A Look into the Future: Becoming a Hikonebito

This week's post will be yet another suspended of my tales from Iida to talk about another of my favorite cities in Japan - Hikone, located along the shores of Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture. My time there began Sept. 3, 2012. It was a rainy Monday and a long drive with my koto instructor, Genda-sensei, who graciously offered to drive me to Hikone as it was on the way to Kyoto where she and her daughter were heading for a trip.

I would be spending the next academic year on the northern edge of the city, doing intensive Japanese language study at the Japan Center for Michigan Universities. In their website's own words, JCMU is "a study abroad program, a product of the strong  sister-state relationship between the State of Michigan and Shiga Prefecture." Life at JCMU did nothing but further prove that my time in Japan was the best of my life. That being said, the word "intensive" is a bit of an understatement. The study demands of the JCMU regimen made it seem as if my summer studies in Iida were a walk in the park. OK, maybe at times they were a literal walk through the park, but the studies at JCMU were rigorous, but rewarding in that you really learn the language.

This post was actually inspired by a recent video that came across my Facebook newsfeed. It's a promotional video created by students and staff at JCMU featuring current Resident Director Ben McCracken, who was also director during my time. If the video below doesn't play, it can also be found here.

The JET Program: Teaching English in Japan

I'll be taking a break in my narrative this week to talk about an important bit of information for recent college graduates interested in traveling to Japan and working there as an English teacher. My first thoughts when I got back home after spending nearly a year in Japan were immediately of ways that I could get back. I enjoyed my first experience so much and met so many incredible people that I could not imagine a future where I didn't get to visit such a great country ever again. One of the first methods I am planning on pursuing is rather common and that is to return to the country to teach English in Japanese public schools.

One of the more well-known programs which facilitates such opportunities is the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program, better known as JET. The JET program seeks to foster better international relations with Japan through foreign language and culture education and establishing relationships between Japanese youths and foreign teachers in the same generation. People who are interested may apply to be either Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) or Coordinators for International Relations (CIRs). Most people are more familiar with the ALT aspect of JET, that is, the actual classroom teaching part of the program.

My goal is to become an ALT. I had several opportunities to work with Japanese students in a volunteer capacity, most often participating as part of