Reflections on a year~
We're a week into July now, and so I've been here for just about a year. This kind of small milestone makes me want to sit down and take a look at the past year. What have I accomplished? What is lacking in my life here, and what isn't? Am I really happy with the place I've made for myself? etc. etc. etc.
Looking at my life in Hiroshima requires looking at the two sides of it: the school side, and the other side. The school side requires little reflection: I'm very happy here. Every new experience I have here makes me glad that I re-contracted for another year, and leads me to believe that I'll continue to re-contract until they kick me out of here. Of course there are frustrating days and tiring days, and days where I just want to walk out of here in the middle of the day. But that's usually just due to my exhaustion from living abroad for so long. On my way out of school on those days, if I run across one of my favorite students and have a cute conversation with them, or even just a brief interaction, it can be enough to lift my spirits and make me look forward to coming back the next day. And that keeps happening, without fail.
As always, it will be some time before I know how much of a difference I'm making with my current crop of students (especially friggin' 1-3 class...), and how many of them will remember me in the long run and actually keep in touch (probably around zero), but that's unavoidable. I still look forward to coming to work almost every day, and I think that's a pretty rare situation these days. So, SATISFACTION LEVEL: HIGH
On the other hand, there's my life away from school, which is definitely a different situation. When I was in Japan studying here 3 years ago, I was only at my university in Kanazawa for 6 weeks. But within that very short span of time, I made a very good friend in Yashima, who has gone on to become one of my best friends anywhere. After a year in Hiroshima, I have not made a friend anywhere near that close. I don't even have any male Japanese friends here, other than the one college student who interned at my school last month, and who I have yet to get together with outside of school. I have a few female Japanese friends, most of whom are girls who started out as failed romantic interests, but I'd classify them more as acquaintances, who I just go out to dinner with every now and then. The one exception here would be Rie, who works in the main office at my school. She was one of the first friends I made here, and we still go out for dinner and drinks (frequently a lot of drinks) pretty often. She's a good friend, but I can still tell that we're probably never going to become all that close.
Maybe it sounds like I'm splitting hairs about the closeness of my friends, I don't know. I have friends among the other ALTs in Hiroshima (and elsewhere) too of course, but among the few ALTs I really consider to be good friends, only one of them lives close enough to hang out with regularly. All the rest either live on the other side of the prefecture, or in another prefecture entirely. Some of them I see every few months, some I'm lucky to see more than once or twice a year. So in the end I'm left with plenty of friends and acquaintances scattered all over the region, but very few close friends, near enough to hang out with anytime. Which means that more often than not, I spend the evenings by myself in my apartment, with my laptop, TV, and a DVD player to keep me company. I've never been one to go out for dinner or drinks by myself...I find myself doing so here, but only occasionally. Yeah, yeah, I know. Get off your ass, go hit some bars downtown and get yourself some more friends. But striking up conversation with total strangers is something I've never been comfortable doing, in any country, in any language.
Which brings me to the other area in my life severely lacking: the ladies. I don't particularly want to go into much detail about it, but suffice to say, all is quiet on the eastern front. The big problem is I just don't meet very many girls my age. I meet plenty of students and teachers, but they're all no good for various obvious reasons. This is why I'd love to have a male Japanese friend around my age. The way most young people in this country go about meeting new people of the opposite sex is via a goukon, or blind group date. A guy and a girl who are friends organize the thing, each inviting an equal number of their friends (of the same sex) to meet at a restaurant to eat, drink, drink some more, then get to know each other. With luck, by the end of the night people will be exchanging cell phone info, and maybe - if a whopping success - head to a love hotel.
Not that I'm just looking for drunk floozies to take to a love hotel, but I've been on goukon before, and it's really an ideal way to meet people. The girls become especially interested if a gaijin shows up, and the extensive drinking promptly removes all mental barriers and gets everybody talking. It's become more and more apparent to me that what I really need, in order to meet more girls my age and try to spruce up my desolate love life, is a male Japanese friend who is well-connected and could organize things like this every now and then. Because without something like that I'm left to my own devices, and as we all know, my own devices ain't worth shit.
The other aspect of my life here that's less than rosy is my financial situation. JETs make a notoriously fat salary, but I have more to pay for every month than any JET I know. I send home 50,000 yen every month to pay for various shitty loans and bills, but the main culprit here is my rent: 62,000 yen, unsubsidized. Not many people I know have a rent that high, and those that do get their rent subsidized by their contracting organization, so they're only actually paying half that.
The most frustrating part is that I did this to myself. They had an apartment waiting for me when I got here that was 5,000 yen ($40, people!) a month. But it was a dump, with no air conditioning, with bugs and a funny smell, and located way out in the ghettos of Ujina, aka the asshole of Hiroshima. So I spent a month looking at apartments all over the city, and settled on a place that I knew was expensive, but was new and high-quality, and had a ridiculously convenient location.
Because of that choice, I still have no money left at the end of every month. Everyone I know has gone home at least once during the past year, some twice. Everyone I know has taken at least one trip somewhere cool, such as Okinawa, Korea, China, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, etc. Everyone I know has a snazzy new digital camera, or at least the money in the bank to buy one if they wanted to. Not to mention an apartment that is fully-furnished, comfortable, and downright homey. I have done none of these things, have bought none of these things. Do I regret my decision to take the comfortable, expensive apartment over the crummy, cheap apartment? Yes. Would I be regretting my decision had I done the opposite? Without a doubt. This whole problem would be fixed if I could just get some of my rent subsidized. Stupid cheap-ass Hiroshima prefecture.
Oh well, that's enough negativity for one post. Despite the pecuniary difficulties, the mediocre social life and the absence of a person to hold me oh-so-tight, I still am happy with my life here. As I've said a thousand times before, in the end it all boils down to my students. As long as they still make me happy every day, I'll keep wanting to stick around.
Looking at my life in Hiroshima requires looking at the two sides of it: the school side, and the other side. The school side requires little reflection: I'm very happy here. Every new experience I have here makes me glad that I re-contracted for another year, and leads me to believe that I'll continue to re-contract until they kick me out of here. Of course there are frustrating days and tiring days, and days where I just want to walk out of here in the middle of the day. But that's usually just due to my exhaustion from living abroad for so long. On my way out of school on those days, if I run across one of my favorite students and have a cute conversation with them, or even just a brief interaction, it can be enough to lift my spirits and make me look forward to coming back the next day. And that keeps happening, without fail.
As always, it will be some time before I know how much of a difference I'm making with my current crop of students (especially friggin' 1-3 class...), and how many of them will remember me in the long run and actually keep in touch (probably around zero), but that's unavoidable. I still look forward to coming to work almost every day, and I think that's a pretty rare situation these days. So, SATISFACTION LEVEL: HIGH
On the other hand, there's my life away from school, which is definitely a different situation. When I was in Japan studying here 3 years ago, I was only at my university in Kanazawa for 6 weeks. But within that very short span of time, I made a very good friend in Yashima, who has gone on to become one of my best friends anywhere. After a year in Hiroshima, I have not made a friend anywhere near that close. I don't even have any male Japanese friends here, other than the one college student who interned at my school last month, and who I have yet to get together with outside of school. I have a few female Japanese friends, most of whom are girls who started out as failed romantic interests, but I'd classify them more as acquaintances, who I just go out to dinner with every now and then. The one exception here would be Rie, who works in the main office at my school. She was one of the first friends I made here, and we still go out for dinner and drinks (frequently a lot of drinks) pretty often. She's a good friend, but I can still tell that we're probably never going to become all that close.
Maybe it sounds like I'm splitting hairs about the closeness of my friends, I don't know. I have friends among the other ALTs in Hiroshima (and elsewhere) too of course, but among the few ALTs I really consider to be good friends, only one of them lives close enough to hang out with regularly. All the rest either live on the other side of the prefecture, or in another prefecture entirely. Some of them I see every few months, some I'm lucky to see more than once or twice a year. So in the end I'm left with plenty of friends and acquaintances scattered all over the region, but very few close friends, near enough to hang out with anytime. Which means that more often than not, I spend the evenings by myself in my apartment, with my laptop, TV, and a DVD player to keep me company. I've never been one to go out for dinner or drinks by myself...I find myself doing so here, but only occasionally. Yeah, yeah, I know. Get off your ass, go hit some bars downtown and get yourself some more friends. But striking up conversation with total strangers is something I've never been comfortable doing, in any country, in any language.
Which brings me to the other area in my life severely lacking: the ladies. I don't particularly want to go into much detail about it, but suffice to say, all is quiet on the eastern front. The big problem is I just don't meet very many girls my age. I meet plenty of students and teachers, but they're all no good for various obvious reasons. This is why I'd love to have a male Japanese friend around my age. The way most young people in this country go about meeting new people of the opposite sex is via a goukon, or blind group date. A guy and a girl who are friends organize the thing, each inviting an equal number of their friends (of the same sex) to meet at a restaurant to eat, drink, drink some more, then get to know each other. With luck, by the end of the night people will be exchanging cell phone info, and maybe - if a whopping success - head to a love hotel.
Not that I'm just looking for drunk floozies to take to a love hotel, but I've been on goukon before, and it's really an ideal way to meet people. The girls become especially interested if a gaijin shows up, and the extensive drinking promptly removes all mental barriers and gets everybody talking. It's become more and more apparent to me that what I really need, in order to meet more girls my age and try to spruce up my desolate love life, is a male Japanese friend who is well-connected and could organize things like this every now and then. Because without something like that I'm left to my own devices, and as we all know, my own devices ain't worth shit.
The other aspect of my life here that's less than rosy is my financial situation. JETs make a notoriously fat salary, but I have more to pay for every month than any JET I know. I send home 50,000 yen every month to pay for various shitty loans and bills, but the main culprit here is my rent: 62,000 yen, unsubsidized. Not many people I know have a rent that high, and those that do get their rent subsidized by their contracting organization, so they're only actually paying half that.
The most frustrating part is that I did this to myself. They had an apartment waiting for me when I got here that was 5,000 yen ($40, people!) a month. But it was a dump, with no air conditioning, with bugs and a funny smell, and located way out in the ghettos of Ujina, aka the asshole of Hiroshima. So I spent a month looking at apartments all over the city, and settled on a place that I knew was expensive, but was new and high-quality, and had a ridiculously convenient location.
Because of that choice, I still have no money left at the end of every month. Everyone I know has gone home at least once during the past year, some twice. Everyone I know has taken at least one trip somewhere cool, such as Okinawa, Korea, China, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, etc. Everyone I know has a snazzy new digital camera, or at least the money in the bank to buy one if they wanted to. Not to mention an apartment that is fully-furnished, comfortable, and downright homey. I have done none of these things, have bought none of these things. Do I regret my decision to take the comfortable, expensive apartment over the crummy, cheap apartment? Yes. Would I be regretting my decision had I done the opposite? Without a doubt. This whole problem would be fixed if I could just get some of my rent subsidized. Stupid cheap-ass Hiroshima prefecture.
Oh well, that's enough negativity for one post. Despite the pecuniary difficulties, the mediocre social life and the absence of a person to hold me oh-so-tight, I still am happy with my life here. As I've said a thousand times before, in the end it all boils down to my students. As long as they still make me happy every day, I'll keep wanting to stick around.