With the days winding down to summer break, JETs around Niigata start to contemplate what to do in their free time without lessons to prep and students to entertain. Why not spend some time this summer working on your bulletin board? Turn Desk Warming season into Bulletin Board season. Do Read more…
Has the past year given you a travel itch? Does your employer or town still request you don’t leave the prefecture? Then a “Summer Stay-cation” may be just the ticket! Niigata prefecture’s latest travel campaign named “Tsukattoku!” (使っ得！pronouncedつかっとく!), which translates to “use it” or “take it”, is practically screaming for Read more…
We all know that Japan is an island nation. There’s Kyushu and Honshu, Hokkaido and Shikoku; Okinawa is almost entirely islands. But there’s an island no one knows, and it’s where I’ve been living since August of 2018 While many of you have heard of Niigata prefecture (perhaps some Read more…
Building Bridges by Jess Mancoo “By making bridges today,we can prevent the construction of walls tomorrow.” As a “citizen of the world” the talk circulating about “building walls” makes me worried. I’ve traveled extensively and hope to continue doing so in future, but I worry. As a child, I was Read more…
“You will feel tired and frustrated, and small things like working out whether a bottle of liquid at the supermarket is soy sauce or fish sauce will start to seem like big problems.” Many explanations of culture shock are somewhat lacking in terms of understanding why it happens, Read more…