Hello friends!
I had such a cool day. Part of what I do in Japan is to volunteer to help people practice English. I have some friends I meet up with occasionally, and also meet with a group of people every once in a while. Yesterday, I met with the group of people.
We started out early - well, early for the first day of my weekend (9 am). We drove for about an hour east to the next prefecture, to the area around Mt. Daisen. The drive was, of course, incredibly beautiful. I appreciate the green, mountainous landscape so much here. It's a nice change from home. Everyone except myself spoke Japanese in the car, and the language spoken easily moved to it. That wasn't a problem though...I got to look at the scenery more. We finally arrived to our first destination: a blueberry... orchard? Is that what you would call it? Grove? English is difficult. It was all you could pick for about an hour. To me, that meant fill up the little carton they give you, then eat as many as you can. It was the greatest thing! Blueberries are delicious and we only had to dodge one Asian hornet! Wait, what??? Those are scary! But blueberries rule.
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| The gang setting out |
After our hour was up, we drove over to this lovely little cabin in the woods that did not look at all Japanese. A friend of one of our hosts built the cottage with his wife. Just them, no help. Daaang. It was an adorable little cottage and was so nice. We got there and the grill was already hot. Japanese style BBQ is the most fun by far. It's over a charcoal grill and you keep throwing thin slices of meat, cabbage, onion, corn on the cob, mushrooms, shrimp, and more. You have a bowl with sauce in it and when something is ready on the grill, you pick it off with your chopsticks, dip it in your sauce, and eat it. Watch out, American friends and family. When I return, I am throwing a Japanese-style BBQ. Something new on the menu here was a shellfish called
sazae which is a slimy, soft, bitter, salty experience. The wikipedia site says it is a delicacy, so you know, that's cool. I came to Japan and said I would try anything put in front of me and I tried it. It really wasn't bad, it was just strange and much mushier than I expected. The cool thing about sazae though is how it is cooked. You buy them while they are still in the shell, and quite possibly still alive. There is water in the shell where the creature is, and when you put it on the grill, the water starts to boil. When that happens, you drown it in shoyu (Japanese name for soy sauce). Once it cooks a little more, it is ready to eat. How to get it out of the shell, you ask? Simply take the kebab skewer that you ate your chicken kebab off of and stab it out. A little gruesome. A lot exciting. Another interesting food we ate was a sausage - more of a mini hotdog - on a bone. Yep, hotdogs how they naturally come off the pig. And we could wash it all down with natural spring water from the mountain! So so cool.
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| View from the balcony of the cabin |
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| BBQin' |
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| Sazae, post shell removal |
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| The beautiful cabin |
After growing some food babies and taking a few group pictures, we wished our host well and began the adventure back home. The language of the car again switched to Japanese, which gave me a great chance to take a nap. Picking berries and eating delicious food is exhausting! Such a fun day and a great experience.
Hi Vanessa, I've really enjoyed reading through your blog and I must say it's been a breath of fresh air to see that you're having a good time after reading a lot of negative things about the company online.
ReplyDeleteI've been offered a job with COCO Juku but am almost on the verge of turning it down due to a lot of the negativity so I was wondering if you could tell me a few things?
You're working 8 hour days, right? What do you do when you're not teaching classes? Are you still paid for the time you're not teaching?
Did you get help with organising your accommodation? I'm guessing this varies depending on where you're placed but can you describe it to me a little?
Thanks so much, I'm looking forward to more entries :)
Kris- Glad to hear you like the blog! Congrats on the job offer. To answer your questions...I work 8 hours but have 1 hour lunch, so most of my days are 12-9. Getting off late like that is pretty normal for a private language school. When I'm not teaching, I am planning lessons or preparing for events. My school is small and we still have days where we don't have any classes, so sometimes it gets pretty boring. Luckily, it is a salaried position, so I don't have to worry about getting paid less for not teaching. COCO was very helpful with finding my accommodation, but I believe I am not getting a very good price. It was simple, though, and I am under one of the rare monthly leases (I have been told that most apartments are 2 year leases). I believe they will always help you find a place to live because the apartment complex is a nationwide company. It's called LeoPalace. I'd look it up if I were you. It's very small, essentially a hallway and a room. Unfortunately, Japanese apartments are characteristically small, so it's not too much smaller than other places.
DeleteAs far as my description of COCO Juku goes, I must make a few disclaimers. I have been very lucky that all of my coworkers, especially my branch manager, are really nice and easy to get along with. My school is not busy which, although boring, can make lesson planning much less stressful. I also think a lot of it is how you view your work. I love the teaching aspect of my job, but essentially I am in Japan because I want to live in a foreign country (work to live not live to work). I try to stay as positive as possible because I enjoy the community I've found outside of work.
Keeping that in mind, if I could do it again, I would probably not choose Japan. If I had to choose a different program in Japan I'd go for the JET Programme or maybe Interac. JET has been around maybe 40 years and they have a lot of really good stuff. Things are organized and they have a lot of fun events. Luckily, I have met a lot of them and can participate in some of the stuff. I've said in one of my previous posts that I am not renewing my contract. Much of this is the underlying negative aspects of Japanese culture which I am unfortunately most exposed to at work.
What I'm trying to say in this ridiculously long post (you caught me at a moment when I didn't have much to do) is that I don't know that my working conditions are normal for this company. But of course, usually it is the people who are not having a good time who make their voice heard the most.
Hope this helps. I think there will always be good and bad to a Japanese company. Depends on what you are looking for. Let me know what you decide!
Thanks for replying!
ReplyDeleteYour reasons for going to Japan sound the same as mine, which might explain why you seem to be having a better time than some nay-sayers! For me, the teaching aspect is definitely just the vehicle for letting me experience Japan, so I don’t think I’ll be too upset if I’m not kept busy. I’ve also been learning the language so I hope I get a chance to practise.
I also had a look at the apartments and they don’t seem too bad. I did a year abroad in France and my accommodation wasn’t much better. As long as I have a bed, bathroom and somewhere to cook I’m sure I can manage.
From all the great stuff you’ve been doing it looks like you’re still left with enough time to enjoy yourself, which is reassuring to me. I’ve been offered a follow-up Skype meeting with the company to iron out a few concerns but finding just one person who is actually having a good (or even just not awful) experience with COCO has most likely convinced me to take the plunge and go for it, so thanks for that!
Glad I could help :) good luck! If you are ever in Shimane, give me a holler.
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