7/04/2025 - 20/04/2025 Weeks Four and Five in Japan

So.......... I may have missed a weekly upload there and it may have been the one that many of you were most excited to read. The Week I Started Teaching! The week was so much busier and more overwhelming than I was expecting so by the time it came to Sunday evening, I fell asleep with no writing having been done. But, here I am, with two weeks of teaching under my belt so here it goes: week four and week five in Japan!

The first day at school was so overwhelming and it was honestly a lot harder than I had anticipated. I don't think I had fully prepared myself for what it would be like to start a job in a country in a language that I know practically nothing of and the reality of it hit me pretty hard that day. I found myself sat in a busy staffroom having no idea what was going on around me and there were multiple times during the day where I ended up in front of some sort of assembly (both staff and students) having to introduce myself in Japanese with no prior warning. I managed to mumble my way through greetings during the day and it helped that everyone was extremely welcoming but I would be lying if I said I didn't feel slightly panicked that evening. But as always, the next day was definitely easier and I felt much more comfortable and confident! I'm teaching in a Junior High School (ages 12-15) and the next day was the welcome ceremony for the new first graders (british people read year 7). Witnessing the ceremony was pretty cool, it was an extremely impressive assembly with a lot of Japanese traditions thrown in: there were speeches made by the Principal and the Board of Education, multiple national and school songs sung, lots of bowing, and lots of clapping. It felt special to witness this traditional assembly and will definitely be something I remember for a long time.

By the middle of the week, I had met a lot of students and had some super fun conversations with them in broken Japanese and English. The boys love to make jokes referencing youtubers and the girls love to talk to me about anime: I'm learning a lot from the kids and getting lots of good new recommendations of anime to watch. The teachers are all extremely friendly and talking to them is definitely helping me with my Japanese. There are three forms of writing in Japanese: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji and in the past two weeks I've learnt how to read Hiragana and most of Katakana! Speaking and listening is definitely harder, but I'll get there.

My days at school have been very similar and I've now met most of classes. The introductions about myself have been fun to do: I've fully leant into typical British culture, telling the students about fish and chips and Beefeater guards and the kids love it. They find it especially funny when I tell them how tall you are, David. I've been taking part in Track and Field club after school and it's extremely fun. The boys love to race me every chance they get and the girls talk to me about movies and teach me Japanese. I find I look forward to the club everyday! Teaching is super fun. I work with Japanese Teachers of English (JTE) and I either plan games and activities with them or help them teach the pronunciation of words. I help the students during worksheets and interact with them during games: each class is different (my first graders LOVE games but my 3rd graders do a lot more listening) but it makes the days exciting and I always try to be super positive for the students. I've been having school lunches each day and it's always a roulette of what I'll get: it usually consists of a protein, soup, rice, and milk. So far, I've liked everything and they're actually all dished out to be the perfect amount of nutrients and calories your body needs so they're super healthy. Japanese schools don't hire cleaners and so, at the end of the day, I grab a mop and start cleaning the hallway with a group of students! It's the countries way of teaching children the importance of discipline and tidiness and it works great. The students are super chatty as well so it's always a nice time.

I'm definitely enjoying my time at the school and after two weeks working, I'm feeling much more settled. It's now been a month and a week since I got here and the time has flown by.

Outside of work, I've been keeping busy most evenings. Chloe and I often meet up with our friend Nick who lives in the next town over and we head out to local thrift shops and read our books in Starbucks. We explore local arcades in Mobara and try out different local restaurants. Last weekend, we headed out to Ichinomiya town (15 minute drive) and found a local bouldering gym. Chloe and I took Nick, Joey, and Jesus with us and it was a lot of fun getting to climb again. It was a super local place and the climbers were all very supportive, Chlo and I will definitely be making it a regular thing. After grabbing some food at a tiny but delicious ramen place run by an elderly couple, we stopped off at the beach on the way home.

On Wednesday, Chloe and I met up with our old lecturer Barbara for Sushi in Chiba and it was lovely!! We spent the whole evening chatting away and Chloe and I both felt like a bit of home had come to see us.

This weekend it was 26º and so we headed back out to the beach where we had a picnic and then Chloe gave me a massive dunk in the sea.

It's been a relaxing weekend after a busy two weeks! Back at work tomorrow :) See you next week!