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We also tried to see some of the sights in Ono that we had always intended to see, such as the 5th century Ono Kofun, (tomb, first photo) and the Ryuno Shrine (second photo).
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Also, I never posted photos of our apartment in Ono, or wrote much about my JET experience, and now seems like the appropriate time to do so. In all honesty, our apartment was one of the things about JET that I liked the least. While our rent was dirt cheap and we had a lovely view of the surrounding mountains, our apartment was a complete dump and had been neglected for many years. When we moved in it was disgusting; our predecessor wasn’t a very clean person, and left some things that I consider unspeakable (think expired food, shampoo, bugs and fungus) along with a ridiculous amount of her own personal trash (think magazines, postcards on the walls, and stained textiles). We spent weeks cleaning, throwing out trash and attempting to make the place as livable as possible. We even painted the kitchen and bathroom, for which the school (our landlord) wouldn’t reimburse the cost of materials. I don’t think the walls had been painted in ten years, and our predecessor had a particular love of blue poster putty, which stained the walls. After we were through with it the apartment was no longer a hygienic hazard, but I never came to like it. It was hot in the summer, as the one window air conditioner was upstairs in the living room, and cold in the winter, as there was no central heat, only space heaters. The windows had gaps surrounding them and were thirty year old single pane windows. On windy nights the sliding doors would rattle relentlessly from the drafts in the windows. In January I can remember sleeping under electric blankets with three layers of clothes. Thankfully, Japan is not a cold place, and the temperature rarely reached below freezing, but there were a few days that we had frozen pipes and frozen toothpaste in the mornings, and a few times that we cooked dinner when we could see our breath in the kitchen. Perhaps the biggest disappointment about this situation was that everyone at the numerous JET orientations we attended told us that we would be treated really well upon arrival and that most JETs have a great living situation. This is definitely not true for Hyogo Prefectural JETs, from whom we have heard numerous stories similar to our own. The fact that our landlord couldn’t even take down the posters and throw out the old food and shampoo was pretty insulting. Nonetheless, we endured and made the best of our situation and even had some good times in the apartment. The apartment was about a 15 minute bike ride from the grocery store, a 10 minute walk to the train station, and within walking distance of a few restaurants. Ono is a pretty small town, and most of it is spread out across the countryside, but all the necessary services were relatively close by. In the photo below, Joe is putting air in our bike tires in front of the Ono apartment, ours was the unit on the end.
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What other reflections do I have after a year of JET? The work situation was really easy, and we had a good deal of down time. Most days I only taught two or three classes, but had to sit at my desk for a full eight hour work day, giving me lots of free time, which I mostly spent studying Japanese, reading books, and reading the newspaper online. We also had many days when we sat at school during holiday breaks with no work to do, I probably had three months of complete downtime at work over the course of the year.
I had two schools, Miki High School and Ono Technical High School. The former was my base school, where I spent three days a week. The academic level was decent, and there was a special English language track which was a lot of fun to teach, as the kids were really interested in learning English. In the English track we were able to do things like English debate and model UN conferences, and the students were college bound and generally motivated to learn. Ono Tech was quite different. The students were mostly boys who majored in a variety of trades such as electronics, metals, or machine shop. The girls all majored in home economics. As these students were not college bound, the academic level was quite low and there was zero motivation to study English, which made my job challenging at times. There were also a lot of behavior issues and undiagnosed cases of ADD, as well as some kids who I suspected had domestic problems. The good thing about Ono Tech though was the outspoken nature of the students and that it was only a five minute walk from home. I was also really pleased to see that the students really engaged with their major, and took a lot of pride in their particular specialty. They may not have excelled in English, but they were quite talented at wiring electricity and making robots, things that I have no idea how to do. In many ways I think that this system of vocational education is better than the U.S. high school system, because it gives kids who are not college bound a reason to attend high school, and also allows academically oriented kids to be surrounded by like-minded students. Of course there are also lots of issues with determining someone's future by testing them when they are in junior high, and I think the Japanese system could benefit from some flexibility as well. Below is Miki High School from the front gate of the school property.
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Overall, JET was a great experience. We were able to travel extensively, and at the same time save money. We never took work home with us, which was a treat after years of me being in grad school and working multiple jobs, and Joe working a demanding salaried engineering job. Interestingly though, at the end of our year, we are both ready to go back to being busy. I often referred to our experience on JET as “Japan Fantasy Camp,” as I felt that it was so laid back and easy that it was a surreal experience. As our year break comes to a close I am writing this from our lovely (and clean!) urban apartment in Yokohama, four minutes from the subway and a block away from a grocery store. While I am happy to have moved on, I will definitely cherish the memories of carefree evenings reading or watching PBS online, and of Joe and I being able to spend lots of time together traveling and relaxing on weekends. I enjoyed many of my students, and made some good friends along the way. As one chapter closes, another begins….
