JAPANEXILE

I realize the order of my last posts isn’t quite right, but live with it. Thought I should give a little detail on the training week, which took place August 23rd to 28th. I had a bit of a nightmare traveling up, but that was all forgotten when the excitement of meeting the other volunteers kicked in. Arrived in Glasgow around 9am and promptly went looking for a pub which was showing the Grand Prix. I then realized it was a Sunday and not many pubs are open at 9am so went and sat up in the Galleries reading Harry Potter for several hours before meeting up with Katie and many other volunteers. We then took over Starbucks for the afternoon which was good bonding experience to say the least. We all got the train over to Glasgow in the evening where I met one of the Tokyo volunteers, Ben. Whom I had a good ol’ chat with for the 3 hour train journey, although I was regularly distracted by the amazing scenery up the west coast of Scotland. Upon arrival in Oban we dumped our bags and made our way to the pub as you do.
It was an early start on Monday to get the ferry. Here we met up the other Japan volunteers, Craig and Mike. The former being my partner, whom I had surprisingly met on the selection course. We soon became good mates, and formed the very cool group, the JPK, and from then on moved as one unit, and even began to refer to ourselves in the third person! The other country groups we were on training with included Vietnam, Mauritania, India, Dominican Republic, although the vast majority were Thailand. The week from then on was jam packed. With ‘lessons’ starting at 9am every day, finishing at 6.30pm. We took our country specific classed with Amy, where we went through things such as earthquakes, our accommodation, ways to behave etc. The lectures on general safety, illness, keeping clean, traveling etc we all took as one big group. The primary aim of the course was to prepare us for our jobs abroad. So much of the day was spent discussing teaching. And our evenings were partly spent firstly preparing a 10minute lesson, and then a 20minute lesson, to be performed in front of your group. It may not sound long, but panic sets in and it seems an eternity. Despite having a plan prepared it went out the window in the first 2 minutes of my 10minute lesson, improvisation followed, and disaster soon after.

My 20minute lesson on directions was much improved, using a favourite game of my Japanese teacher at School, Mrs Harwood. Brief explanation of the game - 9 pictures representing direction and traffic features on the board. I point at a picture, and say something, if I say the correct word, the class repeats, if I say the incorrect word, stay silent. Sounds simple enough but despite this game being designed to be taught in a foreign language, all participants were eventually caught out, 3 times. Amy was especially poor.

The best times on the training course came in the evenings. The bar was open every night, which helped. First night as it was such a beautiful day we all went down to the beach, where a giant game of Zoofball was organised. BW would have been proud. Second night was spent playing ‘Sausages’ Where you have one person in the middle of everyone else, people in the circle as the person any question, and the only answer they can give is ’sausages’. If they laugh, they’re out. So as you can imagine there were some pretty filthy questions and answers. We then changed the word to ‘moist’

On the Thursday night we first went for a swim in the unbelievably cold Scottish Sea. I ended up collapsing afterwards from the cold. So back to the warmth of the centre, where we had out farewell meal, excellently prepared by the Kitchen staff, which was followed by a traditional Scottish Kayleigh. Great fun, then went back to the beach where it poured down with rain.

Friday it was time to leave, goodbyes were said for a year to the other country groups. An emotional time. All in all I had an amazing week, and to echo a line from Mike’s blog, I couldn’t be happier with the group of guys going to Japan. Its going to be an incredible year. <a href=”http://www.japanexile.com/photography/project-trust-training/”> Click here</a> for a link to the photo album for the week.

So I’ll be leaving at 08:45 on September 7th, arriving Tokyo 06:55 September 8th.

I need to give a quick introduction to our desk officer Amy Lee. Amy went to Sri Lanka with Project Trust, before spending a year in Japan with the JET program. She has been a great source of information for all of us Japan volunteers answering all our questions whilst we were on training. Whilst we are away it is Amy who looks after any serious matters.

So after that introduction an actual update. Received an email detailing what to do on arrival in Tokyo. Seems we are getting a 4 day stay over in Tokyo for an induction course on arrival, which is exactly what I was hoping for. We’ll be staying in the Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel, which according to its website, has great panoramic views of Tokyo…from the bathroom window, so I’m guessing the view from the balcony is going to be the backside of the neighboring bulding.

Packing has so far not happened, went and and bought a suitcase at least. Haven’t got much to fill it with, yet at the same time too much. Its really difficult trying to pack clothes for a year into 20Kg, especially when you have to pack for both hot and cold climates, as well all the electronics I of course have to bring with me.

I’ve been reading up extensively on my Japanese history, well 19th and 20th century stuff anyway, before that in all honesty doesn’t seem necessary for my to have much knowledge of. What I really should be doing is some Japanese language practice, despite my best intentions of doing 30mins a day every day of August not much has happened.

I’m guessing my next update will be when I’m over in Japan, where I imagine I’ll have enormous amounts to say!