The Long Road to Japan (Part 2)

After my interview was over, I knew I would have about a month and a half to wait before I heard the results of the interviews. I tried my best to put JET out of my head but it definitely wasn't easy. I remember thinking about the hypothetically about the future a lot; "If I get into JET..." or "If I don't get into JET." So thankfully, I was really relieved in early April when I knew I would be hearing the results soon.

On April 9th, I read on the JET Program official forums that most of the embassies in the U.S. would be announcing the results of who got in the next day. Needless to say, on the 10th I was one big mess of nerves and checked my email fairly constantly, even during class. When I finally got the email, I was sitting in my Japanese class and could barely contain my excitement. The email informed me that I'd been accepted as an ALT into the Program. Needless to say, I was pretty elated!


Once I found out I had gotten in, there were several things I needed to do before I would leave for Japan. Most of these things are done, but I'm still working on a few of them.

1. FBI Background check
2. IRS forms for tax purposes
4. Physical and TB test (glad I didn't have that!)
5. Proof of graduation from a college or university
6. Medication import forms (to bring medication to Japan)
7. International Drivers Permit (these are awesome if you ever need to drive in another country, by the way; they're $15, take ten minutes to get, and are good for a year. Driving on the other side of the road though doesn't sound quite as easy!
8. Visa application
9. Renounce my Japanese citizenship. I have had dual citizenship with the U.S. and Japan since I was born because I was born in the U.S. but my mom was not yet a U.S. citizen at the time of my birth. In order to participate in JET, people with dual citizenship must renounce their Japanese citizenship to avoid tricky visa problems. In my type of situation (people with dual citizenship from birth), people must choose one citizenship or the other before they turn 22. Because I turned 22 in June, renouncing my Japanese citizenship is something that I would have had to do anyway, so it wasn't a big deal. It was probably the most difficult thing on this list to pull off, however, because renouncing citizenship requires you to go to the consulate in Chicago in person to fill out the paperwork. Also, all of that paperwork is in Japanese which means I definitely needed a fluent speaker to come along with me to help me decipher everything. Thankfully, my mom needed to go to Chicago for a amateur piano competition so stopping into the consulate wasn't too much of an ordeal. I would have had no idea what any of the paperwork said without my mom there, so I was really grateful that she was there!

After I found out I got into JET, I waited another month and half to hear about my placement. The anticipation was killing me.

Prefecture:  島根県  Shimane-ken

Contracting Organization:  安来市  Yasugi-shi 

When I first found out, I was pretty surprised. Because I had no idea where Shimane Prefecture was and also because it wasn't one of the three prefectures I requested. As much as I heard that many applicants don't get any of their preferred prefectures, I also heard that many JETs get their first choice prefecture. I had requested prefectures that I thought might not be very popular, but I guess I was wrong! Anyway, I did a quick  Google search and found out where Shimane was. It turns out, it's just to the north of my 3rd choice preference, Okayama Prefecture.

After skimming the Wikipedia article I was a little freaked out. Shimane is the 2nd least populated prefecture in Japan, after its next-door neighbor, Tottori. It also has the highest ratio of centenarians to the general population out of any prefecture in Japan. Party with the old folks! 

But the more I've read about Shimane and my city, Yasugi particularly, and the more the current JETS in the area have told me about, the more I've gotten incredibly excited to go and live in this beautiful place!

 Here are some pictures of Shimane taken by current JETS. I plan to write another post all about Yasugi and Shimane where I go into more detail so stay tuned for that!