#how many more times do i have to ask for more jh and gc

[marymekpop]

⟢ highlight of the hour: my dearest [17/20] ⟣

all of you

[akhet]

How many other alts live in your city? Do you all get on and do you see each other often? Or are you more on your own? How does it work socially?

Hi there! Thanks for thequestions! Will do my best to answer…

So my situation is influencedby a few things,

I’m placed in a town in Hyogowhich is 2-3 hours away from Kyoto city and Osaka city. Trains are veryinfrequent here, maybe one an hour if you are lucky (and have a station near you)

My Japanese is passable forthe most basic of conversations.

I am an introvert but even soI get really lonely out in my placement as it is detached from the main townarea and barely anyone has the means to get out to visit me.

I have a car, so I drive into town a lot

Currently there are 9 JHS/JHS+ESJET ALTs, and 5 SHS ALTs (there are some private hires too and the new 9ish interacs that are coming soon). My city technically spans a massive area which meansthat we all don’t live close together. For instance I am out on the coast, a25min drive from the “main” town. At the moment 2 JHS and 3 SHS ALTs live inthe main town area. There is no train to my house, (nor supermarket or combini)so I have to drive but my school is close to my home. Many of the ALTs here don’thave cars unless they need them. One of my friends drives around 15km to herJHS every day.

Being an ALT does vary awhole lot for life outside of work. Because we are quite rural we do tend tohang out a bit, with everyone meeting in the main town. We occasionally havedinner, movie nights, go to Karaoke, have drinking parties at people’s housesor at izakayas and in the summer sometimes they come out to where I am and haveBBQs. Some people meet up in town and go to the gym together throughout the week.

In my town generally oncekids finish Senior High School they go off to University in a big city so thereis a gap of adults in their 20s in my town. There are some but it’s mostly youngschool kids, parents and grandparents. So making Japanese friends can be a bitof a challenge, even more so if you are female or so I have found at the veryleast.  

Obviously you can’t expect tobe friends with everyone, and sometimes personalities don’t match or maybe youform a closer bond with the people who started at the same time as you, (thishappens a lot up here). But with a smaller town everyone is normally reallynice, even if you aren’t the best friends, because at the end of the dayeveryone understands how isolated and rural we are. All of the local ALTs areat least aware of each other here, this year we only really have one person whois dead set on not interacting with any of us but I still bump into him at thesupermarket occasionally and have a little chat.

For us we know what it’s likeliving here so when the newbies came last August we tried to be as welcoming andfriendly as possible, in case anyone needed help. It’s a case of reaching outthough, something I’m not so good with myself. But if you ask me anything, or need someone to vent to I am 1000% there. 

The more you make an effort togo to events, the better friends you will become with people here. Sometimes it’sabout reading the air too, you can’t really force friendship. Normally you canchuck out a message in the gc and see who’s around or keen for dinner or acatch up and you’ll get some responses.

Hope that answered some ofyour questions anon! If you have any more hit me up anytime~ 

(sorry Im kinda terrible at answering these kinds of questions >_