Across the World

For a little over 13 hours, I sat on a Boeing 777 bound for Narita International Airport. I had wanted to go to Japan for some time, and finally my dream was becoming a reality. The plane landed just after 3:30 PM JST. There was a lot to do, in a short amount of time, but the adventure was beginning...

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My first few days in Tokyo were extremely hectic. I had only a few chances to capture some pictures of the city (see above images), as I was subjected to daily panel discussions, presentations, and the like. I found some interesting, but most were cursory reviews of what I had already internalized from my Master's program. Still, it was energizing to see that new, proven approaches in education were being implemented in Japanese schools.

I had been assigned to a private school in Tokyo, called Teikyo Gakuen Junior and Senior High School. They provided me a complex class schedule, made up of 21 classes a week. I was excited for the opportunity to work with so many students across multiple middle and high school grades.

I had been assigned a significant number of courses in my field of expertise: the Social Sciences. This piqued my interest for several reasons. Not many JETs teach courses other than English, so it was exciting to be teaching content that I was heavily interested in and comfortable teaching. Furthermore, I was interested to see how history was taught in Japan.

Weeks past by, and I settled into life in Tokyo. Japan is an amazing country, and Tokyo an amazing city that bridges traditional Japanese Socio-Cultural norms with the overly familiar aesthetics of the "Western World."

"Time Jump"

I have been teaching for several weeks now, and I have almost fully settled into my life in Tokyo. Over the next few days, my school will be preparing for a sport's festival, a reset to routine scheduling after a week of preparation for a cultural festival, and I will be preparing for a school trip to Ise, Japan. From this point forward, updates should occur bi-weekly.