そんなの関係ね！

I guess I shouldn`t be surprised at where I am right now. Not the literal “at the computer in the office of my junior high school,” but in life. I`m incredibly lucky to have essentially fallen into doing things that make me happy. I fell into Willamette on a whim, and ended up being extremely happy (my friend couldn`t make her Willamette interview, so she offered her time slot to me. I went and met Teresa, who is an absolutely amazing human being, and in an hour she effectively convinced me to at least apply to Willamette. One thing led to another and months later, her words still buzzed around in my head and I accepted their offer with a “why not?” attitude). Now I find myself in Japan. While I considered applying for the program for awhile, I wasn`t fully motivated (as some of my fellow WU grads were/are) and I only started my application three days before it was due (including references and an essay).

Anyway, as Koshino Yoshio would say, “そんなの関係ね”(What does that matter?)

I don`t know. It`s the last day of school and I have nothing to do, and I just felt like writing a post that wasn`t simply a re-cap of my latest crazy weekend.

I`m going back to Hawaii tomorrow. I will be in warm, sunny weather in less than 48 hours (I`m making myself believe that it`s tomorrow morning, because technically, for me, it is). I leave Japan at 8pm on Saturday (tomorrow evening), and I arrive in Hawaii at 8am on Saturday (tomorrow morning). Ah, the joy of time zones.

I have to turn in my paperwork about whether I`m going to recontract or not. Although I`m 75% sure I`m going to stay, I decided to wait to make my final decision until after I come back from Hawaii. The combination of having a full-time job and being in Japan has really forced me to think about what I want to do for the next years of my life. Today one of my co-workers asked me when I decided I wanted to become a teacher. I responded that I still haven`t decided yet. The latest newsletter from the Programme said that procrastination is not a good reason for recontracting. I don`t think of this job as procrastination as much as I think it`s research.

Last week I called the summer school office for fun, and my friends updated me about hiring and the new computer system. The summer school office is a great temporary job. It`s fun, in a comfortable environment with people I enjoy, allows me to use Japanese, and plays to my organizational skills. I would be lying if I said I wasn`t a little jealous of the new hires. If that office was in Japan (and I was an average Japanese young single female), it would be an ideal job for me. Many of my friends who are average Japanese young single females and they are looking for essentially the same kind of work; something fun where they can use their English skills. The trick is that these women are not expected to work for longer then 10 years (if not 5). A shrinking majority of women in Japan quit work after they have children (I say shrinking because lately not many women are having children, but that`s a whole other story). If I had school-age children who would benefit from my employment, it becomes a whole other situation. However, I don`t.

What does this matter? I believe if I go back to Hawaii, I will probably end up going to UH grad school for English Literature and/or working at the summer school office. Last year, around this time, I was telling people that I would probably end up in Japan teaching English the following year. Five years ago, around this time, I was telling people that I would probably end up at a small liberal arts school, probably in Oregon. Both came true. Both worked out well. Both made me extremely happy, although they were, initially, my back-up plans.

I don`t know if anything will change if I stay in Japan another year. Yes, my Japanese will get better (I hope). Yes, I`ll make new friends and easy money and gain two years of classroom experience to put on my resume. On the other hand, I don`t want to go into travel, tourism, or international business, and Japanese ability won`t help me get a job as an English teacher (although it helps in the summer school office).