Week one - Flying from the Uk to Japan, Interac training week.

I'm writing this three weeks into my journey into Japan as it's been a busy few weeks and I've now had time to reflect on how things have gone so far. Long story short It's been amazing so far, my apartment's in a great location, my schools and students are great (so far) and I've made some good friends.

My journey started with a 6am alarm, followed by breakfast and multiple bag checks to make sure I'd packed everything i needed.

I was then driven to York train station by my dad, met a friend for a coffee and said goodbye as i boarded the 8:23 for Manchester airport. After safely arriving in Manchester Airport i waited for an hour for the Qatar airlines checkin desk to open. A few hours later i boarded the flight which was destined for Doha. I arrived in Doha after a decent flight with a large selection of in flight movies to keep me entertained. I had an hour to change flights, and i managed to get to the boarding gate for my next flight within 25 mins, as the airport is mainly designed for people transferring flights. I then boarded the flight to Shanghai, which was another easy flight. Arriving in Shanghai i went through the routine again and found my checkin desk, went through security and boarded my flight for my final destination, Osaka.

My Samsonite suitcase and Minaal backpack.

Doha Airport

Shanghai Airport

I landed in Osaka at around 9:30pm, I was in a bit of a rush as i knew the subway system in Osaka shut down around 11:30pm and I'd be getting a train into the main station then transferring to another line to get to the hostel where I'd be spending my first night in Japan. I went through immigration  and my visa/passport was accepted and i received my Gajin (Foreigner card). I then sped up as it was getting later and i didn't want to miss the last train. After catching my train to Osaka central and dashing about to find my connecting line i made the second to last train to the station where my hostel was located. 

Stepping out from the underground station it hit me how hot and humid it was, i was sweating a ridiculous amount after lugging my suitcase about. I found my hostel and checked in and had a well needed shower and change of clothes as I'd set off from home 36 hours before. The next day i got the Shinkansen (Bullet train) to Okayama City. I departed the station into my new city, for at least the next 6 months. I met with the Interac trainers at the meeting point along with another Interac ALT who arrived at the same time. We were taken into the hotel and met up with the other ALTS that were going to be teaching in Okayama.

I won't go into the training into too much detail as i may do a separate post about the training later. The training was essentially a 5 day crash course in teaching English and Japanese culture. It was a good chance to get to know the other ALTS and let friendship groups emerge. Three days into the training i moved into my Leopalace apartment. I was driven to the apartment by one of Interac's English/Japanese speaking employees. Stepping into my apartment was like stepping into a sauna. It was hotter than it was outside i instantly broke into sweat, after putting the air conditioning on for 5 minutes it quickly cooled down, which was a relief. I'd pre ordered a futon so there was one waiting for my in a box ready for me to unpack. There was also a bike ready and waiting for me so i can bike to my schools, and its great for exploring the city.

Sleeping area

Ladder that leads up to sleeping area

Cooking/ Washing machine area/ door to shower

Main room

My bike

When i moved into my apartment there was still two days of training left, so i had to commute into the city for the training. I was amazed when i realised my station was only a 7 minutes walk away from from house and only one stop away from Okayama central, and only takes 3 minutes, i couldn't have wished for a better location. When i got the chance to have a ride about the next night i realised how close i was to the local shops, within 5-10 minutes i was within reach of a huge shopping mall with a supermarket, drug store and a 100 yen store. To get tall the essentials for my apartment i did all my shopping at 100 yen stores, buying everything from school supplies to plates and cutlery.

The next day at training we were given our mobile phones that we'd signed up for and we were also given information about out school schedule, i found I'd be teaching at a junior high school and two Elementary schools. the last day after training we did a summer camp with some first year junior high students, doing a skit and doing some basic games in English.

In my next post I'll be writing about my schools, students and how I've found living in Japan.

Arigatou gozaimasu.

I'm moving to Okayama !

So its finally been confirmed where I'm going to be teaching in Japan, a city called Okayama , which is the capital of okayama prefecture.

My contract in Okayama city is for 8 months, after which I'll be relocated to another city, hopefully nearby so i don't have to spent too much on relocating. From talking to people on facebook that I've contacted though Okayama facebook groups everyone has nothing but good things to say about the city, which is good to hear.

It's about an hour away from Osaka on the train, and close by to Shikoku so i can hopefully take some trips across.

After i confirmed that i was happy with going to Okayama city i booked my flights. As the training is going to be held in Okayama I'm going to be flying to Osaka rather than Narita airport in Tokyo. I'm flying with Qatar airlines as they fly from Manchester, have a reasonable baggage allowance (30KG) and their flights are reasonably priced. 

Source: Google maps

Okayama City

Okayama is famous for many things , one of its main attractions is the beautiful Korakuen garden it houses, which can be seen pictured below.

Source: Stephen L - Tripadvisor

Another of Okayamas attractions is its castle, originally built in 1597 destroyed in 1945 and rebuilt in 1966 (According to wikipedia)

Source: http://www.digital-images.net/Gallery/Scenic/Japan/Castles/Okayama/okayama.html

Volunteering in York

- If you are interested in volunteering in York you can contact - York cvs 

- Have a look on www.do-it.org.uk for volunteering opportunities in your area

This is a story which starts about a year and a half ago ,it's an explanation of why i volunteered 447 hours of my time between January 2013 and the present .Volunteering with a variation of organisations has given me great joy, lots of new experiences and has been a helping hand in me securing a job to teach english in Japan.

I first decided to start volunteering when I thought about what I wanted to do when I finished University. I enjoy travelling and visiting different countries to find out about different cultures, and there are still lots of places I want to visit. I decided to become qualified in a field that would allow be to travel to different countries and experience the culture, after meeting someone on a trip to Jordan I decided what that would be. I met a girl there from America who had just finished a year teaching English to children in South Korea. She told me about her experiences teaching and living in Korea and what a great experience it was, you can check out her travel blog here -> http://traveljunkette.com/.

When I returned home I started googling ‘Teaching English abroad’ and my mind was opened to the possibilities of travelling the world, staying in different countries to teach and slowly making my way around the world, as it’s estimated there are around 1 billion people learning English worldwide I realised there should be no shortage of jobs.

At the time I didn’t have any teaching experience, or experience working with children or adults in a learning environment. I decided to change that through volunteering.

I started in January 2013 by contacting York CVS, an organisation in York that act as a middleman to help organisations find volunteers, and volunteers find organisations to volunteer with, to see what opportunities were available in York. I also looked on the Do-it volunteering website , which is a great tool to find volunteering opportunities across England.

I got some information on different places looking for volunteers and decided to contact my local library about helping in the ‘Online Basics’ courses they ran.

I contacted them and soon started to help out once a week with the sessions, helping learners understand the basics of computing. The sessions usually had around 4 people and lasted an hour. After a few weeks of doing the course I started to do one to one sessions with people helping them with skills such as setting up Internet accounts and getting them started with a new computer.

A few months later I contacted the volunteer coordinator for Adult Education, who are a section of the council that run various courses and classes for adults. I started helping in a more advanced I.T class. Helping learners work towards either the ECDL or CLAIT qualification, this involved helping them work through the various tasks they had to do to achieve the qualification.

A few weeks later I decided I wanted to get some experience working with children. I searched online and found a youth organisation in York called York Playspace that was looking for volunteers. I applied to be a volunteer with them and soon started helping at the different youth clubs they ran sessions at.

The sessions varied week to week but I usually spent the session playing sports such as football and basketball with the children as well as creating crafts with them.

From June until September I had a break from all the volunteering I had been doing to start the month long CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) at the English Language Centre. The course lasted a month and I taught every other day teaching elementary for two weeks and intermediate for two, I also had an assignment each week to complete. Each day we also had various inputs covering different aspects of teaching.

Three weeks after I completed the CELTA course I went to Morocco for a month to teach English to teenagers at a school in Casablanca. You read about my experience in Morocco HERE.

After returning from Morocco I had two weeks before returning to university, with it being my final year I found out I was only going to be in 1 or 2 days a week, with most of the work being done in my own time. I decided I wanted to start getting some more experience teaching English.

When on the CELTA course they mentioned an opportunity to volunteer in a language class. I emailed the contact and started volunteering in the class late September. It’s a Pre-Entry level English language class where I act as the assistant language teacher, I present some of the language and help them work through their tasks each lesson. 

I also started volunteering in various other I.T classes through adult education. The classes are usually for beginners and the learners are usually adults, who want to learn how to use the internet to do a wide range of activities such as; sending emails, shopping online and finding out information.

In October I started to volunteer at Visit York , which is York’s tourist information centre. I help visitors to the city and locals with whatever they need. Usually helping visitors decide what to see in York as well as giving locals information on upcoming events. 

In November i started to run a tablet and E-reader drop in session for York libraries, members of the public can come in during the session and have a play with the different units we have, and ask any questions they might have.

I initially started volunteering for a particular purpose, to gain experience teaching and to boost the chances of me getting a teaching job abroad.

Volunteering with the different organisations I have has given me much more than that, it’s being a way of getting an insight into lots of people’s lives, whether I have just seen them for 5 minutes giving them directions in Visit York, or getting to know them over a period of time in the classroom. Other volunteers I've met have donated their time for a variation of reasons wether it's to gain experience in a particular area or just to feel like they're helping people, whatever your reasons for wanting to volunteer and whatever skills you have there will be a cause you can help.

I now work with York Playspace as a playworker at one of their weekly sessions, as well as running an after school I.T club for them at a local primary school. I still volunteer with Visit York, Adult education's english language classes and York libraries running the tablet session.

I've also just been offered a job from Interac as an assistant language teacher in Japan to start in August, you can read about the application process HERE. The volunteering experiences I've had gave me a great deal to talk about in my interview and in my personal statement, so volunteering no doubt played a part in me getting the job.

The pictures below were taken at some of the different locations I've volunteered

INTERAC - Application process and interview

This post is designed to give you an insight into the application and interview process involved with Interac. If you are unfamiliar with Interac, they are a dispatch company who recruit English teachers from all over the world to teach in Japan.

The first step in applying to Interac is to go onto their website www.interacnetwork.com and click the APPLY NOW button. You then create a login profile which you use to login each time you want to update the application or add a document.

The online application involves the following main components;

- General information about yourself age, dob etc

- A 2500 Personal statement 

- Education history

- Work history

- Reference contact details

- Heath information

I spent a few days going through everything on the application to make sure it was all correct and i didn't have any spelling mistakes. I also spent a lot of time writing the personal statement, as this is a big chance to sell yourself and tell Interac about yourself.

A few days after i submitted the online application i received an email inviting me to have a phone interview, it was scheduled for three weeks time. I prepared for the phone interview by researching facts about Japan and going through my personal statement. The interview went well, it consisted of the recruiter giving me some basic information about teaching in Japan and what's expected from an ALT. She also asked me questions about why i wanted to teach and why i had an interest in Japan, it lasted about 20 minutes.

The day after i had the phone interview i was informed i passed this stage and i was invited to a seminar/interview, i was glad to see there was one in my city (York) so i didn't have to travel down to London. The interview was scheduled for two and a half weeks later. I was given information about what the seminar/interview involved so i could prepare beforehand.

There would be an information session from the recruiter to give us information about living and working in Japan, a one-to-one interview and we would have to give a demo lesson, this would consist of an introduction - pretending we had arrived in Japan and were meeting the teachers for the first time, we would have to read from a script, give a primary school walm up and a quick demo lesson on directions for a middle school class. 

The day of the interview came and i dressed up in my best suit and got to the interview location about 20 minutes before we were due to start. I found two other interviewees waiting in the reception area so i had a chat with them until the recruiter arrived. As there was only five of us (including the recruiter) we had the info session on some sofas in one of the lounges. We had a chat for a while, explained why we wanted to go to Japan and answered a few questions. We then had a grammar test, which covered a few grammatical structures, differentiating between the passive and active voice and correcting some spelling errors.
We then went up individually to a hotel room with the recruiter so we could do out recorded intro and demo lesson. As i'd practiced mine about 20 times i remembered it all and didn't mess any of it up. We were then give two sheets of A4 with some interview questions to answer for the recruiter to have a read through and we finished with a one to one interview for each of us.

Exactly a month after the interview i received an email from INTERAC offering me a position to start in August ! It would normally have been faster but i had a delay from one of my references.

Cheap travel : London to Brussels and back on the megabus - £2.50 return

Some people might have seen the Megabus advertisements for travel to Paris/ Brussels and other European destinations for the low price of £1 each way ( plus 50p booking fee), gone onto the Megabus website to have a look then discover the prices are higher than anticipated.

It is possible to get a ticket for this price, you just need to know how, there are only a limited number of seats sold at this price so you have to be quick to get them when they go on sale. 

I managed to grab a return journey from London to Brussels in the Megabus sale for £2.50. Even if you don't get the tickets on sale you can get them for £5 - £18 each way depending on how far you book in advance.
As i couldn't really find any information online about what the trip would entail i thought it would be worth making a blog post. 

London to Brussels - 8 hours

- First off I'll quickly cover the facilities you get on the bus which are; free wifi (Just in the Uk). A toilet, which is in a cubicle you can't really stand up in but worked fine on the coach i was on, and there are also UK plug sockets and slots to insert a USB cable next to each set of seats, so you can charge your phone, ipod etc.

- The journey starts at Victoria coach station, which is just around the corner from the Victoria train station, which can be reached on the underground by heading to, you guessed it, the Victoria underground stop. You need to get to the station about an hour before your coach is due to depart, so you have time to check in and collect your ticket. 

- The coach (the one on the right), as you can see in the picture below is a double decker, the lower deck of the bus is used to store luggage and the upper deck has seats. You don't get much leg room, but if the bus isn't full you can get two seats next to each other and stretch out.

Coaches waiting to leave the station

Victoria coach station

- As you can see from the two side-by-side pictures, it's great if you can get the back seat, as you can stretch out and have a sleep.

- The bus took about 2 hours to get to the Dover ferry port then about an hour wait for the ferry. The bus drove onto the ferry and parked on the lower deck. As the lower deck is lock you have to go onto the passenger deck above. There was a bar, toilets and lots of chairs and sofas to relax on. After an hour and a half we arrived in calais and went back to the bus. It's also worth noting the stair number you take up, as the lower deck is quite big and was full of lorrys when i took the trip, so you can't see where the bus is. The coach then took the trip to Brussels, stopping off at Ghent on the way, taking about 3.5 hours to get from Calais to Brussels.

- The bus arrives at ' Rue de cardinal mercier ' which is a street in Brussels next the the train station, which is used as a coach pickup/drop off point. Which can be seen next to the red pin on the map below. This is the same place were you will need to go for the return trip, it's worth noting there are no signs to say it's where the megabus stops, but there are usually other coaches there on the street.

The return trip - Brussels to London - 7.5 Hours

- The return journey departs where you get dropped off at ' Rue de cardinal mercier '. My coach arrived 10 minutes before it was due to depart, which was plenty of time as there was only 15 passengers. The trip to Calais took the same time as the trip to Brussels. 

- Something i didn't know until we got there was that the channel crossing was with the Eurostar, which only took 35 minutes. The coach drove into a big carriage, which was pulled along by the train, and transported through the tunnel very smoothly. A few pictures of the journey across can be seen below. The trip from the port we arrived in (Folkstone, Kent) back to Victoria coach station took an hour and a half.

If you don't mind an extended journey, the Megabus is a great deal. I don't mind long journeys and usually just listen to some music and fall asleep easily so I had no complaints. You can book tickets on their website http://uk.megabus.com/.

Jordan and Israel | March 2012

View from the hostel roof in Amman

I went to Jordan for 10 days in March 2013, the last two days of which i spent in Jerusalem . I flew into Amman with my first night booked, and decided to plan the rest of my route when i arrived at the hostel. I stayed at the Jordan Tower Hostel which i can thoroughly recommend. It's run by some great staff and it's in a great location near some great street food vendors nearby where you can get a falafel for 25p and a meat shawarma for £1. I spent my first night planning the next few days and having a walk about the local area. On my second day i took a day trip to the dead sea with some other travellers, which was organised by the hostel. We paid to use the facilities of a hotel near the dead sea so we could use their showers and swimming pools after we went in the sea. It was a great experience to float about in the sea, getting the very salty water in my eyes wasn't fun, but it was easily washed out.

Getting muddy at the dead sea

Infinity pool at the dead sea

After arriving back from the dead sea i spent the night finding out the best way to get to Petra and Wadi Rum, i decided to get the bus early next morning to Petra. I decided to get a bus with JETT and got a taxi to their station for 6am, the bus was due to leave at 6:30am. After jumping out of the taxi I soon realised the bus was sold out so i had to quickly decide what to do. I got the taxi to drive to another bus station that had buses leaving later on. After arriving and chatting to some other people  we decided to get a large taxi together as it was pretty much the same price as a bus. The hostel i stayed at in Amman recommended i stayed at the Saba'a Hotel in Petra , which was a great hostel. This hostel is run by a very friendly couple who were always happy to help with any questions i had. It was about a ten minute walk from the hostel to the main entrance to Petra.

Petra was big, much bigger than i imagined it would be. I bought a two day pass which cost the equivalent of £48. It would've been hard to explore all of Petra within one day as there's a lot to see including a walk to the monastery which is an hour each way. There were some quiet spots to relax as well which i took advantage of to read and enjoy the view for a few hours.

Petra, Jordan

Petra

View from the monastery Petra 

After two days of exploring Petra i caught a bus to Wadi Rum. I booked a tour around to see the different rock formations, sand dunes and of course the camels. There was some amazing scenery here to see and it was great to sleep in the desert. Me and the others on the tour stayed in tents in a small camp. It was amazing to see the night sky lit up with stars and sleep in the silent desert.

Wadi Rum

Wadi Rum

Wadi Rum desert Panoramas

After two days in the desert i went to Aqaba and stayed in the Bedouin Garden Village just outside of the main town. They were fully booked but i managed to stay on their roof with a few cushions and a blanket. It was a good two days of relaxing by the pool. I then got a bus from Aqaba back to Amman where i was planning on spending my last two days.

 I went back to the hostel i originally stayed at when i arrived where i met another traveller at the hostel who was planning to go to Jerusalem for two days. I decided to make the most of my last few days and decided to head to Israel. It was a long journey across the border but it was worth it. We stayed in the Abraham hostel which was yet another great hostel. We spent the first day on a free walking tour of Jerusalem seeing the sights with a great tour guide and spent the night at a very busy street party. The next day we rented a car with two other travellers we met in the hostel and drove to the Dead sea on the Israeli side. We spent the day at the beach, then me and Hannah got dropped of at the crossing to Jordan by the other two travellers. 

Hannah, the girl i went to Jerusalem with left the next day so i had one day to relax and enjoy the sun before heading home.

Praying Jewish man at the Western Wall

Teaching English in Casablanca, Morocco : 1st – 30th August 2013

The organisation i volunteered with are called CSM (www.csmmorocco.org). CSM offer a range of volunteering opportunities primarily teaching English and French and also an environmental program. I signed up for the program through ICYE (http://www.icye.org.uk/) in the UK, which cost £850, which included some pre departure training,  the flights,insurance, accommodation with the host family and meals each day. 

In August 2013 I spent a month volunteering in Casablanca, Morocco. I taught English to some great Moroccan students, I had 2 classes each day, which lasted 2 hours each, between 8 – 12 in the morning, giving the volunteers the rest of the day to do what we wanted. We covered vocabulary and a range of grammar to help the students improve their English speaking ability. There where six of us teaching english at this project, each working individually with different classes.

Some of the younger students at the school

Me with my 8-10am class

Me with my 10-12pm class

I stayed with a host family in a great suburb of Casablanca; the area was full of little cafes and lots of places to eat. The area had lots of families and there was always children playing in the street. The host family I stayed with were extremely welcoming. Three of the brothers that I stayed with were involved with CSM and helped in the running of the project, signing up students and making sure everything ran smoothly.

Staying with a host family i sometimes got some extra guests wandering into my room.

My room for the month, shared with one of the brothers in the house.

CSM organised trips each weekend to show us a wide range of what Morocco has to offer, we spent one weekend in the city of El Jadida relaxing on the beaches and staying in a nice apartment together. We spent one weekend exploring the souks of Marrakech staying in a hostel with it’s own pool and we spent the final weekend at the aquapark and the beach in Casablanca.

The majority of the students really engaged in the classes and had a great interest in improving their English communication skills. For anyone interested in the program I would suggest taking a book such as English Grammar in Use , as each day after we taught we gave the people running our project a few pages to photocopy for the next day, and having a book to get teaching ideas and topics from can make the experience a lot easier. Some days I just had notes written down and worked the class around a grammar point, or covered a few pieces of functional language or vocabulary.

On the last day the best three students from each class were awarded a certificate 

I would suggest people thinking of applying to the program do some research on teaching methods and have a look at some teaching materials before departing (If you haven't taught before, or had any training). What you teach is entirely up to you, and you have to plan everything you want to teach yourself and as there is no training so you need to have some idea how to teach before you arrive, as you get straight into teaching within the first few days.

I would recommend the program to anyone who wants to get a taste of what teaching English as a foreign language is like, and anyone wanting to experience another culture at the same time.

Jemaa el fna square at night, Marrakech

A souk in Marrakech