For anyone wanting to come on the JET Programme, the saying "every situation is different" is definitely true. I'm what you call a "One-shot" Assistant Language Teacher (ALT). I'm not based in a school, I work for my town's Board of Education and my desk is at town hall. I have a total of six schools I go to which are four elementaries, one junior high and one senior high. My schedule is made up between my supervisor and the schools I work at which means that everyday I go to the schools I'm supposed to be at for that day and help teach a few english lessons. My schedule is the same each week but the grades I teach in the schools varies each week. I may teach a class of Gr. 6's one week and then not see them again for another 5-6 weeks so it makes it a bit tough if I want to do follow up lessons. In each of my classes I work with the Japanese english teacher (JTE) and teach the class with them. It's a mixed bag as some JTE's have everything prepared beforehand and some require me to make up the entire lesson plan by myself! My work week looks like this:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
AM	SHS	JHS	ES 2	JHS	ES 3
PM		ES 1	ES 3		ES 4

On Wednesday's after my last lesson I also go to the Jidou center where a lot of the elementary and junior high school kids go after school to hang out. I usually play with them for an hour or so and teach them new games and stuff. It's always pretty fun. On Tuesdays nights and Fridays after school I teach adult eikaiwa classes. These usually only last an hour or so and are more focused on english conversation. The awesome thing is that the classes I teach on Tuesdays are considered work outside of my regular hours so instead of getting overtime, I get banked holiday hours! It's not much but it works out to an extra day of vacation every two months.

Since my schedule is so varied I get a lot of different teaching experience. I work with younger kids most of the time but I also get to see what the junior and high schools are like. I think I prefer teaching the little kids have because they have a lot more energy than the older kids. There's always a chorus of "John Sensei!!" whenever I arrive and they're always super excited to see me. It's also fun just hanging out with them and playing games instead of teaching english. The other schools can be pretty interesting too though. I did a self-introduction at my high school a few days ago and the teacher gave them a worksheet that was based on my introduction. After listening to me talk they had to write down what I said, their first impression of me (most of which were "Nihonjin to omotta!" [I thought he was Japanese]), a question to ask me and a Japanese kanji to teach me. I got to read them afterwards and this was one I received! It's a question I've been getting a lot after my introductions. Another girl said that I looked like a famous Japanese actor. It was a nice ego boost :)

One of the greatest things about the schools (aside from the kids of course ;) are the lunches! They have a lunch program in my town so all the kindergarten, elementary and junior high schools have food delivered to their school at lunchtime. I'm talking good food! They send out a biweekly schedule of the menu with something different on it each day. Today I had spaghetti, a hamburger patty and some kind of soup. Other days I could get onigiri, miso soup, tuna salad, wonton, etc. you name it. They always come with a little carton of milk and it's only around 200 yen ($2) each time! It's dirt cheap, healthy and pretty much all you can eat (at least until it runs out). They don't feed us at the high school though so I have to bring a lunch on those days... which I usually just end up buying at 7-11. The bento lunches there are actually pretty good.

One of the other good things about being at so many schools is that most of them are having welcome parties for me! I have an enkai coming up with one of my elementaries where they are cancelling classes that day and are taking me hiking in the morning. How awesome is that! Later that evening is the enkai which usually has enough food to make up for the fact I don't drink, and will probably be followed by karaoke. This is the same school I mentioned before that only has 31 students. I also have another enkai with my highschool this coming Monday. They're taking me to a really good sushi restaurant in my town that I haven't been to yet, and whose owner happens to be one of my Tuesday eikaiwa students!

From what I've heard of other JETs whose situations are worse than mine, like have crappy co-workers or ratty apartments full of roaches, I think I have it pretty good here. Everyone I work with is super friendly and awesome and my apartment is great. I think I'll enjoy my next few years living and teaching here.