News From AJET: August 2015

The cicadas are chirping, the sun is melting everything, and for some unexplained reason your neighbors are wearing yukata on a random Tuesday. That’s right folks; it’s August here in Japan and that means a few things. First of all, it means hundreds of new JETs have just arrived in Japan! To them I say, on behalf of all JETs currently in Japan, we’re really glad to finally meet you. Regardless of how lost you may feel now, just remember, we’ve all been in your place. We’ve all done things like standing in the soy sauce aisle thinking “Okay… which one of these is just regular soy sauce?” only to wait for someone to make a decision so that you can buy that one because “They seem like they know what they’re doing.”

August also means festivals everywhere. So go out and enjoy them while you can. I’ll be trying to keep you up-to-date on what events are happening around Block 6 on the Facebook page. Another change that August brings is a new Block 6 Representative, namely, me. My name’s Tyler Bissonnette and I come from a relatively rural part of Hyogo known as Tamba city.

You’re probably asking yourself: “What’s Block 6 and what does a Block Representative do?” Well luckily I’m here to answer those questions. First off, Block 6 encompasses three prefectures in the Kansai area of Japan: Hyogo, Kyoto, and Shiga. As Block 6 Representative of these prefectures, I have a few responsibilities: organizing events such as the Welcome Party (September 5^th) and the Halloween Party (October 31^st), and representing you as part of the AJET National Council in front of CLAIR and the Japanese ministries.

That about sums it up. I’m your voice while here on the JET Programme. So when issues arise, don’t hesitate to contact me. Conversely, if things are going amazing and you just feel like talking about what a nice day it is, you can contact me for that too. My email is tyler.bissonnette@ajet.net

Tyler Bissonnette