six months down, how many to go?

in a few hours it will be march first. march, already?!

when i left portland, of course everyone asked me how long i'd be gone. i always said maybe a year and half, but definitely a minimum of seven months because that's how long my initial contract was for. here i am at the end of that contract, and i've signed on for another year. now when people ask me how long i'm staying i say, "at least until march 2008." the question, of course, is what next? i might stick with teaching for another year after that. the reason is time: my job offers me a lot of free time to study and a significant amount of time off. the biggst con? money. much of that time off is uncompensated (60% paycheck for august, 75% for december, pro-rated in march). i could make more money elsewhere, which i could use to travel more, buy fun camera equipment, and save money for future endeavors -- including education. additionally, while shiroi is a great city to live in, i'm not sure i want to stay here two and a half years. it's too much like the city i grew up in. an hour from the big city, but nothing much to do here. maybe i could transfer to another city.

my original very tentative plan was to teach for a year and a half and then start graduate school, but i don't think i'll be ready in march 2008 (if ever). if i'm going to take graduate courses in japan, i should probably be more fluent than i can reasonably expect to be a year from now. further, i'm still not sure what i want to do with the degree i'll get, and i'm hesitant to go into debt for something without a clear purpose. there is of course the possibility that i could get a grant -- but that possiblity will improve parallel to my japanese language skills. i'm not ruling graduate school 2008 out, but it's not likely.

meanwhile, in shiroi, they rotate the ALTs (assistang language teachers) every school year, so i'll be changing schools when my new contract begins. today was my last day at one of the two elementary schools where i teach. friday is the farewell party for my 3rd year students at junior high (9th graders by the american system). next wednesday is my last day at the other elementary school. the semester ends on march 23rd. i'm both excited and sad to be changing schools. it'll be good to get a fresh start, this time with a better idea of what i'm doing. changing just when i was getting to know my students and my co-workers, though, is too bad.

the board of education won't be announcing what schools they are placing us at until spring break. i'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's a school i can bike to. i'm not keeping my hopes up, though. there are three possible teachers they could send to the only school that's not reasonably (read: safely) bike-able, and i'm the only one with a car.

speaking of spring break, i'm going to osaka! i'll be there for about nine days, visiting a few friends and my host family.


coming up: i'll tell you about the bureaucracy i had to wade through to obtain legal ownership of my car, and the steps involved in getting a japanese driver's license.

success!

I left Portland on August 9th, 2006 -- exactly half a year ago today.

One of the main reasons I came to Japan was to improve my Japanese language skills. Today one of the Japanese language teachers overheard me talking with the home economics teacher in the staff room. She said, "Wow, you can speak Japanese now!" While that's not actually true, I am making a lot of progress. I received a fancy certificate in the mail a few days ago to prove it:

This is to certify that the person named above has passed the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test given in December 2006, jointly administered by the Japan Educational Exchanges and Services and The Japan Foundation.

Level: 3

Writing/Vocabulary: 99/100
Listening: 96/100
Reading/Grammar: 180/200

Total Score: 375/400 <-- That's 93.75%!

I'm taking Level 2 next December. It is much, much harder than Level 3.

japanese women: birth-giving machines? (news article)

This reminds me, I should reread that bachelor's thesis I wrote back in 2003:


Japanese minister wants 'birth-giving machines', aka women, to have more babies

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Monday January 29, 2007
The Guardian

Japan's health minister did nothing to endear himself to female voters over the weekend when he described women as "birth-giving machines" and implored them to "do their best" to halt the country's declining birthrate.

In a speech to Liberal Democratic party members in western Japan, Hakuo Yanagisawa said women of child-bearing age should perform a public service by raising the birthrate, which fell to a record low of 1.26 children per woman in 2005. Experts say an average fertility rate of 2.1 children is needed to keep the population stable.

"The number of women aged between 15 and 50 is fixed," Mr Yanagisawa, 71, said. "Because the number of birth-giving machines and devices is fixed, all we can do is ask them to do their best per head ... although it may not be so appropriate to call them machines."

Mr Yanagisawa's reported admission that the description had been "too uncivil" failed to silence his critics.

"It was extremely rude towards women," said Yukio Hatoyama, leader of the Democratic party. "Having children or not having children is naturally a matter that women and households are free to decide themselves."

The minister's remarks come as the government tries to encourage women to have bigger families. Many blame the cost of raising children and social pressure to leave work when they become pregnant for women's reluctance to have children.

In response the government supports proposals to increase childcare facilities in the workplace and encourage firms to introduce flexible working hours to allow staff more time to raise families.

Recent figures show that Japan's fertility rate rose slightly in 2005, but it is thought to have fallen again last year.

Experts have warned that the trend will stifle economic growth and further strain on the creaking pension system in a country where one in five is aged 65 or over.

In 2005 the population went into decline for the first time since the second world war, and the health ministry estimates it will shrink to 89 million by 2055.

(link)

(thanks to Joe for pointing me to this article)