The beginning of it all February 24, 2009

If you are reading this very first post, it would mean that I have gotten confirmation of an Assistant Language Teacher placement in Japan as part of the JET programme, and that I have accepted it. In the grander scheme of things, this set-in-stone, signed-on-the-dotted-line agreement that I have commited myself to means that there is no turning back. I’m giving at least one year of my life to Japan!

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I first thought about attempting to apply for a job in Japan after I made my maiden trip in July 2008. Having already been somewhat obsessed with a skewed portion of Japanese popular culture, I had no doubt that I would take to Japan well as a tourist. I did not expect myself to fall in love with what little I saw of the country (maybe the term “fall in love” would deem too passionate a description as I plunge deeper into the chasm of JET politics, but we’ll see. Only time can tell). My obsessive-compulsive tendencies, coupled with my restless, wanderlusting nature, made Japan all the more enticing, and I HAD to attempt to scratch my itch, as it were.

Thus began my research for job opportunities in Japan, mainly just to feed my ridiculous fantasies. I stumbled onto information about JET, and the more I read, the more I began to think, “Hey, I can so do this.”

(on hindsight, I could have done more research, and if I did, Iwould have found out that there are many opportunities other than JET. Ah well, c’est la vie.)

Then came all the internal monologues that drove me absolutely nuts. I ping-ponged serious thoughts with regards to finances, to my marriage, to what and who I would leave behind in Singapore. I entertained flighty notions of eating otoro sushi all day and shopping up a storm in Shibuya.

In spite of  all the mental ping-pong,  as corny as it might sound, the heart won over the mind. I wanted to go. I wanted the experience. And that was the clincher for me.

So, with the support of those dear to me, I dropped off the very thick stack of application documents, one day shy of the closing date in November 2008.

And it was that night that the husband lovingly said, “You do know, darling, that you would most likely be posted to rural Japan, with no big shopping mall in sight.”

Damn it.

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