First years: Want to know why your fellows also chose to join JET? Returners: Lost touch with your roots and want a reminder of why you packed up your life to come to Japan? Below are the responses of six first year JETs. Justin Chao, Boston, MA, Ono Why Japan: I love…
 Returning this month is our “Where Are They Now?†section. In it, we share the words of wisdom of those who have gone before us back into the real world. Placement + years on JET  I was a prefectural high school ALT in Kusatsu-shi, Shiga-ken for 5 years. Favorite JET…
Every year between July and August is Japan’s music festival season. One of the crown jewels of this time is the two day Osaka and Tokyo music event Summer Sonic. This year, your author attempted this perilous quest in her first ever Japanese music festival experience and what a way to enter the scene it…
A Melancholy Fear of Cereal and Existentialism The house is silent. It’s been so for years, but today I feel something in the silence. I can’t tell if it’s fear, or regret, or perhaps an ill intent, but something new is here. Lately, there’ve been too many new things. I’m hungry. I wonder if…
Perhaps you’ve become over-stimulated by the massive spread of Tokyo and need a slightly smaller cityscape. Perhaps ramen and Chinatown fare would really hit the spot. Perhaps you just want to see what Japan’s second largest city has to offer you. No matter your reasoning, at only half an hour from Shinjuku Station, Yokohama makes…
Why I Chose Japan I honestly, genuinely didn’t expect to be accepted onto this programme: I applied mainly because my mum was pressuring me, and she was mainly pressuring me because her friend’s daughter was applying, and her friend’s daughter was mainly applying because…well, that’s her business. Maybe she’ll write one of these herself. Obviously,…
Living in Japan is accompanied by many exciting adventures, including those of the culinary world. From conbini food to tabehoudai to fine dining, there’s a wealth of delectable delights just waiting to be explored, and trying to make the food you encounter is another adventure in itself. Thus, I present to you…
 Karaoke in Japan Before arriving in Japan, I passionately hated singing. Even the mere mention of karaoke in front of a large number of people (especially strangers) filled me with dread. Fortunately (or so I thought), the first time I came to Japan as part of a study abroad class, my fellow students were…
 Madalini’s shop always smelt of freshly baked cake; Madalini herself insisted that she never touched an oven and certainly she never made any offer of food to her customers, so where the smell came from, no one knew. The shop itself was right on the high-street, tucked between a chic outfitters and an even…