Day 4-6: First few days on Amami Oshima

After breakfast, the new Kagoshima JETs and three representatives from the Kagoshima BoE met dressed in suits at 7:10. It hit a few of these others that we were actually in Japan getting shipped out to their final destinations. The bus left at 7:50 for Haneda airport. When we stepped outside, we were once again expecting an awful wall of humidity, but surprisingly, the weather was a brisk 27°C with a light breeze. We arrived in Haneda at 8:40 and checked in. I was the only person who wasn’t meeting their supervisor at Kagoshima airport or the Kagoshima BoE, so with some assistance, I took a connecting flight on my own to Amami Oshima.

The plane itself was a tiny commuter plane that wasn’t big enough to be boarded via the usual gate tunnel. Instead, everyone got on a bus, which drove maybe 500 feet before dropping us off at the plane door. At the baggage claim, one of the differences between America and Japan presented itself: because Amami airport is so small, the bags are hand-loaded onto the belt. Every single bag was placed so the handle(s) faced the outside, and was easy for the guests to grab. This detailed attention to customer convenience would be unheard of in the States.

After picking up my bag, the three English teachers of Koniya HS, F-sensei, K-sensei, and Ko-sensei, were waiting for me with a lovely handmade sign. I did my first aisatsu (greeting), accompanied with a lot of bowing, and was immediately told to take off my suit jacket, which I took as a sign of the more relaxed island life. We loaded my bags into Ko-sensei’s car and drove to a large (about the size of a small Walmart) supermarket called Big II, where I bought curtains for my apartment, shampoo, soap, dishwashing soap, laundry detergent, toilet paper, and other essentials, as well as food for dinner and breakfast (¥11,799). Afterwards, we said goodbye to F-sensei who lives in Naze, and K-sensei, Ko-sensei, and I drove to Koniya to set up my apartment and meet the principal.

We left school to go buy some forgotten necessities (cooking oil, seasoning, etc.) and set up my apartment. Before I arrived, some students and teachers helped move the large items into my apartment, so I was spared the heavy lifting. I’m very grateful to them! I spent the rest of the day setting up my new place with the help of Ko-sensei and Fs-san, who also works at Koniya HS and lives two floors above me.

Most Japanese people don’t have full beds and instead use a thin floor mattress called a futon, which is usually laid on tatami, or bamboo mats. My apartment doesn’t have tatami, so I improvised by laying the futon on top of a fold-down floor couch left to me by my predecessor. The futon folds away during the day, so it’s an economic use of space.

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The next day, F-sensei helped me register my address at city hall (pictured), open a bank account, and get a cell phone. After school, Nathaniel (Nat), the other Koniya ALT, came over to see the apartment and chat before giving me a tour of Koniya. Before we left, I met FJ-san, a gentleman who lives in Koniya and is also a violinist in the Amami orchestra. He has generously agreed to give me a ride to Naze (an area of Amami city in the north) to have lunch with the orchestra. The drive takes an hour, so he’ll pick me up tomorrow at 10:30 for lunch at 11:30.

 It was a little strange to wrap my head around the fact that the only two foreigners in Amami were chatting it up in English in the street. But we stopped by various shops, and Nat pointed out good eateries, hotels, karaoke places, snack bars (read: bar), local landmarks like a giant bluefin tuna statue, and other important places like the bank, post office, and city hall. We ran into a few of Koniya HS’s students playing Pokemon Go near the only gym and Pokestop in town. For dinner, we went to Kamitaka, a sit-on-the-floor style restaurant. He had tonkatsu teishoku (a meal set) and I had a chicken nanba teishoku.

Though we didn’t drink, Nat told me that this restaurant has a particular service: guests who order a bottle of shochu (liquor distilled from a variety of sources, including wheat, potatoes, brown cane sugar, etc.) but don’t finish it can have the restaurant keep it for next time they visit. Each of the bottles is numbered and labeled with a name so they know which bottle belongs to whom!

It was dark when we made our way back, and apparently folks on Amami don’t walk on the sidewalk if there are trees or grass, since habu (poisonous snakes found on some islands) might be hiding in them! We also saw a few cockroaches scuttling in our path. You can also hear a surprisingly loud symphony of bug chips, which at first I thought was machinery. Nat walked me to city hall, from which I tried finding my way back to my apartment and was successful in doing so.












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Note: To protect the privacy of the students and teachers of Koniya HS, I will not include many photos of the day-to-day workings of the school.

The next day (7/29) was a special day at Koniya HS: the junior high students visited for a special “trial day,” where they could tour the school and take some sample classes. I haven’t started teaching yet, but I still had to be at school, and upon arriving I greeted everyone my first loud “Ohayo gozaimasu!” I spent the day working on my self-introduction class, which will mark the beginning of my teaching duties, to begin in September. The atmosphere in the teachers’ room was very relaxed, because there wasn’t too much to do.

The structure of Japanese schools is very different from American schools. Instead of students moving between classes, students (for the most part) stay in one room while the teachers move around. Thus, when students need to see a particular teacher, they don’t visit the teacher’s classroom like they do in the US, but instead stand at the entrance of the teachers’ room and ask permission to enter from the teacher they wish to see. Right before lunch, there is a time set aside for cleaning the school. Everyone from the students to the teachers to even the vice principal helps out.

K-sensei was to teach a sample English class to the visiting JHS students, so I asked permission to sit in and watch. The topic was “Rules of English,” which covered L vs R, B and P pronunciation, and grammar differences between English and Japanese.

My working day ends at 4, so I met up with Nat who showed me around Setouchi, beyond Koniya. We drove through Seisui, Katetsu, Yadorihama (a nice swimming/beach spot), Honohoshi (a non-swimming beach with rocks - pictured), and Agina.

We went to Banmeshiya for dinner, which is owned and run by a single gentleman who by day is a turtle researcher, and by night is an amazing cook. Everything we ate was made from scratch by him: rice and miso soup accompanied garlic chicken and Fuu champloo. He speaks Japanese, English, and a little Spanish. Some of Nat’s friends also showed up, and we started talking about Pokemon Go and how pokemon have different names in the US. Nat taught me some Shimaguchi (island dialect): “thank you” is arigasamaryota, and if you mess up, you say “age!” (ah-GEHHHHhhhh!).

After dinner we wanted to explore town some more, but when we went outside, it started drizzling. According to Nat, when it drizzles on Amami, in about 2 minutes one of two things will happen: either it will stop, or it will POUR. Unfortunately our drizzle decided to choose the latter option, so we ran back to his place to grab umbrellas before heading out to Goku for my first karaoke experience! Goku is a box karaoke place, which means there are a bunch of soundproof rooms, each with a karaoke machine, mics, a portable song selector, and some benches around a table for drinks and such. It was 1500¥/hr for the two of us. We did some Disney, classic rock, Eagles, Beatles, and ended with Adele. I went home after, but Nat found a friend who wanted to sing another hour across the street at the other karaoke place, so we parted for the evening.