me the half smile and head turn when I asked what I should prepare for class. Remember: when disaster strikes, the time to prepare has passed. --Steven Cyros I think it was during my first few months in Japan that the news brought up the concern of the biggest typhoon of that year.
“When you arrive at the destination, never forget where the journey began.” The journey to Japan was truly an escape. From my marriage. "Let those who wish have their respectability--I wanted freedom, freedom to indulge in whatever caprice struck my fancy, freedom to search in the farther most corners of the earth for the beautiful, the joyous, and the romantic" --Richard Halliburton I guess that is what Japan was to me--freedom. My whole life, I have lived with someone else, always had to be conscious of how I behaved and how it would affect them. In Japan, I lived alone. Well, not necessarily. I mean, I had Rodger and Ariana just next door, across the balcony, and Meagan was down the way, as well as all the other teachers in the building, but I was living in an apartment by myself. No roommates, husband or family. I did buy two goldfish after a few months, though--Aragorn and Legolas. They were pretty awesome company. Didn't ask for anything except food every once and a while. So, since I have been in Japan for a while I thought it was high time to buy some new bras.
But, there was the problem of size. I did not know what size I was in Japan. Therefore, I had to get a bra fitting. |
Myself
Video blogger and now a blogger as well. My life in Japan has changed me for the better. However, it wasn't easy... Archives
September 2016
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