A New Beginning

I came to Japan five years ago.  At that time, yeah, of course, I had an interest in Japan.  I liked Japanese music and Japanese movies; I had studied Japanese history in university; I had studied the language a little bit.  Coming to Japan wasn’t as random and unexpected as I may have let on at the time.

When I came, I didn’t really have any concrete plans though.  Some people, when they come on JET, they say, “Alright, I’m gonna do two years, save my money like mad, then go home and do grad school,” or “Extended paid vacation woo!” or whatever.  I didn’t have sort of plans like that when I came — I had a more sort of “wait and see” attitude.

Beginning JET

I stuck around for a year, and didn’t even consider going home.  At the end of my second year, a lot of my good friends left, and that sucked, and during my third year (which, at that time, ought to have been my last — JET was a max. 3 year program then), I thought about what I’d do when I went home.  Realized I’d have to go back to school, but wasn’t really into that.

Suddenly, halfway through my third (and so I thought, final) year, the JET system changed.  “You can stay on for up to five years now if you like ^_^” they told me.  I signed a contract for a fourth year, because I (1) had no plans back home and (2) all my stuff was here.  At the end of my fourth year, I signed again, because (1) and (2) still held true, but also (3) I didn’t want to go back to Canada.

An Ending

As the end of my fifth and final year approached, I had to make a crucial decision: stay in Japan, go to another country, or go back to Canada.  Going to another country was cool, in theory, but I sort of understand how Japan works  — as much as anyone can after 5 years, I guess — and I understand Japanese relatively well.  Sure, I could make decent money in Korea doing the same thing I’ve already done for five years, but then I’d have to learn a whole new set of things.  Didn’t feel like it.

Home

Going back to Canada was an option that was suggested by many people, but they always used the term “going home”.  “You could go home, to Canada,” they’d say.  The problem with this is that Canada, to me, isn’t home.  It never really was.  It was where my stuff was. It’s where my friends still are.  But it’s not home.

Japan feels more like home to me than the idea of Canada that remains in my mind.  Sure, it may be different. If I were to go back to Canada, maybe it would feel like home quickly.  I’m not willing to take that gamble. Not yet.  Besides, my stuff is still in Japan, so why not stay on here.

In Search of a Beginning

After a series of disastrous interviews for English teaching jobs (not unlike what I’d done in JET for five years), I finally was offered a position in Tochigi-ken, just outside Utsunomiya.  It came just in time, actually; any longer and I would have had to make plans to return to Canada.

Anyway, after years of dealing with the transitiveness of JET, saying goodbye to so many great people again and again, now I find that I’m the one people are saying goodbye to.  Parties, presents, lunches, promises of coming to visit, or of calling me if they ever are in Tokyo.  Gestures I don’t expect will become any more than that.  We’ll all drift apart as they get to know the new me, the replacement ALT at my school.  I’ll be forgotten.

To tomorrow… and beyond!

But maybe that’s alright.  I need a new beginning.  I need to meet new people, take a new tack in my personal life, decide what’s actually important to me — what I actually want — instead of coasting, as I have been for nearly 30 years.

So here’s to new beginnings. Here’s to hellos.  Here’s to firsts.

I hope that, along the way, I can share some things that will be of interest to others, or that will help others.  I hope to inform, and I hope to entertain.  I hope you’ll stop back from time to time and give a read.  I hope I don’t disappoint.

Anyway, onward ho! I move to my new home in Tochigi tomorrow.  A new beginning is just around the corner.