The Project

I have always had a fascination with the country of Japan and the Japanese culture in general. I study their architecture, use their electronics, listen to their music, watch their cartoons, eat their food and much more. Not a day goes by that this culture dose not affect me in some way. Despite all of these things I have never been to Japan. The only stuff I know about the culture is what I can pull from my surroundings. This leaves me feeling like I only understand a very small amount about the Japanese and I would like that to change. There have been several quotes to the effect of: you can only understand someones culture by experiencing it. I don't know if it is possible to fully understand another culture without growing up in it but I would like to find out how much you really can gain by living in another country. I have only one problem... How can I get there and afford to stay long enough to gain the understanding that I am looking for? Enter the JET program! This program takes people from all over the world and invites them to go to Japan to teach their native language. They pay you a salary and have a support system to get you acclimatized to your surroundings. You don't even have to know Japanese to be eligible for the program.

So I have decided to apply to the JET program, But I need some time to get a few things done before I do. First, I would like to stay at my job a little longer in order to learn more from it and to foster a strong recommendation when I need it. Second, I need to save money so I am sure that my student loans will be taken care of while I am gone. Third, I would like to learn the language so I can communicate with the locals, making it easier to learn what I can from them. I think it will take about one and a half years to accomplish these things. In that time I will take classes in Japanese and learn what I can to prepare my self. This blog is designed to follow my progress reaching these goals. So as I learn I will post what I can and would enjoy any feed back from readers to assist in my learning and preparation. In the end of this blog my hope is that I can present it along with my application process to show what I have done to prepare myself and that I truly am interested in the Japanese culture.