31/03/2025 - 6/04/2025 Week Three in Japan

This week has been the first week of somewhat quietness, training finished last week and the only thing that I have had to do was a school visit to my first Junior High Teaching Position. It was an exciting but daunting experience; I went into it having no expectations but both the sensei meeting me, and my supervisor/translator were very friendly. The conversation was definitely in broken English, but I found out the information I needed and after meeting the rest of the teachers who applauded me, I left the building, knowing the next time I’ll step foot will be my first day as an ALT!

Faced with a week of emptiness, Louise, Chloe, Joey, and I decided to try and fill it with some fun things to do. However, working around various visits and torrential rain made things slightly harder than anticipated. Japan is in between seasons right now, the sunny days are very warm, with temperatures already at 20º, but most evenings, the heat breaks and we are faced with torrential rain and extremely strong winds. I thought it was hard to dress for the fickle English weather, but Japan might be about to overtake! On Monday, we ventured into Tokyo for Louise’s birthday, heading back to Shibuya and Akihabara in the hopes that the Pokémon store might be less busy, but we were faced with the same busy crowds. Shibuya is by far one of the busiest places I have ever seen, compared to even the busiest of streets in London, Shibuya sees so, so many more people. That being said, it’s always a cool place to visit and definitely makes you feel like you are in the heart of Tokyo. Akihabara was definitely less busy, and it was nice to wander around the streets, taking in the massive billboards advertising stores on restaurants on cafes, with many depicting famous anime characters. Akihabara is known as the place to be for technology and anime fans, and it definitely supplies that.

On Tuesday, we took a road trip down to Tateyama to drop Joey off at his apartment and help set his apartment up. It takes about an hour and a half to drive down there, and we have done the trip a few times now, so I’m very well versed in driving over here. Japan uses similar driving rules to the UK, and they drive on the same side of the road, so it definitely makes it easier for me. In the residential areas, I haven’t driven much over 50kmh (30mph) and on the highway the speed limit is 100kph (62mph), so it definitely feels very safe. That being said, not many people like to stick to the speed limit on the highway and I’ve definitely had my fair share of Japanese drivers revving up behind me….

For the next few days, Chloe and I decided to explore the area, adventuring around Mobara Park. The blossoms are stunning at the moment and Mobara Park is definitely a good place to see them. On our wanderings, we found a traditional Buddhist temple and so we spent some time taking in the beautiful scenery. On Saturday, we all ventured into Tokyo again to meet Omar and two other ALT’s. This time, we decided to tackle Shinjuku and Kabukicho. This area had some of the tallest buildings I have ever seen, and we took some time to venture into Kabukicho tower and play some games in the Namco arcade. Arcades are massive in Japan, and the claw machines are as irresistible and addictive as you might imagine. It was a day of arcading and playing games and both Chloe and I won a massive plushie each – she won a Yoshi, and I won a Snorlax. We are definitely immersing ourselves in the Japanese culture. Winning the plushies wasn’t the highlight of the day though as, quickly, Chloe and I found ourselves being interviewed by the Instagram team for Kabukicho Tower. The interview started out normally but quickly took a funny turn when we both got asked to rate famous Japanese men out of 10 on their attractiveness. If you’re reading this then you probably know that Chloe and I are not the best people to ask about this… Anyway, who knows, we may be about to go viral on Instagram.

I start work on the 7th. I’m nervous, but it’ll be good to get into a routine and I’m excited to meet all the children.