District Representatives are currently planning for November 2009, so if you have a good idea for a seminar, please let us know!  You can either contact Andy or your DR–or use the form below.

Here you’ll find local information and can get in touch with real, live JETs who live in teeny tiny Saga Prefecture, Japan.

This website has TWO parts:

1. an articles section, that is part magazine, part guidebook.
2. Interactive forums (accessible from the “forums” link on the black navigation menu at the top of this page).

We have separate user registration for both parts.
Most of the site is visible to everyone, so you don’t need to register to benefit from SagaJET.

However, if you want to register here is a guide to that.

1. for the “magazine” part of the site, the only reason to register is if you want to write articles. So I wouldn’t bother.

2. If you register for the “forums” part of the site,
– You will gain access to the “Incoming JETs” forum (once we confirm that you are actually an incoming JET) This is a place where you can introduce yourself, so it’s not visible to outsiders.
– You will also be able to ask questions/write forum posts.

If that sounds like something you might like to do, then go to the forums part of the site (accessible under “forums” on the black navigation bar at the top of this page) and then click “register”.

this image shows where the "register" link is located

Registration is not immediate–it needs to be approved (don’t take it personally; it’s an anti-spam measure). If you haven’t heard anything and several days have passed, shoot me an email: webmaster at sagajet.com.

The deadline is today, Friday the 12^th, so if you still haven’t emailed your submission, be sure to email it today to contest(at)ajet.net!!

(contest rules and details below)

Thank you!
Alisa Tobin
2009-2010 National AJET Cultural Liaison

The AJET Haiku Competition

Write us a haiku
We’ll print it and reward you
If it’s any good

Yes, we’re having a haiku competition, so grab your pen and start writing! The competition is open immediately and will close on Friday, June 12th. Submissions relevant to the JET experience are welcomed from current JET Programme participants. Traditional haiku make reference to seasons and nature, but we’re not fussy - clever and humourous poetry is encouraged! In the spirit of our Japan experience, the competition will be conducted in two categories, English and Japanese.

Judging will be conducted entirely by members of the AJET National Council or their nominated representatives - no correspondence regarding prizes will be entered into as the judges’ decision is final.

All haiku submitted for the AJET Haiku Competition become the property of AJET, though we will give credit to all published poetry. Please make copies of poetry you want to keep on record. AJET reserves the right to reproduce any contest submissions on our website at ajet.net, the National AJET Fan page on Facebook and in AJET publications.

Two first-place winners (one for English, one for Japanese) will receive a 3000 yen book card and be featured in the AJET Tokyo Orientation Guidebook. Two second-place winners (one for English, one for Japanese) will receive a 1000 yen book card.

Submissions should be:

1. accompanied by the name, address and JET number of the poet
2. original works
3. written in English and/or Japanese
4. if written in Japanese, accompanied by furigana and an English translation

There is a limit of two (2) haiku per entrant total. Current National AJET Council members are not eligible to enter.

Entries and enquiries should be sent to contest (at) ajet.net Winning entries can be found here.

The AJET National Council invites all budding JET photographers to submit entries for the third annual AJET Photo Competition. The competition is open immediately and will close on Friday, June 12th. Submissions relevant to the JET experience are welcomed from current JET Programme participants. We are interested in receiving “human” and humourous photos, including images from AJET events or activities - landscape shots, for example, are unlikely to receive much attention.

Judging will be conducted entirely by members of the AJET National Council or their nominated representatives - no correspondence regarding prizes will be entered into as the judges’ decision is final. All photos submitted for the AJET Photo Competition become the property of AJET, though we will give credit to all published images. AJET reserves the right to reproduce any submissions on our website at ajet.net, the National AJET Fan page on Facebook and in AJET publications.

One first-place winner will receive a 3000 yen book card and be featured in the AJET Tokyo Orientation Guidebook. One second-place winner will receive a 1000 yen book card.

Submissions should be:

1. accompanied by a caption describing the scene
2. accompanied by the name, address and JET number of the photographer
3. original images
4. high quality JPG files; for example, a single image should be at least 400kb in size

There is a limit of two (2) images per entrant. Current National AJET Council members are not eligible to enter. In the case that you submit photographs including people’s faces, please receive permission from those featured before submission.

Entries and enquiries should be sent to contest (at) ajet.net
Winning entries can be found here.

Let’s get snapping! :)

By now you know that in Japan, the school year starts in April and a few teachers leave at the end of March, with new ones rotating in to replace them.

The holidays are dead if you are not vacationing. Likewise, the first week of school will be a testing time for the students. It might get boring for you. But you should NOT (just) veg out at your desk! Here are some things you can do:

Network with the new teachers.

At this point, if you have not introduced yourself to the new teachers at your school, you should do that. Especially if the teachers are either administration or teachers whom you will be directly working with.

The stock phrase here is “Hajimemashite” and of course your name. If you can say in Japanese “I’m the ALT for xx school” or “I come every week on Tuesdays,” this would be good. The teacher may or may not ask about your history. I don’t give a jiko shoukai to them, though, because I think it’s unwieldy. They can slowly find out about you over the next few months. The last thing you should both do is a “yoroshiku onegaishimasu” to express your desires for a good working relationship.

If I am working with a teacher (for example a JTE or a person who coordinates schedules at the school) I always give them contact information. You can make neat little business cards on the computer during your free time. It’s easy. I got fancy and printed English on one side and JP on the other. It sounds hard, but you don’t really need to know much grammar to make business cards in Japanese! On them I have contact info for my base school (base school JTEs might get keitai email or my home/keitai number for emergency use). I might handwrite my email address and stuff like “kantan nihongo demo ii desu” — you can email me in simple Japanese, as well.

If you don’t have a card, when you are first introducing yourself, that’s cool. Just put it on their desk later, or stop by when they look free.

*I* think it is VERY important to attend the farewell enkai (the last chance you may have to see teachers you’ve worked with all year!) as well as the welcome enkai for new staff. You can not only show that you are NOT an island off on your own, but that you are a nice person. You can also get a feel for what they are like–and how they drink!

Last year, I made a coffee cake to welcome the new teachers. It might be a little over the top, but I wanted to ensure that we got off to a good start and was too cheap to buy omiyage or welcome gifts. Occasionally when the office seems tense or unfriendly and there are no enkai in sight, I find it helpful to bring food to work to share. Last week, one of the leaving senseis thanked me for bringing food the summer before. I had totally forgotten, but evidently, it made an impression on her.

Think Ahead!

If you have more than one school, this is the time to coordinate your schedules. Some ALTs have more freedom in scheduling than others. I am allowed a bit of leniency: I cannot control my outreach schools’ schedules but I can choose my classes at my base school to work around them.

You should have received a big master calendar (ours was in a packet) at one of the meetings over the break. In this calendar, we have the school’s schedule for the year. The important stuff to note is when your school holidays are, when you have to work weekends, and if your school makes everyone take daikyuu (a compensory day off for weekend work), what day that is.

I found that a lot of times, my daikyuu for one school fell on a workday for another. So in essence, I wouldn’t have a “day off”. This year, I am informing my shougakkou of when my base school is not in session so we can pre-schedule make-up days.

If you plan your shougakkou curriculum, this needs to be done now. Some schools plan it, some schools don’t. But I find that at least having a year-plan (even if you don’t have specific vocab words and games worked out) fill give your lessons direction. Sarah Cardenas gave a workshop on elementary teaching and she has great resources for lesson planning. Also, even if you think you are too hip for Genki Richard’s style, his website has great sample curricula.

If you are working from a previous curriculum, consider what worked well and what didn’t. (Too hard, too boring, too useless, whatever.)

In my opinion there are two kinds of curricula: short term and long term.

Short Term

* Also called “1-year”
* Good for ALTs who might not be around much longer.
+ Easier to plan.
+ Reinforces knowledge
- Boring for the kids. Especially if it covers material they had last year.
- Limited in Scope. You can only teach so many topics.
- Doesn’t account for varying interests of different ages.
- Might be hard for the ALT to adapt between grades.

Basically, you teach the same topics across the grades. 1nensei and 6nensei learn the same thing. The ALT needs to rework the lessons to make them easier or harder for kids at different ages…but the theme is the same for everyone. This is good because it requires a minimum of lesson material preparation. I think it’s popular with teachers, but I don’t think it’s very good. It’s incredibly repetitive, which might make your job less fun, and the kids will be turned off if they feel they already learned this. Another big minus is that it limits the topics you can teach in a given year and that the kids learn.

Long Term

* Also called “vertically integrated” or “multi-year”
* Good for ALTs who will think they will be at the same schools for a good while.

+ Interesting for you and for the kids because it doesn’t repeat very much.
+ Wide in scope: you can teach many subjects.
+ Works well for schools with lots of siblings: older sibs can teach their younger brother/sister English, too!
+ Considers the students’ ages and levels.
+ Easier for the ALT to keep track of who was taught what. Lessons don’t have to be modified as much.
- May not offer enough review.
- More involved planning and preparation since (in a given year) you don’t repeat.
+ But pays off the following year(s).
- Can get disrupted. If you schools change or your school changes HOW they teach English.

This is how I teach. I give the 1-2nensei the same topics, 3-4nensei the same topics, 5-6nensei the same topics. That way, the learn certain things at certain points in their elementary school tenures. It also allows you to work on more complex or abstract topics or projects for the older students and use simpler concepts (”hello/goodbye!”) for younger students. MEXT emphasizes the differences in kids’ development, and I think it’s really important, too.* The biggest problem is that if another ALT takes over or your schools change or if the school decides to use their own curriculum or discontinue English education for certain grades, those kids are left out in the cold. But this is a risk you have to take. The benefits are worth it, I think. Your students have a sense of pride in learning stuff their siblings aren’t. You also have more freedom to integrate with the subjects the kids are studying in other classes.

–
*See Resource Materials and Teaching Handbook, p.96 in the 2006 ed.

Work Ahead

I actually find this one the hardest to do: I’m not motivated until I have a deadline looming. But if you are inclined, consider actually working up lesson plans (for shougakkou) ahead of time. Print out flashcards, buy magnets, etc.

For chuugakkou, go through the textbook and try to remember the worksheets and props and activities you used last year. Scrape up these materials and get them organized where you can pull them up when you need them.

I can’t offer advice for high school ALTs, since I have no idea what their work is like. Please comment if you have experience with this!

Also consider extra projects: planning/making English boards, planning a skit, making a mailbox for your kids to write you with, designing fake money or “sticker passports,” writing small quizzes or talks for announcement time or whatever.

Refresh

The other teachers do this in the days before they move the desks in the staffroom: get rid of crap that’s accumulated at your desk: old papers, books you don’t need, post-its, memos, old schedules.

Give everything a dusting.

If you want to reorganize your desk layout (by making a hutch for your laptop, adding a small bookshelf, etc) this is a good time to do it. If you are unhappy that your LAN cable is wonky, now’s the time to swipe a new one!

Don’t Forget About Japanese

If you are taking the CLAIR Japanese course and plan to be gone for Golden Week, you should get an earlier than usual start on the CLAIR test. Remember that you will come back once May is underway, so you will also have less time to complete the final book.

If you are interested in the JLPT, you only have about 6 months at this point to get ready for it. Now is a good time to grab a guide or two and start drilling kanji or whatever.

Fun Stuff

Now that you have the master calendar for the year, you can also figure out when you want to do travel over the next year. This allows you to not get into a rush to get all of your travel plans in at once, to request nenkyuu earlier, and to book flights while they are still cheap. At the very least, get an idea of when you want to take off and how much you will have saved up between vacations.

Hostel Akari, newly remodeled in 2008, is the answer. I have stayed at this hotel twice and it’s quite cozy.   The location is easy to find (just a few blocks from the Spectacles Bridge) and the staff are friendly.  They have English speakers, but will of course, be delighted to speak with you in Japanese, if you want to have a chat.

Dormitories are 4 or 8 bed.  I stayed in the 4-bed one on the 4th floor.  It had an aircon and was comfortable.  There were two toilets just across the hall and a small bath with a three showerheads (though, curiously, only one stool and basin!)  The bath looked nice: big enough for a couple of folks to enjoy, though I sense that most hostellers would be disinclined to bathe naked together.  Baskets are provided in the small changing area, but  it’s BYOT (bring your own towel + washcloth).  Also, body soap, conditioner, and shampoo are available for 100 yen each.

On other floors they have doubles and twin rooms, as well as singles and three person bunks. The twin I stayed in (on a separate occasion) also had an aircon and had an ensuite toilet and bath…so it was basically like a hotel room, but not as sterile and impersonal.  Twins are 6000 yen (3000 / person)   Dorm bunks are 2500 yen.

There is no curfew:  you let yourself into the lobby via keypad, then use your key to access the stairwells and yet another key for your room.  So pretty secure.

Downstairs, there is a toilet and a den area, where you can use one of the two public computers, watch TV or one of the DVD there, read or learn how to make a paper crane (the hostel collects them for peace ceremonies) .

The lobby has local information, including a bulletin board with things to do on a rainy day.  They also arrange cultural experience (such as an upcoming straw-thatching workshop) and rent bikes (500 yen for the day).   Encrypted Wifi internet access (they provide the key) is available throughout the hostel.

For more information, or to make a reservation,  visit the hostel’s website.  Reception is open from 8 am to 1 pm, then from 3 pm to 8 pm.

Hostel info:

2-2 Kojiyamachi, Nagasaki-city, Nagasaki, 850-0871 Japan
095-801-7900
akari
@nagasaki-hostel.com

• Business hours
  8:00am-8:00pm
  (Closed for lunch 1pm-3pm)
• Check In
  3:00pm-8:00pm
• Check Out
  by 11:00am

BONUS: If you stay on the 8th, the hostel will give you 500 yen off your room to commemorate their 1-year anniversary.  This date falls during the Nagasaki Lantern Festival, so it’s particularly convenient, as the festival sprawls through the same area that the hostel is in.

This year, I wanted to take a long ski trip to a large ski area.  I found an appropriate area, but after thumbing through a half dozen travel brochures, visiting two big-name agencies, and scouring the web, I learned that there are no departures from Fukuoka for my destination!   A few days later, I happened to run into Ryosuke at a festival and remembered his agency.  I emailed him with an inquiry and he gave me a quote and travel options within a day or two–no problem.   So if you are thinking about taking a trip, why not contact Wonder Years?   Their office, located in Hakata-ku, is open M-F  9:00 - 18:00.  They accept payment in cash or via furikomi (bank transfer).

Wonder Years Co. ,Ltd
5th Floor AQUA Hakata
5-3-8 Nakatsu, Hakata-ku, Fukuoka-shi
Fukuoka 810-0801, Japan
TEL:  092-287-9638               M-F 9:00 - 18:00
FAX: 092-287-9501

Many corners are eco-focused, and will teach visitors how they can use things they’d normally throw away in order to make their own chopsticks, candles, storage boxes, and great food.

There will also be corners where you can play with replicas of really old Japanese toys–that’s def what I’m most looking forward to.

Of course, as usual the event is a great place to make friends in the community!

Time: January 25, Sunday, from 10AM until 1PM

Place: Meet Plaza (next to Hohoemi-Kan–from Saga Station, take the Youme Town bus, and get off at Hohoemi-Kan Mae. Meet Plaza is right next to it, to the West.)

Cost: FREE!

Sure to be lots of fun, see you all there!

Generally, tolls are done like parking tickets:  you take a ticket and then pay when you exit.  A few toll roads (for example, the Kyuragi toll road between Taku and Karatsu) require you to pay a fixed toll as you enter. But generally, it is ticket-based.

Nexco (Nippon EXpressway COrp.), the company that  runs the tolls roads, has this website in English that can give you information on using the expressways.

http://global.c-nexco.co.jp/toll/methods.html

Time: February 7th (Sat), 2009   10:00AM - 2:00PM

Place: Avance Cooking Room

Instructor: Ms. Sachiko Yamasaki

Participation Fee: 200 yen

Attendance: 30 people (RSVPs work on a first-come, first-served basis, so act quickly!)

Brought to you by the Saga City International Relations Association. Contact me at b(dot)gesiak(at)gmail(dot)com in order to reserve a spot!

Another helpful thing is an explanation of their attempted delivery notices, which you can find here:

http://www.kuronekoyamato.co.jp/english/support/attempted_delivery_notice.html