Expectations

It’s been almost 7 months since I left Toronto for Japan.  Before coming over, I had built up expectations based on things said by the JET people and well as friends and family.  Let’s start with the most interesting (and the things written in italics are what my brain said, or an exaggerated version of it):

“You will meet someone.  You may even find a wife.”
Several people told me they knew someone who went over to Japan and either came back with, or stayed there with, a Japanese wife.  The Japanese dig foreigners.  Yes, but you have to look foreign.  I look like a Japanese dude and when I open my mouth and speak, I’m a stupid Japanese person that can’t even speak “my own language.”  By looking Japanese, you’re expected to speak/understand Japanese as well as understand their culture and follow their customs.  On the flip side, I’m picky and I’d prefer someone that could speak fluent English, which eliminates about 98% of the Japanese population.  So you can find another ALT.  They’re stuck in the same boat as you.  The odds of finding someone you find compatible are still the same as those back home.  Maybe even less so as the pool is smaller.  Anyway, the message is you can meet someone and may even find a wife… if you are not of Oriental looking. 

“As a foreigner, you will be the center of attention, especially if you live in a small town. ”
I consider my town of about 48,000 to be small so I was expecting some of the attention we were warned about.  No dice.  To be considered a foreigner, you have to look like a foreigner.  Even in the schools, we were told that the students are always super excited and interested in the ALT because they are foreign.  We were also told not to let the students find out where we lived because there have been incidents of stalking.  My students could care less.  One of my students found out where I lived back in October and nothing happened.  Again, this is due to my fake foreignness.  Caucasian ALTs have more interesting stories. 

“As an ALT, you will have lots of free time.”
This is true.  But it’s not what I imagined it would be.  I thought they meant we would have lots of free time at night and on the weekends. ?In reality, there isn’t much time to do things at night, or at least I’m too lazy because it takes forever to go anywhere, and on weekends time seems to pass by so quickly that you can’t do everything that you want.  Most of our free time is during the day.  During the “busy” season, I had 13 hours of class per 35-hour work week.  The 35 hours does not include a 45-minute lunch break.  “Busy” season is September, November and January, as students have exams in October, December, and February/March, as well as Winter break in December and Spring break in March.  I think in February and March combined, I will have had about 10 hours of class.  I calculated that up until the end of March, I will have been making about $110 per hour of real work.  During my free time in the office I “study Japanese” and surf the web occasionally, although I do feel guilty sometimes.  I feel less guilty when I hear stories of other ALTs that plan trips, read books, take naps etc. during their free time.  There just isn’t enough work in my situation to fill a 35-hour work week.    

“There are lots of Japanese customs that you should follow.”
Yes, there are lots of Japanese customs but it’s not as big a deal as it was made out to be by the JET people back in Toronto.  For example, we were told the Japanese finish every last grain of rice in their bowl.  Not all of them do.  We were told that you must say, “itadakimasu” and “gochisosama deshita,” before and after you eat.  Not everyone says it.  Basically, it seems as though the younger generations are starting to phase out some of the older Japanese traditions.

*Intermission* I just finished lunch.  The staff ordered bento boxes and we were given the choice of fish or beef.  I chose the fish.  Near the end, there was still a lot of fish and no beef left.  Everyone that came to pick up their box after that seemed to be like, “damn, I have to eat fish.”  As I sat there watching them and eating my fish, I was thinking that I’d probably react the same way.  Given the choice, my reaction was, “mmm, fish.”  If I had no choice, and known that there was beef earlier, my reaction would have probably been, “oh, fish” or “fish.”  But it’s the same fish.  Just goes to show how important having a choice is. 

“I will try to save X amount of money.”
Saving $X is possible if you live on nothing or if your X value is really small.  I realized rather early on that it’s hard to set a specific amount to save.  I’m only here for one year and shouldn’t compromise my experience to save money.  I can do that when I work for real.  Two trips home, a trip to China, weekly visits to the dojo, and various side trips really add up, but they were all necessary in my opinion.  On top of that, running the air conditioner in the summer and the heater in winter are also necessities as it’s not healthy to die of heat stroke or suffer from season-long colds.  But man do those electricity bills pile up. 

“The year will fly by.”
Many people told me so.  It’s partially true.  Like I started counting down the days until I go back for the test in March and wrote it down in my agenda.  Now looking at it, it’s already been two weeks since I did that but it feels like only a couple days ago.  However, the year on the whole seems to be passing quite slowly.  Feels like I’ve been here about a year, even though it’s only been about 7 months.  Still 5 more to go.  I guess when I’m back for good in August it’ll feel like I had been in Japan for 2 years. 

“Winters are cold”
I blogged about this already.  And you’d think being from Canada makes the cold less cold.  It does not.

Those are all of the ones I can think of at the moment.  I’m sure there were more things but they’ve slipped my mind. 

3 more weeks till my March break!  hahaha