Life as it is... living in Japan

I am not sure if you noticed, but I lost a little weight. Naturally, this has become catalyst for a variety of interesting conversations about weight and weight-loss. A lot of people are shocked when I tell them I didn’t use a diet or detox program. I didn’t give up sugar, carbs, or gluten. I don’t have a gym membership. I eat Haagen-Dazs Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream like it is going out of fashion. Just so you know, it actually does say limited edition on the packaging. Better get another one for dessert tonight just in case! My point is, I am clearly not following any diet plan, so what’s my weight loss secret? Well, there is no secret. I lost weight for two reasons. First, I started exercising more. Second, my digestive system decided to start disapproving of my lifestyle choices. 皆さん、もう気づいたと思うけど、ちょっと体重が減った。それをきっかけに、体重減少等について面白い話が次々出てきた。私がダイエットしていないことに驚いた人が多かった。糖分、炭水化物、グルテンを普通に食べていた。スポーツクラブにも入っていない。今でもハーゲンダッツのチョコ・ファッジ・ブラウニーというアイスクリームをよく食べる。期間限定と書いてあるから、という言い訳をしながら、今日も食べよ

In September I participated in my belly dancing school’s annual performance. Now, I bet you’re wondering how many hobbies I actually have. Let me tell you, too many! I’m seriously never home! Many Japanese people find it strange that I have so many hobbies. Starting from a young age when students only participate in one club activity at school, Japanese people tend to have only one main hobby. They are often very good at this hobby, thanks to their concentrated approach. On the other hand, I tend to spread myself too thin and never be truly good at anything. I can see the advantages of both, but I like the multi-hobby approach personally. It suits me. Plus I get to do cool things like belly dancing! シルバーウィークにベリーダンスの発表会にはじめて参加した。「っていうか、ジャッキーはいくつ趣味があるの」って思うでしょう。多すぎるよ！家にほぼいないもん。 趣味がこんなにあるのがちょっと可笑しいと思う日本人が多い。日本人は学校の部活からはじまって、一つのことに集中する傾向がある。この集中的なやり方のおかげでその趣味においては非常に上手になる。一方、私はいろいろな趣味を持って、なかなか上達するのが難しい。両方ともそれなりに良い点があるけど、やっぱりいろいろな趣味に挑戦したい。ベリーダンスみたいに。 I first took up belly dancing 3 y

Every summer I fly to Tokyo twice to pick up the new ALTs who have come to Japan on the JET Programme to live and teach in Miyazaki. It is very exciting to be the first to meet the newcomers in person, and something that I look forward to every year. The JET Programme organizes a two day orientation for the new recruits, which includes a variety of workshops and lectures. This year I was once again invited to fly to Tokyo a day earlier to participate in the panel discussion, which I accepted enthusiastically. It is an honor to have the opportunity to share my experiences and the things that I have learned these past four years. I also love hearing the opinions of the other panelists, which are often so different from my own experiences. Japan may be a relatively homogenous society, but a lot of diversity can be found between the different prefectures and regions. For this reason, it can be a little hard to give answers that will be relevant to everyone who attends the panel, but at th

A few months ago one of my friends challenged me to write an article on some of the similarities between Japan and Australia. Ever since then, I have been struggling to come up with a list of things that are the same. My list to date contains: girl talk, being overfed by grandmothers, the growing dependency on technology, and the cruelty of high school girls. It’s a working progress. I was trying to avoid the obvious things that come with being human, like being afraid to make mistakes, etc., but that seemed to eliminate most of my list. To be honest, after months of thinking about this, I have come to the conclusion that it still surprises me how much is different. Things that I had assumed would be the same all over the world, turned out to be completely different.  I think by this stage I could probably write an entire encyclopaedia on all the differences I have come across. I won’t bore you with the entire series, but here are a few examples to highlight the sheer variety of diffe

I have just started my fifth year living and teaching in Japan, which means that I am officially a unicorn! Unicorns are the “spirit animal” of fifth year JET Programme participants. Each year has their own animal representative which is shown in the picture below. You can even get t-shirts online! Fifth year JETs are called unicorns because to other JETs, it sometimes seems like we don’t exist. Most of us don’t attend events anymore. Some of us have settled down with long term partners or children, others are more involved in the community or our hobbies. We have seen and done pretty much everything at least once. This is our everyday life, comfortable and familiar. 先月末、日本に来て 5 年目になった。やっとユニコーンになった！ JET プログラムの 5 年目の人はユニコーンと言われている。それぞれの年を表す動物がある。ネットで T シャツも買える。なぜ 5 年目がユニコーンになっているかというと、他の JET 参加者から見ると、存在していないそうだ。 5 年目のほとんどの人はイベントにあまり行かないと言われているのは事実だと思う。パートナーや子供がいる人もいる。又、日本のコミュニティの一員になっていたり、趣味がいっぱいある人もいる。それに、ほとんどのイベントに何回も参加してきたこともある。日本の生活に慣れている。 When I was a first year JET ther