On Kobe and Recontracting

Friday afternoon I was approached by the head of the English department at Hamasaka, and in his hand were the recontracting forms from CLAIR.  It thus has been decided that between both schools, they would like me to recontract and stay another year.  CLAIR sends out the forms quite early, as they are not due until January.  However, it is good to be thinking about it early on, as by now we have been in the classrooms for about two months and have a feel for our environments.  I was actually given two forms; one is the recontracting form, due January 23rd.  The other is a transfer request form, which was due last Friday (the same day I got it...), November 7th although I was given an extension and was able to turn it in up until last night.

I've already said before that I won't recontract, and seeing as I now have the forms to do so, I figured now would be a prudent time to post as to why.  I wanted JET for about three or four years and I was ecstatic when I got it.  I realized I would have a high chance of going to buttfuck town because JET simply has more presence there than in large cities.  I went with JET because truth be told, it was the good job.  It was the government job, the high paying job, the job with the most vacation, and the job with the best support system and an untarnished reputation.  I don't regret it because it will be on my resume.  Ideally, it would have been nice to have a solid three or four year chunk on my resume, but alas one year it will have to be.  The vast majority of JET situations are excellent, and I'm the only person I know who is not recontracting, but truth be told as ESID (remember that's Every Situation Is Different, the unofficial JET motto resultant of JET being simply a modicum of getting to Japan with only things such as salary, benefits, and other principal things standardized while everyone is hired by different BOEs), there inevitably are going to be some situations that are more than undesirable.  Unfortunately, I got one of those few.

As I've said before I have a lot of issues with the Japanese public education system as well as a few issues at work, particularly with one of my JTEs, and the situation has not improved, but I don't feel I should comment too much on that aspect of my reasons for not recontracting.  Don't get me wrong, him and I still get along quite well, but I tire of nothing I suggest being acceptable.  Last Thursday I worked a fourteen hour day, partly due to the fact I have to sit there and pull teeth to plan the lessons with said JTE (I had three with him last Friday), but also because Fridays are my worst days--four, and as of late, five, classes, with speech contest practice and ESS club after school.  In addition to those after school activities, I also now have to help the speech contest girl practice for an English proficiency interview test after school each day.  As good of a student as she is and as much as I like helping her, I tire as of late of not going home even remotely on time, particularly Fridays when I'm looking at over a three hour drive to get to Himeji and then go out there or go on to Osaka or Kobe by train.

Speaking of not going home on time, I had some issues with that as well.  When we had the first speech contest (which my student placed second meaning we advance to the prefectural tournament in two weeks), I had been nominated photographer long before the contest.  I didn't really care since I knew I'd be going to it anyway.  Well, the contest was on a Saturday, and we were hosting it here in Hamasaka ("provincial" tournament, if you will).  Friday we practiced and then went to set it up and had her practice some more at the venue since we were lucky enough to be hosting it, affording her such opportunity.  I asked my JTE (the one I have issues with, who as luck would have it is also the one I've worked with everyday for the speech contest stuff and also happens to be my assigned go-between) when I would get to take daikyuu, or my floating holiday for having to work on a Saturday.  I was told (mind you this is Friday afternoon the night before the contest) that "Japanese teachers will get daikyuu," meaning everyone but you will be getting time off in lieu.  I wasn't too happy about that.  I asked why and I was then told that I would apparently be attending the following morning's contest "voluntarily" and that if I didn't want to go it was totally OK.  As if I could really say no at that point after having been nominated photographer and not to mention it would've been a huge dickbag move to do to my student anyway so obviously I didn't and wasn't going to say no.  So I went.

Prior to that incident, however, I had plans to go to Osaka one weekend.  I was approached on Thursday of that week and told that there was a sixtieth anniversary school founding ceremony, and that it would be good for me to attend.  I was also told that I didn't have to go, but if I did, I would explicitly receive daikyuu at a date of my choosing since on Monday, when there would be no school for teachers or students, I would happen to be at my other school where classes were in session; the Japanese teachers and students would all take Monday off, and I would get a day off later because of my different schedule.  Keeping in mind that this was before the speech contest, I thought it was alright.  I wasn't looking forward to it, but knowing I was going home for my sister's wedding I thought maybe it would be alright to flush Osaka down the crapper for a weekend and sit through an entire day's speeches in Japanese in a hot gym with a suit on so I would get to take one less day of vacation to go home to America. 

I went to the ceremony under the promise of daikyuu, which was promised to me by the head English teacher.  When I went to apply for nenkyuu (vacation), I double-checked that I would only have to take nenkyuu for one day less than the number I would be gone.  The vice-principal said no, that I wasn't getting daikyuu for that day--I was told that any Saturdays I work are voluntary.  Keeping in mind this was merely a week or two after the speech contest incident, I was really irritated.  I in no way doubt that it was an honest mistake on the part of the head of the English department, but nonetheless I was irritated.  The vice-principal is a really cool guy though so there was one day where I think he felt bad so he let me leave three hours early, so I did appreciate that.    

Just as a feeler I emailed the prefectural advisor after these two incidents to get his take on that situation, and he said that our JET contracts also state we are entitled to daikyuu for any overtime worked, just as Japanese teachers are.  Unfortunately bringing up the contract in a Japanese environment is apparently one of the worst things you can do, and they stressed at both Tokyo and the Hyogo prefectural orientation to try very hard to avoid mentioning the contract specifically.  He then said that while normally he would certainly have thought they would give me daikyuu for that day, since they pulled the volunteer card at the last minute, there was really nothing he could do.  He told me as far as working overtime up the ass every week, I could bring up the contract but I was forewarned that it might lead to deteriorated work relations, so I've said nothing yet as I still have nearly nine months to fulfill on this contract.  I just don't care for the fact that every day, as I am the only ALT in the country working overtime, I am the only one in the office receiving no compensation for it.  That's one of the reasons in addition to the Japanese public education system why I am not recontracting.  My weeks ramp up as they go on with Friday being an utter cunt which means Thursday is even worse.  Because I can't stand staying any later than upwards of two hours on Friday as it is considering it takes so much effort to get to where I want to go every weekend, I also end up planning lessons for Monday every single Sunday, which I don't care for. 

I also loathe the apartment.  Yes it's dirt-cheap, and yes it was convenient to already have a place when I came to Japan, but damn I so would rather have a job that's divorced from my housing.  I'd rather pay the deposits even if it was more expensive if it meant I got to choose my apartment.  I take pride in my living space but I simply can't here--the place is too far gone.  There also is no heating whatsoever, just as there was no air conditioning whatsoever until I bought a new one when I got here.  It is now getting chilly and the other night I tried to use the air conditioner as a heater, as the remote tells me it can be set as high as thirty degrees Celsius (eighty-six degrees Fahrenheit) but all I was getting was cool air.  Figuring "Goddamnit," I went out last night and bought two shitty little space heaters; on for outside the shower and one for the bedroom.  Considering it was in the forties last night and I needed to run my heater for a good few hours in my little six mat room to stay warm, it won't do shit once it's below zero outside.  The JTE who took me to buy the air conditioner told me today that there probably should be a switch to turn it into a heater, so I will have another look but I'm not expecting it.  If it is there, at least I'll have one climate controlled room while my shower pipes and toilet water freeze.  Even if the air conditioner can heat and the shower pipes somehow don't freeze, it's going to be unbearably cold to get in and out of the shower.  I'm also not a fan of cockroaches or slugs, both of which I have.

Touching more on the aspect of students, I really dislike teaching the marine students at Kasumi.  In both the regular courses as well as the marine courses, I'm just tired of teaching kids who are forced to be there and just don't give a shit and won't do anything no matter what.  The marine kids really think they are something else though, and I'm tired of it.  I didn't come 7,000 miles to "teach" kids who don't give two shits about anything other than being Billy Buttfucktown Badass.  I give them shit I spent time making and they throw it on the floor without looking at it.  They get up and leave in the middle of class, blast headphones, screw around, read comics, sleep, bully each other, fight, and even harass the JTEs and myself, physically and verbally.  I had one shitbag put his hand on my stomach and rub it and call me fat in Japanese because I'm not a sinewy lean stick with a pink barrette in his hair and a woman's Louis Vuitton wallet with shaved eyebrows like he and all the other marine kids are.  It's like mix Buttfuck Badass with a woman and that's what the marine kids are.  They all have pink women's hair barrettes, pink cell phones, and pink girl's wallets and yet they sag their uniform pants and act like they are hot shit.  They also will come up and harass you when you are eating lunch, or grab stuff off of your plate and eat it.  I've also seen a couple knives and I don't really feel safe there--Hell, one kid was killed here three years ago.  In fact, one JTE who had been there just since April flat-out quit and found a teaching job with another prefectural BOE (Shizuoka prefecture, I think) completely unrelated because she'd had enough of the marine garbage in just six months, and that's coming from a career teacher who just said "To Hell with this," if that gives you any idea of what "teaching" the marine kids is like.  The kids are going nowhere, plain and simple, and I just don't care for wasting my time with them.  I just don't care for it.  This isn't the experience I came 7,000 miles for.

Also I'm just not fond of my placement.  I'm a city person, and I always will be.  I thought I'd give it a shot here but driving over an hour on windy mountain roads to do any type of shopping whatsoever is tiresome.  The cheap apartment is offset by the cost of requiring a car anyway.  There are only a couple restaurants, and at one of them I sprinkled a can of parmesan cheese only to have two baby cockroaches sprinkle into my food along with the cheese.  There are no young people.  I can still after three months count on two hands the number of people between eighteen and thirty-five years old.  People turn eighteen and leave.  The vast majority of the people in this tiny town model the demographic of most areas in rural Japan--an upside down population triangle with a disproportionate amount of people over sixty-five.  There is no entertainment here, there are no bars here, there is nowhere to use my Japanese, and my JTE even told me winter is even more depressing.  Everyone says your Japanese will get much better in a rural area.  I disagree because there is nowhere here to use it.  What few, very few things there are here, close at 7:00 P.M.  My Japanese has gotten a little better despite not yet studying (soon, I just got my books last week), but all of the improvements have come from when I was in the city where there are ample people to talk to and ample situations to use it.  There's just nothing here except one depressing street outside of town hall where there are trees trying desperately to grow along the battered sidewalk.  

Last Friday as I was driving out of my town I saw two of my students walking home, both of which seem, sad as it is to say it, to be headed for the mizu shobai.  I thought to myself how they must just absolutely hate it here and what it must have been like to grow up here, especially as a kid or teenager with no car (Japan's driving age is eighteen).  I wondered what it would be like to go to school sixteen hours a day as if to be in training to be J. Salaryman on the train in Tokyo in a suit at 10:00 P.M. after a sixteen hour day, only to have nothing to do and nowhere to go after school other than straight home.  It really hit me that in the inaka (rural area) of Japan, you simply exist.  Nothing more.  I can't help but feel that in some ways I'm doing the same.

This feeling is compounded by the fact there is nobody up here to get dinner with on a Tuesday.  I am the only isolated JET in the prefecture; the others up here who are few and far between are fortunate enough to have two or three or five in their towns, so they have their cliques and I am excluded for reasons unbeknownst to me despite really trying to put myself out there initially.  There are three JETs in the town closest to me, about a forty minute drive, and depending on which one I am talking about, I've seen them at least once and at most three times.  In three months.  I have a very tight group of friends in the south part of the prefecture and spilling into Osaka prefecture but the distance limits me from ever getting to see them during the week, so between Sunday and Thursday I have nobody to talk to, nobody to grab a beer with, nobody to get dinner with, nothing.  I don't know any JET communities like that other than this one.  Within the first couple months up here in Hamasaka I was told that, "People up here (northern Hyogo), like, have lives, like, in the Japanese community..." and from then on I was just kind of like well I guess I can shut the door I've left open for two months.  So the people and community aspect of JET on a local basis has been more than disenchanting.  I'm glad I go down south to the city every weekend.

I've been spending a lot of time in Kobe as well as Osaka and Himeji (I love Osaka to death but damn it gets expensive) and the more I go to Kobe, the more I absolutely love it.  It's a city of approximately 1.5 Million people plus the surrounding areas, and it's literally minutes from Osaka.  Being a port city, it has a gorgeous development along the coast known as "Harborland" and further as a result of being one of Japan's most prominent ports, it's also the most internationalized city in Japan.  You can get good food from all over the world here as a result.  Kobe is also the fashion capital of Japan, and is very trendy and cosmopolitan, and a very classy city.  Among the ex-patriot community in Japan, those living in Kobe are the most satisfied compared to any other city in Japan with respect to the quality of life there and the city in general.  That alone speaks volumes about how nice a city Kobe is, and I can attest to it--it's a great city and I would love to live there just as much as Osaka, Tokyo, or Kyoto.  I used to think that Kobe was awesome but didn't know why anyone would live there when Osaka is so close, but every single time I go to Kobe I find that I love it more and more and now I see why people might choose Kobe over Osaka, despite Osaka's crazy nightlife and how insanely awesome Osaka is.

The above things said, back to that transfer form that graced my desk last Friday.  I turned it in last night with Kobe as my requested city.  I estimate that I have a "go fuck yourself" chance of CLAIR granting me my request, or even any transfer at all, because CLAIR tends to only give transfers for marriages (documented) or illnesses (documented) that require being near a big hospital.  I have a unique situation in that I am at the marine school, one of two in the prefecture and the only one with a JET.  CLAIR won't grant transfers if you simply don't like where you are or don't get along with a coworker, but I cited the legitimate safety compromise and the fact I've been physically harassed as my reason for request thinking that maybe, just maybe, CLAIR will support my request, though I'm not expecting it to happen.  I didn't much care for the intentional transfer request deterrent of requiring us to hand such transfer forms in to our schools as opposed to the BOE directly ourselves, but it's done now.  My school knows I have requested Kobe as a transfer, and they know the reason.  They most likely can also infer which box I will be checking on January 23rd if the transfer is denied.