More Surprises

As of yet, we have no idea where we will be living in Japan. There are many aspects of applying for the JET Programme that require you to be an insanely patient and laid back person, and this is certainly one of them. Not many people I know would be excited about signing themselves and their family up for a life in an absolutely unknown location in a foreign country. Add to that the 7 month applications time and that you only have a rough guess of what your housing will be like is enough to turn most people off. Though we are certainly not the most patient of people, no one could accuse of not being laid back. The unknown just makes this all the more exciting.

We have been told that we will find out our placement in May. Basically, the government works with various contracting organizations to find best where to place you. On our applications we were asked to put three preferences, but they make no promises that you will actually get placed in one of the areas that you requested. Picking our three preferences turned out to be really informative. After hours and days of googling all of the different regions and prefectures of Japan, we were able to see which had geography, climate, foods, etc. which appealed to us the most. We finally decided on Miyazaki, Kochi, and Okayama Prefectures. They are all in the southern-ish part of Japan since we really don't want to have to deal with cold winters anymore. We also specified that we want to live in a rural community. We feel that living in a small town or village will force us to learn Japanese faster, allow us to experience more traditional Japanese culture, become part of the community, and have greater access to the outdoors. We will be anxiously waiting until sometime in May when they decide where to place us.