One Year Down (Almost)

It's June 25 here as I type, and a moving date has been decided: July 27.  That means I have roughly one month left of living and working in the north of Wakayama prefecture.  It also means that I've been living and working in Japan for almost one complete year.  "To where are you moving?" you may inquire with impeccable grammar.  Allow to me to explain in impeccable grammar:

I don't think I ever mentioned this in my blog, but some time around last November, I was informed that I was being transferred to the south of Wakayama prefecture in August 2012.  There are three ALT's in my city including me, and two of us are getting transferred.  The other, very unfortunately, is being forced to return to her home country.  The other ALT who is being transferred and I were summoned to a big-wig meeting at the board of education where we were told that the city could no longer afford us, but they had found alternate placements for us in the south of the prefecture.

That was a relief, right? Well, yes and no.  It was a relief that I still had a job in the future, but it was a shame that my time in this city was coming to a close so early.  I was prepared to stay here for the entire 5 years that are possible in the JET program, but having that expectation pulled out from under me was unsettling.  As anyone who lives and works here knows, probably the biggest challenge of living in Japan is being accepted, and I don't mean in a cheesy adolescent "Why don't I have any friends?!" way.  I mean that being seen as a fellow human being to Japanese can be extremely hard to achieve.  I still think most of (though not all) the students at my schools see me as a mascot, the Ronald McDonald walking down the halls smiling and waving.  The teachers don't view me in that light, but then again, I'm not sure they view me in any light at all.  I'm kind of invisible to them a lot of the time.

What I'm saying is one year is not enough to be accepted in this kind of situation.  In November, when I heard about my transfer, I felt like I had fought tooth and nail just to feel somewhat normal in the office:  My co-workers were actually talking to me! Every now and then, a student said something besides "Hello!" to me! They might even ask a real question to me! I finally felt like I was accomplishing some of the job duties that were given to me, and then...

It's going to start all over in August in a new town with new schools.  I'm still not entirely clear on what caused the transfer, but my theory is that the city blew all their money on a brand new school building and a massive new city hall building.  I can understand overspending on a new school building because the old one was not the most conducive structure for learning (no air conditioning, no heat, etc.).  But the city hall is pretty ridiculous.  It's an enormous six-story building, much larger than my hometown's in the US which serves a comparable population of about 35,000.  The "old" city hall, which sits adjacent to the new one, is about the same size, and it was built in the last 5 years.  In addition, the mayor of the city was arrested last year after taking construction bribes, apparently for all these new buildings that no one needs.  Of course, there's going to be some collateral damage, and the first ones to get it are the lowly foreigners sitting at the schools with little work to do.

There are a few things I'm going to miss in the city, namely the close, but not too close, proximity to Osaka.  And the teachers and students I've become close with.  I'm really going to miss them.  But I'm looking forward to living in a new and much more rural town.  It's a beautiful place near the coast with a population of only 3000 people.  It's also very close to my wife's family, so it will be nice to have some support so close by.  We will also have our own house, an actual house, not an apartment, and this is the first time for us to live in a building that doesn't share walls with someone else.

So after one year of living in Japan, I have little to say.  There are no major revelations or insight I have to impart to you.  And maybe that's a revelation in itself: no matter where you are, life goes on as usual.