Hello, my name is Ciara Takayanagi and I graduated from UVM with a double major in English and Asian Studies in 2017. I studied Japanese for two years at UVM and studied abroad in Tokyo at Aoyama Gakuin for a semester my junior year. Then, after graduation, I got my Master’s degree in TESOL online through SIT in Brattleboro, VT while I lived and taught in Japan. I grew up in Vermont and moved back here after returning to Japan and I am working on my teaching license to teach ELL in public schools here.
After studying abroad in Tokyo I knew I wasn’t done with my time in Japan, I had loved it so much. So I applied to the JET program during my senior year at UVM. I had many friends who told me about JET and one of my classmates from my Japanese classes had actually gotten the job and now lived in Japan. It sounded perfect for me because I had an interest in teaching, I loved Japan and really wanted to go back there to live for a while, and I wanted to improve my Japanese. JET placed me in Takasaki, Gunma in an elementary school and a special needs school and I had the time of my life.
For the interview my dad drove me to Boston and I went to the Japanese consulate there to interview in front of a panel. It was my first very professional interview so I was nervous, but I had a very nice group of panelists that were asking me questions, which helped with the nerves. My interview was about 2 years ago so it’s hard to remember the details but I do remember they asked me a lot about my resume and previous experiences. I had done some Camp Counselor training courses at a summer camp and I remember them really zeroing in on that and asking what my duties were and what I learned. I remember them asking me why I wanted to do JET and where I wanted to be placed. At the end of the interview they did talk to me in Japanese to check my Japanese speaking level. I was honest on my application though that I had only taken 1 ½ years of Japanese at the time, so they didn’t ask me anything too difficult. All in all the interview only took around 20 minutes and then I was free to leave.
I don’t remember how soon after the interview I heard back, but I got an email congratulating me for passing the interview and that I was hired to move to Japan through JET after my UVM graduation. I was beyond excited and wanted to start making plans. Unfortunately, they don’t actually place you for a while after that, so while I knew I was going to Japan, I had no idea where in Japan I would be going. Then I think a month or two later I got an email with my town and prefecture in it so I was able to join some Facebook groups online for that prefecture to start buying things and planning for packing. JET is awesome because the company pays for your airline ticket to Japan and back if you fulfill your contract that you sign with them. So I didn’t have to worry about money for the flight. But I did start saving because I heard from many people that the first month on JET can be very expensive because there will be a lot of misc. New costs rights upon arriving and before you get paid. I didn’t find out any information about the school I was going to be teaching in until literally I was driving to the airport to leave. But after arriving in Tokyo, we had orientation in Shinjuku for a couple of days and then the Gunma crew left on a bus to our new city. Takasaki actually has a ton of ALTs. When I arrived there were 81 foreign teachers working mostly through JET and a few directly hired by the Board of Education in Takasaki. I was very lucky to get a base school that I went to every day and a special needs visit school that I went to once a month. We had a month of summer vacation time in the schools to learn about the school and prepare for our first lessons. The city had volunteers from the community to take us out and get set up with phones and moved into our apartments. We weren’t allowed to choose our own places, the BOE assigned apartments to us that were near our schools. My apartment was VERY tiny and a 5 minute drive from my school which was very convenient, but I soon learned that the nearest train station was a 40 min walk away. I tried to get around for a month with just my bicycle, but it was a 40 minute bike ride from my house to the city center and it was very hard to get to all of the meetings, especially in bad weather. So luckily I had gotten an international driving permit which allowed me to drive after I rented a car long term.
It was so interesting to work for a Japanese company. On the one hand, I don’t think we were treated the same or held to the same rigorous rules that Japanese people had to follow working at the same places since we were foreigners, but there were great things and negative things that I found. One negative things was my tattoos. I had at the time one small tattoo on each ankle, but they were absolutely not allowed to be seen, so even on the hottest and most humid days of the year, I had to wear long pants that covered my ankles completely. I don’t think I ever got used to that. My school was more gentle on the rules when it came to piercings and nail color. The teachers were allowed to paint their nails and I was allowed to keep my cartilage piercing in my ear at school. I was shocked by how late the Japanese teachers had to stay at school. I had co-workers who wouldn’t leave the school until 9 or 10 at night, but again, because I was a foreigner, I was allowed to leave exactly when my contracted time was up, even if it was in the middle of the school meeting which happened once a week in the afternoon. At my school no one spoke any English so I had to get better at Japanese really fast to communicate with everyone. But the school meeting was always in Japanese way above my head so they were fine with me quietly dipping out. As for my schedule I worked 5 days a week from 8am-4pm. I would have 2-5 45 minute classes a day and could use all the free blocks to prepare materials, study Japanese, read books, plan lessons, or meet with teachers. This worked very well for me since I started getting my Master’s online in my third year in Japan, once I got my work done for school I was able to do my classwork online at my desk. Since my school was an elementary school, none of the home room teachers had any experience teaching English so I was told on my first day that even though I was hired to be the Assistant Language Teacher, I would in fact be the main English teacher for all of the classes. This was a very steep learning curve as I had never taught before, but we were provided with a curriculum to follow, so I started with that and built my lessons from there. Once I got the hang of it, it was a blast.
There were definite plus sides and downsides to this. On the positive side, everyone at my school was very kind and welcoming to me in the beginning. They offered to help and when I got sick, helped me go to the hospital and get checked out. There were a lot of festivals year-round in my city so I got to see a lot of wonderful things in Japanese daily life. I also learned Japanese really quickly because no one at my school spoke English. I enjoyed going to work parties a couple of times a year with all of my co-workers until COVID hit and they were all canceled. It was fun to get to see everyone outside of work.
The negative side was I never really got to know any Japanese people until I met my husband and became a part of his family. Even though everyone was always kind and friendly, it was very hard to make connections in the school because of the language and because of how busy teachers are. Many teachers expressed to me that they would love to go out and eat or do karaoke or hang out together. I wholeheartedly agreed but with each person the invitation was extended once and never mentioned again. I worked with amazing, kind educators who always wanted to chat in school in between lessons, but none of them were interested in a relationship outside of school. I heard that from a lot of foreign teachers who I worked with. So outside of work I spent time with other foreigners until I met my husband and he eventually took me home to meet his wonderful family. Then I had a connection to a Japanese family and felt that I could learn even more about Japanese culture. They are farmers and invited me to so many wonderful events and family traditions. One of my favorites was making mochi together with the whole family. My cousin was visiting me one year when we did it and we had a wonderful time making and eating mochi all together. I didn’t make any friends through work, but I can’t wait to go back to Japan to spend more time with my in-laws.
I think there are two groups of people who go to Japan to teach. There are those who are actually interested in teaching, and those who just want to have a job while they explore Japan. Both experiences are equally valid and worthwhile. JET lends itself perfectly for either outcome. I was lucky, even though it was very stressful to be lead teacher with no training, I ended up learning so much and got inspired to start my MATESOL online so I could make teaching English my career. If someone wants to teach and live in Japan long term there are a couple options. To make more money teaching English, it is best to get certified in TESOL or get a Master’s in TESOL so you can work in a University instead of K-12. I have a friend who got the same Master’s degree from the same school who got her MA and then started working in a college in Gunma and has been there for over 10 years. If someone wants to live in Japan long-term and not teach, they will DEFINITELY need high level Japanese. There is an exam to take in Japan to prove your fluency and once you do, you can work in other fields besides English teaching. I have a few friends I met in my first year in Japan who are still there 6 years later, working in different companies and fields. And if you want to do JET just to have a ticket to Japan and explore for a year, DO IT! As long as you do the job earnestly during your working hours, you will get so much time to explore. There are holidays off of work almost every month and every weekend is an opportunity for a day trip. There were a lot of people on JET like this and I think they also really enjoyed their time for a year or two.
SIT (School for International Training) in Brattleboro has an amazing MATESOL program and MA in International Education program that I couldn’t recommend more. They also offer a small scholarship to current JETs and JET alumni. As part of the program one of my professors came to visit me and my school in Japan and mentored me for three days. I learned so much valuable information about my own teaching during that time and it really set me up for success. If someone wants to be an ELL teacher I recommend SIT a lot. It isn’t accredited for teacher licensing though. I’m doing the Vermont Peer Review Program for that so I can teach in Vermont public schools, but it is a fantastic school and can easily be done anywhere in the world.
You don’t have to do JET right after graduation either! There were plenty of people like me who applied while in school, but also a large number of people who were applying and moving to Japan in their late 20s and early 30s to try something new. And if you don’t get in the first time but still want to go, keep trying! You can reapply every year.
Since your placement is very much a grab bag and you don’t know what age kids you will be teaching or even what town you will be in until you have already accepted the job, there is a chance you don’t love your location or school. I have heard of cases of that happening. But when it comes to the school, the teachers shuffle around every April to new schools, so if there is someone you don’t get along well with at your school, there is a chance they may leave part way through or awesome new teachers might come in. For me, the best part of the entire experience was my students. Even when I was stressed out by Japanese bureaucracy and paperwork or feeling very lonely in my apartment in the countryside, I would come to school and smile, laugh, and play games with the kids and would be totally rejuvenated. If you are having a hard time with some part of adulting in Japan, I just recommend you have fun and get to know the students as much as you can. Also, my last recommendation is definitely to come with an International Driver’s Permit even if you think you won’t drive. I didn’t think I would but it saved my life! It’s only valid for your first year in Japan and then you have to get a Japanese driver’s license, but it is so worth it. The service areas and parking areas along the highway are tourist destinations in and of themselves! Rent a car for a weekend and go exploring!
The view from my apartment! I had beautiful views of the mountains, rice paddies, and the sunset every day!
One of our school lunches: Takasaki-don! The kids didn’t all love it because it had clams hiding inside, but I always loved it. And it came with egg soup and annin tofu fruit salad!
This is a picture from 2018 when my family came to Japan to visit me! Tomo (at the time my boyfriend but now my husband) and I showed them around all our favorite places in Gunma!