Japan Is Doomed is the blog of Mike, a student of Japanese language based in Sheffield, UK.
I started this blog just before I went to Japan for a year to teach English in Junten High School in Tokyo. (September 06 – August 07) It was a great year and I had the opportunity to write about some amazing places, people and experiences. I went with a Gap Year charity called Project Trust. More information on the gap year is available here.
As of October 07, I have been studying Japanese full time at Sheffield University. More information about my course is available here.
Sorry this ‘about’ section is short and boring, but I’d rather be writing updates than writing this!
About The Course
I am taking Japanese Studies at Sheffield University in England. I chose the course basically because I loved what I saw in Japan, and I really would seriously consider living over there post university. Throughout my entire year there, I felt restricted by the language barrier. I saw life in Japan in a way tourists don’t, but I still didn’t get as close to reality as I wanted to. I’m hoping this course, which includes lectures on religion, social issues and history, will get me one step closer to understanding some aspects of the enigma.
The Japanese Department at Sheffield have built up a great reputation, and it really is a privaledge to be studying here. But it’s also an incredibly intensive and demanding course. I would imagine that in termtime, updates to this blog may become sparse and I desperatly rush to cram in those last few symbols before Tuesday morning, when I am ruthlessly grilled on stroke order and reading.
I’m going to update this section more once I learn more about my university. I’ve only been here for a few weeks but I would definitly reccomend it to anyone interested in studying Japanese. If you would consider it, I advise you contact me with any questions you might have, and I’ll either answer them or pester fourth year students for you!
About The Gap Year
My gap year was provided by Project Trust, a UK based charity that sends 17-18 year old students all over the world on amazing gap years. If you’re in the UK (or Holland) and are interested, I cannot push you enough to at least go and try the selection course – it’s great fun and at that point has no strings attached. But I guarantee by then you’ll want to go abroad anyway!
Project Trust sends volunteers out in groups of two, my partner for the year was Matt. We stayed in a small apartment in the Kita-Ku prefecture, close to Junten High School, the school where I was an English Language Assistant. We taught full time with another native English teacher, as well as providing support to older students to prepare them for their exams.
Taken from Project Trust’s information about the Junten project;
A busy and varied schedule characterizes the work at this project which is based in a district of Tokyo known as Oji. Volunteers are hosted by Junten High School, a large and well established, mixed secondary school. Their main role is to work in a team-teaching capacity as English conversation assistants. In addition to this they are involved in other activities such as giving English classes to local office workers and members of the PTA, running an international club, Japanese lessons, helping at a kindergarten and learning sign language at a deaf club. It is therefore not long before they start to make many Japanese friends amongst such a broad spectrum of people.
Tokyo itself is an incredible city to spend a year in and a city of vast proportions with a population of almost 12 million. Though dominated by valleys of neon, the busiest stations in the world and towering sky scrapers there is so much more to the city than this and always somewhere new to explore. Volunteers find themselves feeling very much a part of their community in Oji and stay in a well-equipped Japanese style flat within walking distance of the school.
The project was a great success, I had a wonderful time and this year set the foundation for my university course.