Today I considered my future options and realized that I was seriously entertaining the possibility of only being in Japan for seven and a half more months. Japan is great, but my present job prospects are not. I've done my time here, and hopefully I'll get a language certificate out of it in addition to useful teaching experience. Furthermore, if I want to come back, I feel like I have a good foot in the door in the form of a recommendation and experience. I am kind of preempting my earlier plans of looking for another kind of job, but this way my path will be set by early January, so I'd have to have a solid alternative prospect before New Years, which seems unlikely. So for now I'm going to provisionally plan to leave.
I need to decide what I want to do before leaving. I will have one more long holiday (New Years), and then the time between finishing work and returning to America. Ideally I think I would use the time in March to go to interviews and travel based on that, but I could put it off if something comes up. As for sight-seeing, I'd like to go to Nagoya, Kyoto, and Kanazawa. Kyoto is mainly to check off my list. Kanazawa might be a convenient stop on the way to or from Kyoto. To be honest though, I might skip one or both if I don't find a good incentive to go. Nagoya could probably be a long weekend trip--there's not a whole lot that I want to see. As for experiences, I would still like to do a farmstay. That might be difficult if I don't do it soon. Finally, I would like to give bikepacking one more good shot before I hang up my helmet. So I think that's my list:
- farmstay (Sept 14th or 21st)
- bikepacking - (October 12th)
- Nagoya (November 2nd)
- Kanazawa (New Years?)
- Kyoto (New Years?)
As far as moving back is concerned, my biggest investments have been my bike, violin, climbing gear, and bikepacking gear. The violin and climbing gear I will probably ship home. The bike I'll sell--I'll get an evaluation from Hard Off and then try to sell it and the panniers for a bit more, and if I fail I'll take it back to Hard Off. I might try to sell my hammock stuff, or I might just take it home. I'm pretty sure that some employee will be interested in my rice cooker, and if not I can probably get a bit for it from the second hand shop. Hopefully I'll get enough money out of all that to pay for my vacation to Kyoto or Kanazawa, hah. Checking the flights to the US, there doesn't seem to be any variation in the dates, probably because it's so far out. Right now the price is about $820 regardless of where I fly from or to. I probably won't buy my flight until New Years, which will be about three months before I leave--that should be enough time.
Back to the jobs. I had planned to apply to four kinds of jobs--international/private schools, programming, translation, and anything else that looked interesting. By going home I'm heading down the education path and improving my prospects with the education route, so there's no point in seriously interviewing for that kind of job. Most translation jobs require the JLPT N1, and I won't find out what my score is until mid-February, which will be too late for me to change my plans. I'm not very optimistic about programming, and I don't want to work in Tokyo or Osaka so I don't think I have much of a shot there. Finally, while there are no doubt other jobs that might interest me, the only way I can imagine finding them would be by going to a career fair type thing. It seems like a waste of time to browse through hundreds or thousands of job listings to see if one piques my interest just from a website's description. Looking further at career fairs, there's only one that I could attend before March - MyNavi Global Career Expo, in Tokyo, the Saturday before Christmas. There isn't much information about it, so I'll have to check back. I should probably do one more search for career fairs in October or November.
My reduced interest in jobs does not mean that I won't interview. In fact, I think it will be a perfect time to interview, because there won't be any pressure, and as long as I conduct myself well, it might lead to an open door in the future. I say this particularly with regards to translation jobs and programming. I'm not sure I could honestly interview for a teaching position. I'll give the local schools (all four of them?) a shot since it's convenient, but I don't think I'll try to travel.
As for other goals in the meantime, my first priority is to pass the JLPT. I would also like to at least give the taiko a try. I want to continue climbing to stay in shape during the week, and I'll play tennis on Saturday morning to help me get ready for going home. I think the violin helps my mindset, but it's last priority. I want to start going to church again, and I think I can manage it if I maintain this driven mindset.
One thing I need to figure out to survive this interim time (really just the next four months, I guess) is how I can avoid being a burden at the junior high school. I'd like to get to know the other teachers, but they're so busy that I'm afraid to talk to them, and they never talk to me. I don't feel like I contribute much in the lessons, but it's hard to know what will be taught until the day before the lesson, and by then it's too difficult to discuss things.
This plan might seem strange considering my history, because if I carry out this plan, it will have been the third time of pursuing more or less the same goal. Granted, the first time I probably made a good decision to pull out since it seemed that I wouldn't be getting the job required for me to progress. The second time though, four years ago, I was working on the same kind of program that I'm considering now, and I withdrew despite being almost halfway finished. My main reason was because I felt sickened by the cultural brainwashing and the lack of focus on actual teaching skills. Further, I was intimidated by the prospect of student teaching, especially after hearing some horror stories, and I was convinced that I didn't want to teach in the US anyway. Finally, I was thoroughly enjoying my programming class, and felt like I had a superior future in that.
What is different this time? First, the cultural brainwashing should be alleviated due to my choice of attending a Christian school. Student teaching is still intimidating and I am still not thrilled to teach in the US. However, teaching in Japan will have given me two years of actual classroom observation experience, which is something I lacked before. I think it will help my confidence. Finally, while I haven't given up on programming, my past struggles with the job search and pursuing independent projects have shown me that it may not be the ideal path I thought it was. Previously, I was also concerned about a teacher's salary, compared to which a programming job seems like a dream. Now I'm more at peace with the idea of not having a family and not living as upper-middle class, especially since a desire to leave the country might be inevitable.
To me, this seems like a logical refutation of the accusation that I'm repeating my past failures. But I do think it would be profitable to remind myself of my thought processes that lead me to the decisions. Unfortunately, I wrote one blog post in 2015 which was mainly an event summary and thoughts about my cashier job, and my posts in late 2014 were quite short, so I don't think I have a way to find out what I was thinking. I'm glad that this year I have considerably improved my writing habits.
I need to decide what I want to do before leaving. I will have one more long holiday (New Years), and then the time between finishing work and returning to America. Ideally I think I would use the time in March to go to interviews and travel based on that, but I could put it off if something comes up. As for sight-seeing, I'd like to go to Nagoya, Kyoto, and Kanazawa. Kyoto is mainly to check off my list. Kanazawa might be a convenient stop on the way to or from Kyoto. To be honest though, I might skip one or both if I don't find a good incentive to go. Nagoya could probably be a long weekend trip--there's not a whole lot that I want to see. As for experiences, I would still like to do a farmstay. That might be difficult if I don't do it soon. Finally, I would like to give bikepacking one more good shot before I hang up my helmet. So I think that's my list:
- farmstay (Sept 14th or 21st)
- bikepacking - (October 12th)
- Nagoya (November 2nd)
- Kanazawa (New Years?)
- Kyoto (New Years?)
As far as moving back is concerned, my biggest investments have been my bike, violin, climbing gear, and bikepacking gear. The violin and climbing gear I will probably ship home. The bike I'll sell--I'll get an evaluation from Hard Off and then try to sell it and the panniers for a bit more, and if I fail I'll take it back to Hard Off. I might try to sell my hammock stuff, or I might just take it home. I'm pretty sure that some employee will be interested in my rice cooker, and if not I can probably get a bit for it from the second hand shop. Hopefully I'll get enough money out of all that to pay for my vacation to Kyoto or Kanazawa, hah. Checking the flights to the US, there doesn't seem to be any variation in the dates, probably because it's so far out. Right now the price is about $820 regardless of where I fly from or to. I probably won't buy my flight until New Years, which will be about three months before I leave--that should be enough time.
Back to the jobs. I had planned to apply to four kinds of jobs--international/private schools, programming, translation, and anything else that looked interesting. By going home I'm heading down the education path and improving my prospects with the education route, so there's no point in seriously interviewing for that kind of job. Most translation jobs require the JLPT N1, and I won't find out what my score is until mid-February, which will be too late for me to change my plans. I'm not very optimistic about programming, and I don't want to work in Tokyo or Osaka so I don't think I have much of a shot there. Finally, while there are no doubt other jobs that might interest me, the only way I can imagine finding them would be by going to a career fair type thing. It seems like a waste of time to browse through hundreds or thousands of job listings to see if one piques my interest just from a website's description. Looking further at career fairs, there's only one that I could attend before March - MyNavi Global Career Expo, in Tokyo, the Saturday before Christmas. There isn't much information about it, so I'll have to check back. I should probably do one more search for career fairs in October or November.
My reduced interest in jobs does not mean that I won't interview. In fact, I think it will be a perfect time to interview, because there won't be any pressure, and as long as I conduct myself well, it might lead to an open door in the future. I say this particularly with regards to translation jobs and programming. I'm not sure I could honestly interview for a teaching position. I'll give the local schools (all four of them?) a shot since it's convenient, but I don't think I'll try to travel.
As for other goals in the meantime, my first priority is to pass the JLPT. I would also like to at least give the taiko a try. I want to continue climbing to stay in shape during the week, and I'll play tennis on Saturday morning to help me get ready for going home. I think the violin helps my mindset, but it's last priority. I want to start going to church again, and I think I can manage it if I maintain this driven mindset.
One thing I need to figure out to survive this interim time (really just the next four months, I guess) is how I can avoid being a burden at the junior high school. I'd like to get to know the other teachers, but they're so busy that I'm afraid to talk to them, and they never talk to me. I don't feel like I contribute much in the lessons, but it's hard to know what will be taught until the day before the lesson, and by then it's too difficult to discuss things.
This plan might seem strange considering my history, because if I carry out this plan, it will have been the third time of pursuing more or less the same goal. Granted, the first time I probably made a good decision to pull out since it seemed that I wouldn't be getting the job required for me to progress. The second time though, four years ago, I was working on the same kind of program that I'm considering now, and I withdrew despite being almost halfway finished. My main reason was because I felt sickened by the cultural brainwashing and the lack of focus on actual teaching skills. Further, I was intimidated by the prospect of student teaching, especially after hearing some horror stories, and I was convinced that I didn't want to teach in the US anyway. Finally, I was thoroughly enjoying my programming class, and felt like I had a superior future in that.
What is different this time? First, the cultural brainwashing should be alleviated due to my choice of attending a Christian school. Student teaching is still intimidating and I am still not thrilled to teach in the US. However, teaching in Japan will have given me two years of actual classroom observation experience, which is something I lacked before. I think it will help my confidence. Finally, while I haven't given up on programming, my past struggles with the job search and pursuing independent projects have shown me that it may not be the ideal path I thought it was. Previously, I was also concerned about a teacher's salary, compared to which a programming job seems like a dream. Now I'm more at peace with the idea of not having a family and not living as upper-middle class, especially since a desire to leave the country might be inevitable.
To me, this seems like a logical refutation of the accusation that I'm repeating my past failures. But I do think it would be profitable to remind myself of my thought processes that lead me to the decisions. Unfortunately, I wrote one blog post in 2015 which was mainly an event summary and thoughts about my cashier job, and my posts in late 2014 were quite short, so I don't think I have a way to find out what I was thinking. I'm glad that this year I have considerably improved my writing habits.
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