Life in the inaka

[The Buddha Hulk]

Hi all,

For those who are currently on or have been placed in the inaka for JET, I wanted to ask how you found your day to day life?

Pros and cons etc

I'm a 30 year old aspiring JET and I've done the city life, drinking till 4 in the morning and waking up in precarious places...

I'm really hoping to be placed somewhere off the beaten track and little bit special.

So my questions are:

1) Where were you placed?
2) What where the pros and cons?

Cheers!




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[OatsCurrySummer]

I'm placed on a tiny tropical island in Okinawa that is an hour's ferry from the main island and a plane ride away from mainland Japan. There are no trains in Okinawa, no conbinis on my island and it's inhabited by 1,500 people. So I pretty much win the "my-placement-is-more-inaka-than-yours" award. That being said, I was a city girl myself and being in the inaka, especially one so isolated, I've discovered what its like to have a community that cares about you. I've never been one to interact with or generally give a shit about my neighbors, but here I've learned to enjoy taking part in community events, festivals, marathons and editing a few english documents at the request of the town office, since I'm the only foreigner here. The work load is incredibly light (my mainland friends can have up to 6 classes a day, whereas I get 2 or 3) and I get to know all of my students (120 on the whole island). People here really look out of one another, and have made me feel nothing but welcome. For example, there was one time that I got food poisoning in Tokyo and when I came home, I mentioned it to someone on the ferry and within an hour, three of my neighbors were at my door with bags of vitamin drinks and homemade soup. That's the kind of community this is.
Rent is super cheap (5,000 yen a month) so I can save around $1,500 USD a month and still have lots to spend on drinking and travelling.
That being said, it's incredibly inconvenient to travel to mainland Japan from here. I take a boat, a bus and then a plane to get anywhere. That's my only real complaint. That and the sense of duty that comes with taking part in the community. If you dont show up to events, people notice. They want you to be an active member and contribute, which so far I've enjoyed doing. I'm sure many people have had very different (sometimes negative) experiences of life in the inaka, so mine definitely does not apply to all. But give it a chance, I never expected something so remote, but now I couldnt imagine my life in a huge Japanese city!

[Gizmotech]

Hi all,

For those who are currently on or have been placed in the inaka for JET, I wanted to ask how you found your day to day life?
I'm a 30 year old aspiring JET and I've done the city life, drinking till 4 in the morning and waking up in precarious places...
Cheers!

Semi inaka Ex-Jet. In my town of 60k there was plenty of drinking until 5am, the only difference was you could always get home.

[The Buddha Hulk]

I'm placed on a tiny tropical island in Okinawa that is an hour's ferry from the main island and a plane ride away from mainland Japan. There are no trains in Okinawa, no conbinis on my island and it's inhabited by 1,500 people. So I pretty much win the "my-placement-is-more-inaka-than-yours" award. Couldn't imagine my life in a huge Japanese city!

Thanks for sharing! That actually sounds pretty awesome.




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[The Buddha Hulk]

Semi inaka Ex-Jet. In my town of 60k there was plenty of drinking until 5am, the only difference was you could always get home.

Haha cheers Gizmo, the mind is willing but the body...




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[mrcharisma]

Similar situation to Gizmo. "City" of 70k but plenty to keep you occupied after dark. Cities this size in Japan will always have plenty of good restaurants and a few bars worth visiting. I was still finding new places down alleyways well into my 3rd year on Jet

Placements along these lines are probably more common than real inaka placements I'd say.

[The Buddha Hulk]

Similar situation to Gizmo. "City" of 70k but plenty to keep you occupied after dark. Cities this size in Japan will always have plenty of good restaurants and a few bars worth visiting. I was still finding new places down alleyways well into my 3rd year on Jet

Placements along these lines are probably more common than real inaka placements I'd say.

Nice one. Thanks mate.

I'm pretty keen on the community involvement side of things but I'm sure that is not decided by location. I like to get amongst it so I'm sure I'll be right anywhere.

[mothy]

A big city won't stop you from community involvement if that's something you want to do. Despite being practically in Tokyo, I could have done lots of community activities if I'd wanted to, I just didn't because who would want to do that here? Saitamans are awful.

[The Buddha Hulk]

Saitamans? As in people from Saitama?

What makes them awful? Excuse my ignorance

[Zolrak 22]

Saitamans? As in people from Saitama?

What makes them awful? Excuse my ignorance

Saitama has a bad rep, there's been a number of news articles that make it stand out as Japan's version of Gotham. Which I'm sure is an exaggeration, but an entertaining one nonetheless.

[Wild Rover]

I'm placed on a tiny tropical island in Okinawa that is an hour's ferry from the main island and a plane ride away from mainland Japan. There are no trains in Okinawa, no conbinis on my island and it's inhabited by 1,500 people!

Good luck getting laid in the middle of no where....



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[Ini]

shouldnt be a problem

[mrcharisma]

Nice one. Thanks mate.

I'm pretty keen on the community involvement side of things but I'm sure that is not decided by location. I like to get amongst it so I'm sure I'll be right anywhere.

The community involvement stuff can get pretty tedious so I'd size it up before jumping in headfirst. In my first year on Jet we all pretty much got dragged into pensioners cookery classes and the like. As Oats said the more you show up the more will be expected of you.

Once I got my bearings I spent the latter half of my Jet days hanging around snack bars with crooked salarymen. Still community involvement but a bit more interesting.

[OatsCurrySummer]

Good luck getting laid in the middle of no where....

I do just fine, thanks for your concern.

[The Buddha Hulk]

The community involvement stuff can get pretty tedious so I'd size it up before jumping in headfirst. In my first year on Jet we all pretty much got dragged into pensioners cookery classes and the like. As Oats said the more you show up the more will be expected of you.

Once I got my bearings I spent the latter half of my Jet days hanging around snack bars with crooked salarymen. Still community involvement but a bit more interesting.

Solid advice mate.
I use to live in a country town in oz so I know those small town pressures.

A little anonymity goes a long way.


Kinda wanna know about the crooked salary men now Hahahaha

[mrcharisma]

Solid advice mate.
I use to live in a country town in oz so I know those small town pressures.

A little anonymity goes a long way.


Kinda wanna know about the crooked salary men now Hahahaha

My predecessor gave me an intro to a guy, he was a proper old geezer, fairly high up in the local inaka bank and knew every bar owner in town. I met a couple of other salarymen types through him.

Guys like that exist everywhere and can make much more interesting boozing buddies than the younger herbivore men.

[acpc2203]

as long as you don't end up in tottori you will be fine.

[The Buddha Hulk]

My predecessor gave me an intro to a guy, he was a proper old geezer, fairly high up in the local inaka bank and knew every bar owner in town. I met a couple of other salarymen types through him.

Guys like that exist everywhere and can make much more interesting boozing buddies than the younger herbivore men.

Haha great! Nice work.

[The Buddha Hulk]

as long as you don't end up in tottori you will be fine.

Lol that bad?

[acpc2203]

Worse