another day, another year.

Though it didn't take much effort, today I made a big decision official by handing in my papers to stay in Japan for another year. My supervisor already knew that I had planned to stick around but there was something about giving her my recontracting sheet in the board of education office that made me feel more settled than ever in Japan. Back when I got these papers in October, I knew that there'd be so much in between that moment and the deadline for my decision that it would be best just to see what happened over next few months. And a lot happened. I familiarized myself with 900 students, I went to Korea, I quickly learned (and am still learning) the ways of the Japanese education system, I slowly made my apartment feel like home, and then I got 'culture shock', then got sick multiple times, then headed off to Southeast Asia. I wanted a car, then didn't want one, then wanted one again. And, in between all of this, I tried to teach English.

I'm two weeks away from the half year mark of living in Japan. I've heard a lot of past and present JETs mention that it took them about a half a year to get in the swing of things while living in here. Although everyone's experience here is very different, I'd say that, in that respect, I'm following suit with the norm. A very significant mark concerning my mental stability occurred when I came back from Thailand. I'm not sure if It was what I actually saw there that made me feel so differently about my situation or if it was simply the timing of the vacation, but I came back to Japan and it felt like my home. I'm not so naive that I'm expecting this feeling to persist any time beyond the present but so many of the small things that were causing me anxiety in December have left my head. For example, being in contact with a lot of people with your same job can sometimes cause you to make comparisons to other peoples' specific situations. I know that I did that a lot at first because when you are stripped of everything and everyone that you knew in your previous life it makes sense that one would look to others around you in order to compare and contrast their situations with your own and then say, "OK, am I happy?" But, this is irrelevant. Since everyone would react differently to different situations, it's very difficult in most cases of comparison to say that one person has it better than another. Everyone here is looking to get the most out of their experience and we all go about doing it in different ways.

So, what's my way of going about maximizing my time spent here? Hmm...I guess I don't really think about it that much. I'd say that I've been a 'doer' as opposed to an observer. I mean, that kind of comes with the job...but if I'm really on the fence about a decision (due to time, money, energy, etc.) I'll just go for it. This weekend I'm meeting Julia in Tokyo to watch a Sumo match. She emailed me a few months ago to ask if I wanted to go and at the time we were both hesitant to commit...but then we soon realized that there's no reason to miss out. I think as long as I keep this way of doing things, I'll be happy with how things go in Japan.

To quote a blog title that Julia came up with last year, "6 months down, 18 (or more) to go."

Haha.