Not Just for Native Speakers: Taking the Kanji Kentei

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By Casey Waller

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When people study Japanese as a second language, the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) is often seen as a main goal to achieve. An exam that is often overlooked is the Kanji Kentei (漢字検定). This exam is aimed at native Japanese speakers and primary school, middle school and high school students take this exam to see how their kanji knowledge is progressing. The JLPT does not test Japanese learners on their writing abilities, so the Kanji Kentei makes up for a knowledge gap that the JLPT leaves out. So, I believe that this exam is also beneficial for Japanese learners and not just native speakers.

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“So Leh we make ah memory…

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do sometin’
That new tuh meh,
Make sometin’ that we could share,
Post it up inside ah here…”

                                                                               Machel Montano Ft. Tarrus Riley, 2016

By Apphia Pereira

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Memory yuh say? So said, so done. Several in fact!

As I embarked on a journey into a world of drastically different cultures, I was ready and enthralled with my upcoming prospects.

My name is Apphia Pereira, some call me Phee or Pheefi, and I come from the beautiful Twin Island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Coming to Japan has always been a G.O.A.L of mine and honestly, the timing, though at one point I may have thought was too late, is one that I can now appreciate. I applied after a really difficult year and I did not get any of my three choices but I also ticked the no preference box because I did not particularly care where I was placed. I was just looking for adventure and fulfillment. I honestly didn’t mind experiencing what the rural life had to offer.

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Experiencing Hojo: The Hojo Festival

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By Justin Woodard

I was not really sure what to expect from the three-day Hojo festival. Leading up to the event I was told there would be fights, broken mikoshi, and a parade. Naturally, I was having a hard time imagining how all of this would fit together into one festival, especially one in Hojo. After all, when I arrived in Hojo for the first time, it gave me the impression of being a quiet, small town, similar to the one in the United States I grew up in. The only way to find out for sure how everything would come together was to go to the festival and witness everything for myself.

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The Joys of this Earth: The Otomouma Horse Festival

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By Kathryn Shea

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Four year old me had many ideas about what I wanted for the future. Some included wanting to be a paleontologist or astronaut, discovering new species of the saurian or alien kind. Others were as mundane as wanting to be an ice cream truck driver because I liked the music. That was before I discovered how creepy that tinny music could be. Yikes.

One of the dreams that stuck around for longer (than my two week dream of selling ice cream, for example) was being a horse rider. Didn’t matter if it was as a rodeo rider, rancher, racer or jumper. I just wanted to ride horses. My aunt let me ride her horse a few times and my grandparents bought me cowgirl outfits when we went to see rodeo rides. My friends encouraged this by taking me riding for their birthday parties. Even if actually owning a horse or taking riding lessons wasn’t possible, I took every chance I could get to interact with horses.

So you can imagine how excited I got when I was told that there would a horse festival in Kikuma on October 20th.

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From One Island to Another

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By Christian Jalim

Hey everyone! I’m Christian and I am from the small country of Trinidad and Tobago (/ˈtrɪnɪdæd … təˈbeɪɡoʊ/). For those who don’t know, it’s actually a country in the Caribbean archipelago that comprises of two main islands, Trinidad… and… you guessed it… Tobago. I hail from the larger sister island, Trinidad but from a very small, rural village called Manzanilla (a name of Spanish origins but the pronunciation has been anglicized). Trinidad and Tobago is fairly known in the Western hemisphere, however, halfway across the world in Japan, especially in a Prefecture such as Ehime, my country is barely known to the locals, or so it may seem.

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A Sense of Solidarity: Running the First Ehime ALT Half Marathon

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By Rebecca Paskiet

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I ran the first and personally dubbed Ehime ALT Half Marathon on June 29th of this year with two other ALTs in Ozu, Ehime. This was to be my fifth official half marathon. It was to be their first. 

We were three total. Women. English teachers. Independent. Strong. Sore. Thirsty. Determined.  We finished.

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Unbeaten Paths: Ehime JETs 2019

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Compiled by Jordan Rocke

Introduction

When I first applied to JET, the question of “What sort of person becomes a JET?” was not at the forefront of my mind, but I certainly had an image. The image I had, of a young, straight out of university, genki American or British person, was certainly reinforced the sorts of people who appoint themselves representatives of the programme on social media.

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I am a Hero: Alienation & Consumption

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By Jordan Rocke

A fundamental part of this blog is, and always has been, reviews. Shaping our own experiences in such a way that others can get something out of them is a powerful way to communicate with audiences, and when that experience is something someone else can also take part in, a review is the most direct way to express that. Nowadays, the pop culture idea of what a review is still has this idea of being connected to a star rating or a number out of 100, but the reviews I’ve seen published in the last year are nothing like that. Take Joshua Hill’s review of his experience at Matsuyama castle, or Niall Magee’s experiences with VR in Tokyo. Both are very different ways of approaching very different materials, but both are essentially reviews.

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When Nothing Lasts: What I Will and Won’t Miss About Japan

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A JTE from my middle-school leaves a bag of oranges on my desk in December 2018. The oranges were from her home garden!

By Cassandra Mainiero

In her poem “Nothing Lasts,” American poet Jane Hirshfield writes: ” ‘Nothing lasts’—/ how bitterly the thought attends each loss. / “‘Nothing lasts’ – / a promise also of consolation.”

While Hirshfield may have not been speaking about the JET program, her words are applicable here. There are good and bad days in the Japan Exchange Teaching (JET) Program. There are things, people, and moments that you love as much as there things, people, and moments that you detest. You can be bitter that it doesn’t last. You can also be relieved.

As I reestablish my life in America, I am reflecting on Hirshfield’s words, and considering all the things I miss and don’t miss about JET. Here’s what I collected:

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