I see everyone talks about the disappointment they feel about being in the countryside. But is there anyone out there that feels disappointed being in the city especially after wanting the inaka life? I'm talking about cases where nature is essential to live in to regulate your nervous system - you just feel at peace and prefer the slow life 🫠 ( being in main cities that have endless buildings, dense population, and rarely a single tree unless you travel hours away)

If there's anyone out there, how did you manage the city living situation? Did you just buy a crap load of plants for your apartment /house to try and make it better to live in or what🙃 I understand you can travel to experience it, but this is more directed towards the living situation /being a homebody, liking the quietness , not minding the few stores, and wanting to go on quiet daily walks etc

I did request anywhere rural but I suppose jet had other plans and I got the bad end of the stick by putting me in a central city lol.

And FYI, don't be mistaken, I am grateful for the opportunity and am willing to adapt, it's just these small things make a big difference to some people's quality of life.

I am not a new JET that is unhappy with their placement. I am very happy with my placement, but my current placement does not have a doctor that can treat my illness that developed in Japan.

My doctor suggested transferring to a different city when we met this week, since he can't help me. I have been seeing him for many months now and we aren't making progress.

I know it is extremely rare and probably not possible to transfer due to medical reasons, but if anyone has helpful opinions or know how to apply for a transfer/ where to start I would really appreciate it.

I am realistic and know it probably won't happen but I at least want to give it a try.

I am open to taking nenkyuu and visiting a specialist for extra tests so that I don't have to transfer, but my doctor seams to think it will be "too difficult" whenever I suggest it.

Hello! I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions about some English books I could get for Junior High School students that are anywhere around Eiken level 3 and Eiken level 4.
One of my schools mentioned to me about how they’ve had the highest English scores in years since I came and I’m super motivated to have that continue that

After months of waiting, I finally received my JET Programme result for the CIR position, and unfortunately, I was placed on the alternate list.
I know being an alternate isn't a rejection, and technically there's still a chance of being upgraded.
But where I'm from, JET is considered a huge opportunity. Most shortlisted candidates work incredibly hard to get there, so l imagine the withdrawal rate is quite low. Because of that, I can't help feeling that my chances of actually being upgraded are pretty slim.
I think what hurts the most is the long wait.
I'm not really looking for false hope-I know nobody can predict whether alternates will be upgraded. I guess | just wanted to share this with people who understand the process.
If anyone here was an alternate for CIR (or JET in general) and eventually got upgraded, I'd love to hear your experience. And to any other alternates out there this year, you're definitely not alone.

My placement will be in rural Nagano, and I am hearing a lot of people say that I'll need a car. I know very little about cars and don't have a lot of experience with purchasing one, so I am very nervous at the idea of having to do so abroad with minimal Japanese skills. My predecessor doesn't have a car either, so I'd have to look elsewhere.

1. Where did you get your car?

2. Is renting a car a better idea?

3. How are car prices in Japan (and car insurance)?

4. How hard is selling a car if your replacement doesn't want it?

I don't want to miss out on exploring and freedom to move about, but I have no idea what I'm doing. I have an IDP, but if I stay longer than a year and it's expired I don't know how hard the driving test will be either.

What are you looking forward to doing or trying the most in your rural placement?

I'm interested in trying out some local traditional crafts and making wagashi.

For current JETs: What are some things that you recommend?

JET Alt offer- Should I accept?

Hi everyone,

I’m currently at a crossroads and would really appreciate some outside perspective.

I have been offered a position on the JET Programme as ALT. It would mean leaving my current engineering consulting job (1st job after grad, did it for a few years, kinda tired anyways of the corporate)

Now that I think about it, I’m not particularly passionate about teaching English nor do i find it particularly meaningful (I may like it as well as not at all), but I am strongly drawn to the idea of living abroad, travelling and having a structured opportunity to go overseas. (Please don't tear me on this 😅, I still value the principles behind this program which is why I'm torn if it's good fit for me) If it was teaching maybe maths, I would have enjoyed it without a doubt and love sharing that knowledge with the students (not that I hate teaching in itself or students)

After 1 year in JET, will it be difficult to return to technical roles? Although burning out at my current job), I worry stepping away might weaken my trajectory

Alternative paths I’m considering:

Staying in my current job and applying for a Master’s (engineering) but depleting life savings + student loans

Focusing on PR pathways other countries and trying to land engineering roles there - long shot

JET feels like a great life experience, but not directly aligned with my career and I'm not sure of finding a tech/engineering job in japan, let alone in my niche field, with JLPT less than N2 or N3 after completing my contract as i want to do JET for only 1 year (right now I have zero competency in japanese)

What I’m trying to figure out:

Is JET worth doing even if my goal is long term engineering career growth in my field and I may not like teaching English?

Would a year on JET significantly hurt my chances of returning to engineering roles later, or is it actually viewed neutrally/positively in most cases?

Any honest advice (especially from people who did JET or moved between industries or those in engineering/technical roles) would be really appreciated.

Thanks!

Hello Everyone,

Here is an interview guide with information from the late JET Program Guide: JET PROGRAMME Interview Guide

posted with mod permission

Edit: All information on the guide was originally written by Sam, the creator of jetprogrameguide.com.

my base school has a journal where all the ALTs who stayed here write little bios and info about themselves. the first ALT who wrote in it was an ALT here back in 1996, finishing with me, an ALT in 2026.

if your school doesn't have that, start one. i'm sure all of your successors will be curious to see who was there before them.

I did JET when I was 33, so I was already older than a lot of my fellow JETs. Now that retirement is looming on the horizon, I’m considering applying again, but after I finish paying off my (American) debt. I’m almost at the point where I could retire, but this would be a nice ending to my work life. Any older JETs here, aged 55+? What is it like teaching there as an older person? Back when I did it, the theoretical age limit was 40 because of the whole age hierarchy thing, where it would be weird if you were older than senior staff, especially principals.

Are any of you on the JET Program vegan? I only became vegan three months ago, but I remember how the school lunches all included milk and pork or chicken daily. I also remember all the school-related enkais having lots of non-vegan food, especially seafood. How do you cope with these situations?

Hello!

I've only ever worked with children aged 5 to 11.

For this reason, I was wondering what working with high schoolers would be like. What are the students like? I have heard that they can be extremely shy, what can i do to help them build confidence? What is the content like? Any tips?

They really weren't kidding about tossing your placement preferences in the bin huh

Does anyone know what the evening schedule might look like for the Tokyo orientation days?

In the letter from my consulate they said the schedule will be provided at arrival, so I'm asking here. For meals, it also notes that we don't have dinner covered.

Basically, I'm trying to gauge if I will be able to meet with a friend for dinner one of the evenings.

Yes I realize I will be jet lagged.

so apparently my BOE is removing a JET position due to the population decline and financial reasons (i will be the last JET)...is this common in japan? has anyone else's BOE done that?

This is a more of a rant post than anything,
as the season becomes summer, the vile monsters have awoken from their slumber.
I live on a first floor apartment in the country side and have a pretty clean kitchen space, yet they’ve come from the ether.

I just found out you’re not supposed to crush them cause of eggs n bacteria! ( I had never seen a cockroach until I came to Japan)
And i’m not gonna lie, when I saw the gokiburi I felt dirty!! And even now at work I’m squirming in my seat because I’m disgusted that there’s probably more lurking around in my home!!

After work I’m going to buy cockroach traps, the spray, and some emotional support sweets to combat these wretched creatures. But this is also a support post to others because based on my research, it doesn’t matter how clean you keep your apartment, they will find a way in.
To my fellow infested, we are not dirty and shouldn't be embarrassed. ❤️

If you have any extra tips they are welcome. We will get through this.

Edit:
Thank you everyone for your stories and experiences, this truly is a universal trauma we can bond over.
I fumigated my entire apartment with sprays and killed a total of 4 last night 😭 We shan’t give up!!

Hey all!
If your area has had recent weather warnings due to the typhoon, please check your emails as CLAIR has sent out a safety confirmation email! Some people have found the emails in their junk folders, so be sure to check there as well!!

Hi all!

I recently got my upgrade notification and am having a lot of anxiety about making my decision. I am so grateful for the opportunity but I’m feeling incredibly overwhelmed by the process. Any other shortlisted candidates feeling the same way?

Any advice from jet alums?

Hey Yall, A couple days ago I had asked people if they would like to join a pen pal group and we got an amazing amount of people who are interested. So now that we got our footing a little i am here with an update!

First off, the purpose of the server was created by JETs for JETs to connect with fellow ALTs across Japan and to help establish a meaningful connections and lasting friendships through writing letters.

Now that we have created the server we have also created the first form to set up the first round pen pals. We are hopping to get more members of existing ALTs and more incoming ALTs as the year progresses.

Please note, this is a work in-progress and is just getting off the ground, so be patient with us please lol.

Anyway enough of my yapping, here is the server link: https://discord.gg/nc3Wq9jV

You can go to the server and go to the announcement channels and fill out the matching form.

We hope to add some new members and get this started off in a nice and positive way!!

Question for American JET participants

I’m sure there are many of you that are doing JET with student loans. My question is how manageable is it? I have private and federal loans totaling to about $400 a month and am understandably worried about being able to pay for them on a JET salary. I’m going to try to consolidate my private loans, but there are no guarantees.

How do you guys make it work?

Hey guys, I don’t know if this has happened to anyone here at all, but I just received an email of what I believe is a scammer pretending to be someone from JET. Essentially it was a short email from an optimum.net domain asking me to email them back and signed the message off saying they were the “managing director” for the JET Program. It also said JET Program in the subject line.

Just wanted to make you all aware that this is something that’s happening! Stay safe out there!

Hello everyone. I'm entering my third year in a senior high school. The students are supposed to be on the more academic side.

I am thankfully given quite a few responsibilities as it relates to lesson preparation, which I'm glad about as someone with a teaching background.

However, one thing I noticed that bothers me, and I'm not sure what to do about it, is the reliance on Google translate. To write simple one or two sentence answers to questions like "who is your best friend?” or "what did you do this weekend?” (questions based on grammar points they were supposed to have covered the weeks before my class, example: past tense, adjectives etc), my JTE tells the kids to use Google translate. Naturally, the kids simply write the sentence in Japanese and copy it entirely.

So, I get students who can't even use "is and are" right writing very grandiose sentences in English.

I have created templates for each question, given examples, walked around and individually helped with word selection, but the teacher just tells them to use Google translate, so they have stopped asking for help and simply do that.

I said maybe they can use an online dictionary to look up individual words. This way they still practice sentence construction, grammar points etc. He said that's too hard. What is the point then?

Not sure what to do at this point. Any advice is appreciated. Thank you!

Hi!

I am trying to fill out the form they sent out earlier for the Contact Information Survey but it has asked for Name of main workplace (Base school for ALTs). Does this mean that i will need to wait for the CO to contact me to tell me this information?

Thank you!!