Peace Boat (Volunteer English/Spanish teaching, interpreting)

[hanazawa]

As a post-JET option, please consider Peace Boat! If you've lived in Japan for any amount of time and been to an izakaya in a major city, you must have seen posters about going around the world for 100man yen or similar. Those are put up by volunteers for a Japan-based NGO/NPO called Peace Boat, which is an organization that coordinates round-the-world voyages on a cruise ship about three times per year. The ships can carry about ~900 participants and there is a variety of programming on board and at ports of call that go beyond tourism into peace-building, international cooperation, and global citizenship.

Peace Boat recruits for volunteer English/Spanish teachers and Japanese/English & Japanese/Spanish interpreters for each voyage. There's more information here:
Peace Boat - Volunteer onboard or on land
(Note: US nationals can't apply for positions on voyages that stop at Cuba or Hawaii.)

And their main English page is here:
Peace Boat - Home
(You can check upcoming voyage dates and routes!)

After completing my contract as a CIR, I worked in Tokyo for a bit and went on Peace Boat's 78th and 80th voyages as an interpreter. It's a really great experience and you get to see a lot. It is a volunteer position (no pay, but your fare, room/board, onboard meals are covered) but I think you get a lot out of it.

For teachers, the application requirement is typically 2 years of teaching experience.
For interpreters, there is no requirement, but there is a written and verbal test if you pass the initial screening.

[jwkelley]

They were recently docked in my town getting their boat repaired, kept huddling around houses trying to tap into insecure wifi connections.

[7891]

Why can't US nationals go to a US state (Hawaii)?

[hanazawa]

There's no (reliable) internet on the boat, so people usually beeline for free wifi!

Re: US nationals, don't quote me on this but it's something about the US government having lots of regulations about vessels that carry US nationals. Peace Boat also won't accept US nationals on voyages that go to Cuba because the US government frowns on it or something, so as I understand it it's a regulatory thing and they don't want to get in trouble and jeopardize future ability to stop at certain ports.

[5100]

Bah, it's because sending a US national to Hawaii is just sending them on a vacation.

Although, this whole thing smacks of that kind of mindset.

[MJN]

US Citizen can't go to Cuba because it's illegal for them to do business with the country due to sanctions. I have no idea about Hawaii.