I get quite a few emails from people who are considering going on the Project Trust Tokyo project, and up to now I’ve relied on just emailing them back or referring them to the PT site or web forum, which is a great resource. However my time to reply to emails is becoming more and more scarce, so I thought I should write a quick FAQ I can refer people to. If I’ve referred you here, have a read and if there are still questions you want to ask, get in contact.

Bear in mind I did this project way back in 2006-2007!
If I can, I’ll update this FAQ as best I can to reflect any changes.
However I can’t stay 100% up to date.

Alright with that out of the way, here are some of the most common questions I get asked about the project. Again, if your question isn’t here, comment with it or email me and I’ll answer you and pop it up on here.

1. Should I do the project? (Accurate: Forever!)
The most common question, and also the hardest to answer! I will say right now that if you are only thinking of applying because you want to put off going to university, the answer is probably ‘no’. Go get drunk and party for a year, you’ll probably get more out of it. The projects suck if you just swan over there, you have to get involved.
With the Junten project, I would say if you don’t really have much of an interest in Japanese culture or something you’re unlikely to get the project if it’s hotly contested. That said there have been volunteers who knew next to nothing about Japan that ended up going there and loving it.

2. What’s the work like? (Accurate: 2008)
Based on what the volunteers who went after I did had to deal with, the amount of hours you have to spend in the classroom has increased. You teach five days a week. The teachers I worked with, all of whom I believe are still at the school, were totally awesome and let us get proper teaching in rather than just standing there like a big foreign tape recorder. If you’re shy or not good at talking in front of people, you better be willing to overcome your fear otherwise you’re going to struggle. You also teach evening classes which give you total freedom to do what you want, but they do take preparation. It’s quite a tiring routine, and it is hard work, but stick it out because the long holidays make it all worth it.

3. Do I need to speak Japanese to go? (Accurate: Forever!)
Project Trust say you need no language skills at all, and technically to qualify for the gap year that’s correct, but I would say you should know Hiragana and Katakana as an absolute minimum. You get some Japanese classes throughout the year (Accurate 2007) and self study goes a long way. I’ve written a few articles on here about how to study, and there’s loads of resources online.
In the classroom you should be speaking 99% English anyway.

4. How much money will I get? (Accurate: 2007)
With the recession and so on I imagine this changes, but I got 70,000 yen per month (paid on the 10th), plus 10,000 yen travel money, which is basically ‘You have to ask specifically for travel money and tell the office you’re going traveling, even if you’re really going drinking’. 80,000 yen is currently just over £500, and it absolutely is enough money to live on as long as you’re careful. I managed to survive for 3 months on £600, so doing it on £1500 should be OK! You get paid extra for evening classes too (cash in hand) and that’s a great way to cover any expenses.

5. Are there any strange rules? (Accurate: 2007)
The big one is the legal drinking age in Japan being 20, meaning volunteers (who go aged 17-18) can’t drink. Well, technically anyway. I found at most school events we were plied with beer anyway, although formally that’s of course not OK at all! Outside of school as long as you stay away from Junten, they don’t really care. We went drinking a lot (gasp!) and nobody seemed to care. Good times!
Dress code for work is a formal suit and, rather oddly, trainers. You can wear suit shoes too but most teachers wear white sports trainers. Not sure why. On your first day wear nice shoes and then play it by ear I guess.

6. Where do you live? What is it like? (Accurate: 2008)
Check this blog post for some photos of the flat. It’s small but cosy, and well lived in. Over the years it’s accumulated lots of gifts from previous volunteers, including a few rice cookers, fans and even a super old Sega Saturn. It’s like 5-10 mins walk from work which is great. Both the flat and Junten are situated in Oji, which is in the north of Tokyo and quite handy for getting to the more fun places.

I hope that helped. As I said if there are any questions you have please please get in contact with me. My gap year totally changed me and was one of the best years of my life. I’ll always be happy to answer any questions.

Possibly Related Content:

1. Junten School Festival 2008
2. Tonight, Tokyo. Tomorrow… Also Tokyo
3. The Japanese At Sophia University FAQ
4. Volunteering at a Japanese Primary School
5. Junten Sports Festival Pt 1