After months of preparation, things were looking doubtful for this year’s rafting expedition. The largest typhoon of the year was brewing and looked set to bring high speed winds, torrential rains, and extremely dangerous conditions. After exhaustive organisation from our intrepid leaders, Erika and Claire, this was not what anyone wanted to hear. Fortunately, our…
Hey there good people of Hyogo, Chris Goodman here, your friendly Hyogo AJET helper guy, type, thingy… to help you welcome October with open arms and big smiles!!! Now, if you ask your students “What’s special about October?” many of them may start looking around at each other, freaking out thinking that you…
A New Term Begins! Hey there, Hyogo – It’s hard to believe that it is September already – our departing friends have left Japan to start new chapters of their lives and the new ALTs have arrived and are (hopefully!) settling into their new lives. With the new term beginning, it is easy to…
I cannot believe it is August and we are welcoming all the new JETs already! I hope that you are all surviving the humid and hot weather and settling into your new homes. I remember this time last year I was sitting in my empty apartment with nothing more than a fold-up chair and about…
Hello Hyogo-ites! Just as I did last year in these very pages, I would like to encourage prospective returnees to join their local JET alumni chapter upon going home. Through local chapter activities, former JETs are able to promote a broader and deeper understanding between Japan and their home country at the grassroots level…
Every year July is a very exciting month for many people in the new JET community, as it’s the month that the new JETs find out their placements. To the new JETs, welcome to one of the best, if not THE best, prefectures in Japan! I will go so far as to promise you that…
What’s on your JET Life Bucket list? I was sitting in my apartment with the windows open (finally), listening to a fantastic album called “Dance, Dance†and contemplating what to write about. As a lot of us enter the final two-ish months of our time on JET, I’d love to know what’s on…
The month of May has crept up on us once again, hello May! We welcome you warmly as you bear the best gift a nenkyu-less ALT can get, Golden Week! Come Friday May 2nd I’ll be all packed and ready to dart out of the staff room straight onto a flight to Seoul! Whether you’re…
Most people in northern Hyogo know of the old wives’ tale about stink bugs: an autumn with many of those pests guarantees a winter with much snow. When the leaves began to change color, stink bugs invaded school rooms and the homes of the innocent. Sapporo was frosted in picturesque white for the Yuki Matsuri….