Today there was a small festival in Aikawa. Since the local and prefectural governments are pushing for UN recognition of Sado, there are a lot of historical themed events. This was highlighting the history of Aikawa in particular. All the old buildings were open for visitors and there was traditional dancing and drumming. Aikawa was once the largest city on Sado when the gold mine was active. I have heard that there were once a hundred thousand residents in the 18th and 19th centuries. I’m not sure this is exactly true, but it definitely speaks to the decline of Aikawa since the closure of the mine. Today, Ryotsu on the eastern side of the island is the largest city, and even then only around 15,000 people live there.

In any case, the mine and former prominence of Aikawa means there are a lot of historical sites here. Aikawa is sort of split in two different sections. There’s the somewhat newer, coastal area, which is where I live. The festival today, however, was in the upper section of Sado, on a hill overlooking the coast. This is the “historic” part of Sado, where there are old government buildings and religious sites, along with houses and businesses of course. This was my first time in this section of Aikawa and it was nice to stroll through the old wooden houses and look out onto the coast. People in Sado are very proud of their local culture and it was enjoyable to experience some of it today.

I took the opportunity to visit the city of Niigata on the “mainland” yesterday. I hadn’t been before except for in transit on the way to Sado. I had been warned that we are getting close to the time of year when the ferries may be cancelled due to sea conditions and you can get stranded, so I decided to visit now. There are things there that are just unavailable on the island. This time, instead of taking the car ferry, I took the jetfoil. It’s a bit more expensive but it saves an hour and a half of travel time. I also get a Sado resident discount, so in all it was pretty reasonable. The ride was very smooth as well. I also ran into several of my middle school students on the boat. It turned out they were the volleyball team on the way to a game elsewhere in the prefecture. I wished them luck and told them “ganbatte”, the typical way to cheer someone on in Japan.

Niigata is a city of around one million people. While this is small by American standards, it is seen as a major city in Japan. As such, it has all the standard facilities you’d expect from a major city, such as an international airport, a shinkansen, and a few universities. I was surprised by the lack of train infrastructure though. Niigata seemed to me like a “car city”. I did enjoy walking through the city though. I even ran across a fellow JET by chance at a local trading card store. He teaches at elementary schools in the city. I also found several interesting shops, parks, and restaurants that I definitely want to come back and explore more. Overall, it was a nice little day trip and I look forward to returning to Niigata at some point in the future.

With some of the time off I had this week, I took the opportunity to explore some of the island. I drove to the Onogame on the northern tip of the island. The drive there took about an hour and followed this stunning coastal road through several small fishing villages and farming communities. The Onogame is a geological formation that was worshipped originally by the Ainu people, the indigenous inhabitants of Japan. Now it is seen as a turtle or dragon god, who protects the ships of the island. Apparently in the spring and summer, the entire area is covered with day lilies, and it is one of the most popular tourist spots in Sado during the season. I will definitely have to make sure I return during this time.

Yesterday was also my first day on the job! I had a good time introducing myself to all the classes I will be teaching. I had a presentation where I showed the students where I came from, my interests, and my hobbies. Then they all introduced themselves to me using English. The kids were all very sweet and excited to meet me. They were also quite curious about me and asked me a lot of questions. The school seemed nice and pretty new. There were a lot of specialized classrooms like a home economics room, science room, arts and crafts room, computer lab, and a very big gym. They even had a chicken coop where the students take care of the chickens! It was just nice to finally start the job I have been waiting so long for. I’m looking forward to getting to know the students and teachers with whom I’ll be working.

I have begun to meet some the other ALTs who work on Sado as well. It seems to be a tight knit community, I imagine because of the isolation of living out here. They are all Americans. I suppose the local government just prefers to teach the American style of English. Anyway, it’s a pretty diverse mix of Americans: we seem to all be from different states. Furthermore, most of the ALTs have come within the last 3 months. Everyone has been very friendly, and I will be meeting the other ALTs tomorrow. Honestly, everything has been going well here so far and I am really enjoying living here.

I’ve finally made it to Sado! So far everything has been going well. The people are very friendly. Both the administrators at the Board of Education and my fellow JETs are glad to see me. I believe the program has been in disarray somewhat on account of the travel restrictions stemming from Covid 19 and the other JETs have had to scramble to make up for people leaving, so I think my arrival comes as a relief to them.

My apartment is modest but quite cozy. I found out some of the administrators came out and cleaned it themselves ahead of my arrival, as the unit was sitting vacant for over a year. The bedroom has a tatami mat floor and I have a futon for sleeping. All the door ways are sliding fusuma. I also got my rental car today. I am now driving a Toyota Pixis Space. This car is known as a type of kei car in Japan. Kei cars are a class of very small cars that are exempt from certain taxes due to their diminutive stature and small engines. They seem to be very popular and can be distinguished by their yellow license plates. Most of the cars on Sado seem to be kei cars.

I start teaching next week, so during these past few days I’ve been pretty busy getting things like my phone, internet, bank account etc sorted. Tomorrow, Friday, and the weekend, however I have no errands scheduled. I’m thinking of taking this time to explore the island and check out some of the touristy sites. After all, I am not sure how much free time I will have once I start work in earnest. They have told me to be ready to work hard! I am very relieved to finally be here.

Hello, everyone. Sorry I haven’t really posted anything in the last 2 weeks. Frankly, I haven’t had anything to say, I’ve just been sitting here in my hotel room watching some training videos and attending some zoom meetings. That will all change tomorrow when I will leave the hotel and travel to Niigata.

Tomorrow morning, I will check out and take a bus to Tokyo Station. There I will board the famous shinkansen, more commonly known outside of Japan as the bullet train. The Joetsu shinkansen connects Tokyo directly with Niigata city and will take about 2 hours. From there I will go to Niigata Port and take the car ferry to Sado. I was informed that there is a possibility of a storm tomorrow and that the ferry service may be cancelled. If that is the case, I will have to stay the night at a hotel in Niigata. I am hoping it doesn’t come to that. In any case, whenever I do get to Sado I will meet my employers and colleagues in Ryotsu, before being taken to my apartment in Aikawa.

I am grateful that the Board of Education is giving me a week on Sado to get settled in and take care of important errands before I start teaching. This is not always the case, and I’ve heard of JETs that were quickly whisked away to their new schools and expected to teach nearly the moment they arrive in their city! Needless to say, after this 2 week quarantine I am anxious to leave the hotel and I am looking forward to finally arriving in Sado.

Today, I had a chance to speak with my employers at the local board of education for the very first time. I learned some important information, such as where exactly on Sado I will live and where I will teach. The city government of Sado actually comprises the entire 330 square mile island, so when I found out I was going to “Sado City” a few months ago, it wasn’t entirely clear where I would be going. Well today I found out I will be staying in Aikawa. Aikawa is a town of about 9,000 and appears to be the 2nd or 3rd largest settlement on the island after the city of Ryotsu and maybe the town of Sawata. Aikawa is situated on the western portion of the island and is a coastal town. Aikawa contains the Sado gold mine, which is perhaps the most famous landmark on the island. This mine was a major source of gold for the Tokugawa shogunate and was actively mined from the 1500s until it was depleted in 1989. Today, it is a popular tourist destination, and the government of Niigata prefecture has been lobbying to designate the mines as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Furthermore, I found out the grade level of the students I will be instructing. I will be teaching at one elementary school and one junior high school and will be teaching classes from 1st grade all the way to 9th. In Japan, 9th grade is still counted as part of junior high school. The schools will actually be located in another town or village on Sado, known as Kanai. Kanai appears to be about a 20 minute drive from Aikawa. Starting next year, however, the board of education informed me I will start teaching in Aikawa itself. In any case, I am happy to finally know both where I’ll be living and who I will be teaching. Quarantine continues to trod along, and I’m looking forward to get to Aikawa soon.

After 17 hours, 2 planes, and a charter bus, I have finally arrived in my hotel room in Narita. I woke up this morning to an earthquake alarm on my phone, followed by some shaking. It appears a magnitude 5 earthquake struck the Tokyo area. In any case, I will quarantining here for the next 14 days. I start my zoom training sessions soon though, so I will at least have some important things to do while I’m in quarantine. I don’t have much to add today, just glad to finally be here.

Hello friends, family, and anyone who stumbled on here from Google. As some of you know, I am moving to Sado, Japan to participate in the JET Program. Sado is a small island in the Sea of Japan, about 25 miles off the coast from the port city of Niigata. Sado appears to have a fascinating local culture, influenced by its remoteness, a gold mine that attracted workers from all across Japan, and from being a place of exile for disgraced nobles from the imperial capital of Kyoto. I’m very excited to get to know the culture firsthand. The JET Program is an exchange program run by the Japanese government’s Ministry of Education and is the largest ESL organization in Japan. Officially, I will be what’s known as an Assistant Language Teacher. As the job title implies, I will be assisting a Japanese national English teacher in the classrooms of the Japanese public school system. I created this blog as a way to keep in contact with everyone back home and to keep everyone updated on what’s happening here in Japan. Thank you for your interest. I’m looking forward to documenting my experience.