It's official!

Last night I got word at the JET General Information Meeting, the news I have been waiting these past weeks for: placement. It's news I greet with great joy, a sense of relief, and a little bit of trepidation.

I'm headed to Fukuoka Prefecture.

So where is that? Fukuoka Prefecture lies on the the northern end of Kyushu, the southern most of the four main islands. It is, also the prefecture where my parents were born, and where many of my relatives live. The two major cities in Fukuoka Prefecture are Fukuoka City and Kitakyushu, and the Prefecture has a total population of just over 5 million (at least according to wiki). It's one of the larger prefectures, but with a relatively small population.

As I'm not yet assigned to any specific town or city, its most likely that I'm going to be a Prefectural ALT (PA). Things can go in a number of directions from there. It's possible that I might be assigned to a single senior highschool, joining them mid-way through the year (Japan's school year goes from April to March, and the kids will be away for summer vacation until September). Another option may be that I will be a sort of floating ALT, assigned to several junior highschools, and even elementary schools! In the coming weeks, I should be contacted with the specifics of my placement, my job, and where I will be living for the next year or so.

While I'm close to my relatives, it's doubtful I'll be assigned to Fukuoka City or Kitakyushu. This is both good and bad, I suppose. Good because my relatives aren't too close at hand, but close enough that if I really find myself in the shitter I can call on them. Bad because I'll more than likely lose the convenience that living in a major urban centre brings, like 24 hour taxis and a hospital with an emergency ward open at all times. I won't know of course what my exact situation will be, but I can't wait to find out.

In hindsight, I'm actually fairly lucky in getting word of my placement now. Some people may not get word until mid July, and with the few weeks it may take to get the formal letter of employment from their Contracting Organisation, they may not know where they're going until just before we're set to leave.

And here I was complaining about a few weeks!

Potent Portables

A shameless paraphrasing of one of the funnier SNL skits in recent years. I am still in JET Purgatory, awaiting news of placement, but rest assured when I do find out where I will be going, I will blog that event even as I am whisked away to Paradise.

I promised last post that I would say more about my new laptop, and as the canny reader will no doubt clue in from the title, my Dell Inspiron 6400 has arrived. In fact, this post is being written on my new baby.

The good stuff: Intel Centrino Core Duo-Processor running at 1.83 ghz, 1 GB DDR RAM clocking in at 533 mhz, 256 MB ATI Radeon Mobility X1400 Video card, Sound Blaster Audigy MB sound card, 15.1" Widescreen display, 8x DVD Burner.

The bad stuff: only the fact that this puppy beats my desktop PC in everything but loudness (my new baby doesn't even purr like a kitten it's so damned quiet...). Also, given that's it's virtually a virgin XP install, it isn't falling apart at the seams like my desktop.

Ok, so it's fair to say that I'm in honeymoon bliss with my laptop. Considering the kind of crap that installs itself into computers these day, both legitimate and viral, only time will tell if I will need to make use of Dell's "Recovery" CD.

I have already installed FFXI on my new laptop, and will shortly be installing, probably, Ritual's latest offering Sin: Emergence. No doubt it will run far smoother on this. You might have guessed that this laptop, on top of all that a laptop represents to JETs in terms of classroom productivity, is meant to be my gaming rig while I am in Japan. The decision to build a PC in Japan has been floating around in my mind for some time, but it seems to me that there is a dearth of PC gaming in Japan for those interested in games that are not hentai or daughter/sister/princess/slave simulator. Building a PC in Japan may not be worth it unless I stay longer than a year. So for now, trusty 6400, the spotlight is on you!

What does my new laptop look like? Google "Dell Inspiron 6400" you lazy schmuck!

Hurry up and wait.

If you read enough military fiction, history, or biographical accounts, you will inevitably come across the term "hurry up and wait," most commonly uttered by the foot-slogging infantryman. Military operations require much planning and logistical support, but as the famous axiom relates, no plan survives contact with the enemy. The enemy in this case of course is the unexpected, and so best laid military plans often starts to unravel as delays pop up, due to bad weather, mechanical failure, or other acts of god. These delays trickle down to the lowly pre-mission infantryman, who has scrambled to get his kit sorted and ready, only to be told to wait while other elements of the operation play catch-up.

Hurry up and wait.

I am, of course not a soldier, but it is still a sentiment I can appreciate. After the flurry of preparation, mainly getting my certificate sorted and delivered, I'm now marking time in a sort of JET limbo. Allow me to clarify.

By now, virtually all of the Ottawa short-list, and most of the Toronto short-list JETs have gotten their placements (EDIT: This is pure speculation on my part, based solely on the replies to the "Placement" thread on the Toronto JETAA forums. I don't really know, at this point, what percentage of Canadian JETs have gotten placement offers at this time). The upgraded short-listers (that is, upgraded from the alternate list) have, as far as I can tell, not recieved word of placement. This makes sense of course. Those who were from the start on the short-list had almost a month to accept and deliver their paperwork to their JET Co-ordinator. On the other hand, the alternate-listers had merely to formally accept their alternate list status, with their paperwork required only in the case that they got upgraded to short-list.

Paperwork is sent to CLAIR, the Japanese agency responsible for the placements of JETs across Japan. The short-listers presumably had their paperwork sent at the beginning of the month, some time in the first week of May. The upgradees on the other hand probably have their paperwork sent overseas as it comes in to the JET Co-ordinator's office. So if the original short-listers are even now being informed of their placements, no doubt my placement will come perhaps a week later.

This is where the anxiety kicks in. Being on the JET short-list means that I will be going to Japan, barring any bizzarre discrepancies between my medical certificate and my application form. As it stands, going to Japan is as guaranteed as it's going to be barring acts of god, dog, or whatever else the cosmos throws into the mix. But there is still that nagging doubt in the recesses of my psyche, of not going, of somehow being rejected at the very last of selection stages.

Hurry up and wait indeed.

Of course my worrying has not stopped me from buying a new laptop. More on that in a later post though...

Japan GO!

I pick up this blog, well over a year after the last entry.

I'll say what a difference a day makes, and for a long while, that day will be May 5th, 2006.

My day began at 5:30AM, a legacy of 7-4 deal sign shifts at Canadian Tire. As I rolled out of bed and stumbled into my desk chair, I automatically turned the TV and PC on, by finger and toe, and rested my eyes while my PC came on. My fingers automatically navigating to the Email hotbutton on my keyboard, I watched sleepy-eyed as the spam rolled in and Outlook Express signalled completion with a chime. Nestled amongst the spam was an email from the JET Programme coordinator in Toronto, with the innocuous subject line of "JET Programme Update!" Another email telling me about upcoming meetings, I figured. When I opened the email, I read the following:

Dear Michael

I am writing to let you know that I would like to offer you a position on the final short list of JET Programme participants. Please write or call me back ASAP to let me know if you would like to accept, and/or if you have any initial questions. My direct line is 416-XXX-XXXX.

Congratulations!

I stared dumbly at this email for some 30 seconds before what was written registered in my sleep addled brain. With the sudden intensity of a summer storm, my mind came into full alertness. The blood pounded in my ears and my breath quickened as I read and reread every word, still not believing that I had not made some sort of misinterpretation.

I got up, feeling weak-kneed and more than a little shocked. I called down to my father, awake as ever at 5:34AM, and calmly told him what happened. My mother, also just stirring awake, heard as well. We returned to my computer and reread the email. Beyond all expectation, I had made it to the JET Programme Short List.

I should explain that I had received, exactly 1 month previous (April 5th), I had recieved a letter informing me I had made it to the ALTERNATE JET ALT short-list. In other words, the stand-by list. 24 hours had passed before I could digest that news, and my the end, I had come to the conclusion that I would not be going to Japan through the JET Programme. I was crushed, and over the next month or so, a sort of defiant anger slowly festered in me as I railed against the ridiculousness of a system that made you wait 8-9 months, from sending out your application form to getting your final reply. Nuts to JET, I thought, and after a 2 week funk, I got on with my life.

So you'll understand that when I read that email, which moved me from stand-by to short list, that bit of news didn't sink in for a few hours. When it did, I had a stupid grin on my face the rest of the day. My closest friends recieved a confusing email just before I left for work, so now I'll take a moment to clarify what should in the next little while happen.

I will recieve shortly more information regarding the ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) position, as well as the forms necessary to get the ball rolling on getting a work visa for Japan. Before my information is sent to CLAIR, the Japanese agency that handles the placements in Japan for the JET Programme, I need to complete my medical health certificate and get it to the Japanese Consulate. I had my form initially filled out on Friday, that day of days, got my chest x-ray today, and tomorrow, I go back to my clinic to get the form completed. Then its next-day delivery by mail to the Consulate. Once I get my placement offer, its a mad rush to get my affairs in order before I leave on August 5th.

Yes. August 5th. 12 weeks away.

I should add that at this point, placement is not guaranteed. Much of this is dependent on my medical certificate, which cannot be significantly be different than my medical self-assessment I submitted with my application form. Also, there is of course still a chance that I will not, for some reason or another, be given a placement offer by CLAIR. However, unlike the news I received in early April, I choose this time to revel in the knowledge that in all likelyhood, I will be in Japan this summer.

I can't wait...