I was planning to update this weekly. Clearly, that hasn’t happened, but from this is where things will really start to pick up and where each week there WILL be more information to post, so please check back regularly and I hope to have something to offer that may be of help.

So, we’ve hit May already and standing right here on the cusp of June. For those of you heading home prepare to blink and be heading on a plane back to the land from whence you came. Given the way time tends to accelerate in those final few months, here are a couple of requests.

1. May is the time to start rifling through that apartment of yours and making decisions about what’s going to make the return trip with you.

• If you’re planning to sell anything, be aware that the Summer HAJET Meeting offers a major ‘Garage Sale’ and is a good chance to offload clothes/furniture/winter sports gear to fellow JETs. Otherwise you can consider 2^nd-hand stores or posts to the general listservs.

• Anything that you want to throw out – do it now. It will be less pain and bother in the end, and will help you make better decision about what you do and do want to take home.

• Large boxes/books/kimonos etc. start sending that big stuff by post now – it will break your expenses up and you’ll be glad not to be paying 5 mahn at once in your final week in Japan.

2. Your successors will just now be finding out where it is that they are placed (late May). Think of what information you would like to have known, what information you were glad to know and what information you really didn’t need to know (personal opinions of teaching staff/BoE coworkers, for example).

3. Start Preparing the following information for your successor:

• Your Contact Information for when you leave Japan/your position (phone number and/or e-mail)

• A map of the area – think about essential information such as the local supermarket/combini, nearest post-office, bank, schools, hospital, izakaya etc. And yes, please make sure that the map is in English – even if it’s just notes that you make on it in a pretty red pen.

• Notes on different appliances/quirks about your house. Instructions on how to use the rice cooker/boiler/drain the pipes in winter, etc.

• Notes on the different bills they will have to pay (water, electricity, rent), how/where to pay them, and if you can, a diagram of each bill and what part means what (this could be done by photocopying your own bill and going from there)

• A map of the seating plan at their base school (if they have a base school). It can make things a lot easier to know who’s sitting where and to not just look at the sheet and think ‘Shite, kanji. What the heck are any of these names?’

• Helpful route information – how to get to the train station/bus depot, how to make their way to school

• Phone numbers/e-mails of other JETs in the area, as well as townspeople that your successor should contact in case of emergency (your supervisor, good English speakers etc.)

• Any other information that you think might make their time here easier. They’ll thank you for it, I promise.

If you are provided with your successor’s e-mail address, be sure to make first contact and let them know that you are available to give insight/advice on their lives here. If you are not provided with their e-mail address, please ask – your office will likely be glad that you are willing to help make your successor’s transition smoother.

Anyway, that’s advice/requests for returning JETs. Keep in mind that before you get here things can feel awfully daunting, and any help people can receive in lessening that is always very much appreciated.

Hope you’re getting ready to enjoy your final few months – might be nice to get out and go to all those places you said ‘I really must see…’ so that you can feel that you’ve properly completed your ‘Japan experience’.

Take care,

Chelle

Alford.michelle@pref.hokkaido.lg.jp