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.

Related posts:

1. Junten School Festival 2008
2. Tonight, Tokyo. Tomorrow… Also Tokyo
3. The Japanese At Sophia University FAQ

I remember leaving last year. I just need to look at my post about it to remember everything. The flat is as clean as it was when we left last year, all the goodbyes have been said, the copious amount of bye-bye alcohol consumed… it’s like stepping back in time a year. Only without the guy from Back To The Future.

But of course, this has bad implications. Rather than being the super cool ‘Last Year’s Volunteers’, we have turned into the much worse ‘Volunteers from two years ago’, or at least we will in a few weeks. Furthermore, the next set of volunteers have a ‘Mike’ as well, the third in three years, so I turn from ‘Old Mike’ into ‘Oldest Mike’. 古くなりたくない！

But of course, there’s good news too. Meeting the new volunteers will be exciting, and of course I’m still in Japan until September 25th of this year so I still have plenty of time to explore. Matt is here for a year for study so it really, really is just like the good old days. Except we’re a little taller, a little poorer, and even more sunburnt.

(For those wondering ‘why is he writing all this nonsense, where did my funny go?!‘, I’ll do a new Translation Station in a day or two…)

Related posts:

1. Next Year & Beyond
2. 2nd Year Japanese Studies At Sheffield
3. Study Year Targets & Goals

This was the artwork that caught my eye and drew me into walking down the street alongside the station where all the rest of the artwork was, so in a way this little guy is responsible for this blog post. Don’t tell him it’s over half a year late though, he’d probably get me with that scythe…

This was probably the most shocking picture on the wall, and when you consider it was done by one person as a hobby it’s pretty amazing.

Of course it’s not all doom and gloom in Yokohama – here we have a rendering of what looks like some sort of secret cult’s logo mixed with a Pink Floyd album cover, which is nice. It’s quite suprising how neat the artwork is laid out – unlike England nobody draws over anyone else’s work – each piece ends neatly so the next artist can begin. Very cool.

Finally we have this guy. One of the biggest pieces of work along the wall, it sort of shows you exactly what the place I was walking down was like – very dark and virtually impossible to spot from the main streets. It was awesome, though, I just wish I’d gone when the guys were painting so I could see them at work. Nevermind.

So there you go. I took eight shots in all and the other four, as well as these four in bigger sizes, are available here, so do go have a look. If anyone wants them in a huge size get in contact with me and I can email them out to you.

I promise I’ll head back in the summer and find these works again, as well as loads of new ones, and do a good update to do them a bit of justice!

Related posts:

1. Yokohama Pt 1: Exploring
2. Yokohama Pt 2: Chinatown
3. The Zen Art Of Travel Pt. 1

In the meantime, I wanted to talk about the new volunteers in Japan. Last year there were four of us – myself and Matt in Tokyo and Nate and Rolf in Hokkaido. I’m not sure if that’s the same arrangement this year, but I’ve been in contact with the two guys in Tokyo and the two in Hokkaido, so I am assuming it’s the same sort of thing.

As you may or may not know, Japan Is Doomed was the first year long volunteer blog from Japan of it’s kind. Nate had one too, but I got started first. I’m like Britney to his Christina. Except I’ve not shaved all my hair off or gone berserk (yet). I’d like to think I’ve started something of a trend – and considering all four of the current volunteers have blogs, I’d say it’s working. Little do they know they owe me £10,000 each in royalties…

I’m going to talk about each of the blogs. In the interest of me being lazy fairness, I’ll do them in alphabetical order. So, without further ado;

Craig’s Craig-San Japan! (Hokkaido)
Great read, although this blog needs way more hilariously embarrassing photos, just incase I ever meet Craig. I need to have enough ammunition for when he reminds me of those horrific Santa photos…

I loved his first blog post, about the “rushed injection of insane” that everyone feels when arriving. It sums up exactly how we felt a year ago, more or less.

Tom’s Japan Exile (Hokkaido)
Tom writes an insane amount of content on a great basis, which is excellent because it means I can read it instead of studying. Wait, that’s a terrible thing! Tom you are stopping me from passing my course! You fiend!

Since Toya, the village in Hokkaido where Tom and Craig live, is going to be hosting the G8 summit in 2008 (no, really), Tom and Craig have to do media training. They’re going to get into the papers more than Matt and I did though. Curses!

Mike’s Touring Tokyo (Tokyo)
This man has the best name of the four volunteers. He has also cornered the market in pretty photos of Tokyo, which can be quite challenging as it’s all huge skyscrapers and concrete.

His post about his trip to Yokohama, which reminded me a lot of my post on the same topic, was a great read and really puts mine in perspective.

Ben’s Transform To Tokyo (Tokyo)
Again, reading this blog is kind of difficult for me, because it just brings back all the great times I had last year, and frankly someone else having them now is just not fair. My plan to sneak to Japan in some sort of complex and hilarious manner involving a briefcase, a giant snake and a Chinchilla will be put into action soon because this is torture.

Ben wrote about the introduction to Tokyo way better than I did, so go read that.

So there you are. A new generation of bloggers. I feel like an old man already. If only they made some sort of online zimmerframe, so I could carefully plod my way from “buying-old-shoes.com” to “going-for-a-nice-afternoon-nap.org” at my own leisurely pace. All this wireless broadband Internet nonsense is madness, I say. Madness!

Oh, and here’s your embarrasing Halloween picture. Thanks to Ben for taking it and Kanako for sending me it.

Darren may have the hair, and Kanako may be well dressed, but I’m the one going to jail for murder! Haha!

Related posts:

1. Another Year Ticks By…
2. When Nostalgia Attacks
3. Party like it’s 2007

The first one I want to post is one of the oldest photographs I have. Actually, it was the very first photo I took in Japan, taken on the 9th of September, my first day in Japan. The reason I never posted it is because it looks rubbish. But I think it has a lot of significance. Sadly, the camera I took it with was not very powerful, and a result it’s a blur, and it was bright blue. I’ve made it black and white here and done what I could to restore it.

We were on our way from Narita airport to a hotel where we would meet the volunteers taking us on our tour of Tokyo. I remember listening to the two Japanese people on the seats near me speaking fluent Japanese, and knowing the tiny amount I’d picked up in a few night classes wasn’t going to cut it here. I remember trying Pocari Sweat, a Japanese soft drink somewhat like Lucozade but not fizzy, for the first time. I also remember thinking “Wheeeeeeeeeeee! I’m in Japaaaaaaaan!” although the cruel working hours I started just three days later quickly beat that feeling out of me…

…nah, only kidding. I loved it.

Next up is a photo I took at Leon’s Birthday party. Leon, who beat me up, took me to see the racing and also runs a great Japan related forum and blog, was one of my closest friends in Japan.

The lady is his wife, Saori, who shared the birthday. They were some of my closest friends in Japan, and I owe them an awful lot of thanks and beer. If I can ever coax them over to England I’ll get them incredibly drunk. Then we’re even!

I wanted to finish this update with a photo from what I think was my favourite day of the entire year – the school sports day. I wrote a lot of updates about it, but I never posted this photo;

Again it’s not a great photo but it does sum up the entire gap year. I have absolutely no idea what is going on here. None of the people in the photo have any any idea what is going on. It’s a lot of people doing a lot of things in a very small space. Furthermore, every time I look at this photo my brain goes “Oh not again” and shuts down until I stop thinking about it. Just like the good old days.

So there you are. Three photos from the Mike archives. Who knows, I might do another post like this again in the future, the next time I get enough free time to do so. About 2011, then…

Related posts:

1. Another Year Ticks By…
2. 2nd Year Japanese Studies At Sheffield
3. Subscribe To Japan Is Doomed & Other Things!

Related posts:

1. Push Comes To Shove
2. Next Year & Beyond
3. Japanese Kids say the Cutest Things

So anyway, my plans. I fly back tomorrow from Narita Airport at 11.40. The interesting stuff you guys want to know is that I will be getting back to Sheffield between 1am and 2am on August 21st. I expect a large party. Or else. Anyway, I will see you all in about 36 hours. See you!

I’ll delete this post and write a big long one when I get the chance!

Related posts:

1. It’s my birthday!
2. JapanSoc – Digg for Japan Related Stuff
3. Party like it’s 2007

I think I made it clear in that update that this place was a breathtakingly beautiful place. This bridge connects the mainland to the island in the middle of the lake, but it’s barred off. I imagine that is to stop the crows attacking you for trespassing.

These are the other two islands, although I think it’s clear why there is no bridge to them. I do like the idea of some crazy old man selling up his home and moving out to one of them though. It would have added a certain “Oh no is the crazy island man going to bite me” element to the park, which I feel all parks need.

This is how the crazy island man would have traveled between the islands. However, this boat in the crow territory, which of course means that he would have had to forge some deal with the crows, in order for them to allow passage for him to retrieve his boat. I would imagine the politics would have quickly broken down and war would have broken out. This is the tragic story of Crazy Island Man.

Ok, I’ll stop with the island man now.

So yes, it was a very attractive place. However, the thing that topped that was the wildlife. There was just so much, and not entirely made up of the insect variety. Firstly the Cicadas. A Cicada is a big insect that comes out everywhere in Japan at this time of year and makes this odd screeching sound. The Japanese love it because it reminds them it’s summertime, just incase they forget in the unbearable heat. As for me, every time I hear it I want to die a little, but it does wake you up in a much more effective way than coffee ever could. That is, if you sleep in the park. Like Crazy Island Ma…sorry…

Also flying around, in the middle of the day, were bats! They were flying really close to me and reasonably slowly, however none of them were slow enough to allow me to get a decent photo. After a while my wits caught up with me, and I screamed “Oh No! Vampire Bats!” and fled. Yes, I may have overreacted slightly but on the other hand I am not a vampire now so maybe it was for the best.

On my way around the lake I was also lucky enough to get a couple of shots of some butterflies. Here’s the best one, not because it really adds much to this account but because butterflies are really hard to take pictures of. Fiendishly hard.

However, all the butterflies, islands and crows in the entire world could even come close to the sheer awesome-ness of the next animal…

Turtles! Loads of them! They were all milling about waiting for people to chuck bread at them, although one boy was throwing crisps at them. I’m not sure if turtles eat crisps but it’s the thought that counts. Also swimming around were lots of huge fish. “Now Mike, if you managed to get cute turtles and a big fish in one photograph, you would be the best photographer ever!”

Hah!

I’ll be taking my award now. I really can’t get over how awesome the nature in this park was. I was going to post a picture of the crows to finish this update with, however nobody likes crows as they are mean and they steal food from innocent bystanders, so I shall take this opportunity to post one final turtle picture!

Related posts:

1. Return To Flickr
2. The Return To Japan : June 17th – September 25th
3. Picnic In The Park

Anyhow, the day of the speech was sadly not nearly as pleasant as this one. It was absolutely baking it down, we’re talking middle thirties at 8.30 in the morning. Add to that the boiling heat, the fact that everyone was wearing a suit and the fact I’d had to wake up at 7am, and you can probably imagine exactly how comfortable the morning was. Still, I was alert and awake, as I was about to get on stage and read out a load of Japanese to children I had just spent ten months refusing to speak Japanese to. (That’s part of my job!)

It may look like a smile but that is pure fear on my face. The fact that neither of us fainted before going on stage was quite amazing, although quite a few students can’t really make the same claim. Yes, the kids had to stand outside for about ninety minutes in the baking heat, which caused at least three students (and probably more I didn’t see) to collapse and have to be carried into the school. This isn’t really a farewell speech so much as an endurance test. I was only on the podium in the sunlight for about two minutes, but it was so bright I could barely see.

The school photographer managed to get a big microphone to cover my face in every photo he took. I’m pretty sure at photography school they teach you on day one a few tricks such as “Try not to have too many subjects, try to balance your colours, and whatever you do, never try to take a picture through a microphone!” I don’t know, and I don’t want to sound bitter, but the only way I could put up with him standing right under my nose taking photos was that they would be good and I could post them here. Here’s the best one;

Despite what it looks like, this is not me screaming “You have the power“, despite how much I would have liked to. No, this is me asking the students to stop clapping so I could finish my speech. That’s how much they liked me. Actually, that’s how hard it was to tell when my speech was going to end. Whatever.

The speech itself was a great success. I got a few laughs, and the kids seemed to understand everything I said. I made one horrible pronunciation mistake which the American exchange student ridiculed me for later, until I pointed out I never had to trudge into that building at 8am again, at which point he went strangely quiet, aside from a few sobs.

After the speeches were over, it was time to leave. Of course there was absolutely no way we were going to get away with just leaving, as the students descended upon us for photographs. Here’s the best one I could get hold of, the rest are in printed form. When I get back to England I will make one final post with those photos scanned in. (Don’t worry, I plan to write a few more before then!)

Thus ends another (far too) sunny day in Japan. I have another update planned for tomorrow (I hope) and then one for the day after. After that I’m going to be pushed as I have a lot to do, and I only have another 16 days in Japan. Eeeeek.

Related posts:

1. The Goodbye Speech
2. Back To Work & Blog Stuff
3. Junten Sports Festival Pt 2

We arrived at the shrine at around 3pm, and already the place was packed. Most of the people there were wearing either. The weather was pretty decent today, although it looks quite gray in the photograph, you have to bear in mind that rainy season rages on and this was the first day of many without rain. As you can see above, there were thousands of little yellow lanterns lining either side of the pathway. These had been rented by various companies for advertising purposes. I wish I had known, I might have bought one and written “Mike” on it then spent three weeks trying to find it.

There were yet more yellow things inside the shrine’s courtyard, although this time they were smaller and box shaped. Again I’m not absolutely sure what they represent, but my tenuous grasp of Japanese naming conventions made me think they may be personal messages or something. Anyway, there were zillions of these things everywhere, all neatly organized on the way up to the shrine itself. I wanted to go to the front of the shrine and take a picture of the entire courtyard, but the queue to pray was huge and I’m not much of a Shinto Buddhist anyway.

One thing I was definitly not expecting was the children’s dance competition that was going on at a stage inside the grounds, quite close to the shrine itself. Each group of girls were dancing to various traditional Japanese songs, aside from one group who apparently thought it was suitable to perform a frankly unique and confusing dance routine with Diana Ross’ You Can’t Hurry Love blaring out from large speakers. I was moderately surprised, but I think Diana would be happy to know that somewhere in the world, her song is interrupting Japanese tradition.

After we had exhausted the shrine, it was time to head to the streets to watch the dancing. I can’t remember what the various performances were called, but I can vaguely describe them to you.

The first performance was something I have cryptically entitled “Woman hits drum a lot”. Incase you can’t work it out, basically a bunch of women each took turns to play the same rhythm on a drum over and over, a bit like I did in Atami. Obviously they weren’t as good as I was, but they certainly were very well dressed. However, throughout the majority of their performance, I was rather hungry, and as there were street vendors selling all sorts of food (and beer!), they quickly lost out.

Up next was a dance troupe called “The Repetitive Grandma Dance Team”. Again this name is a creation of mine. Basically, they all walked around a statue and performed the same seven step dance about forty billion times. Possibly once for every year they have lived, I don’t know. Regardless it was about as interesting as watching a group of people slowly do the same thing over and over again.

As interesting as all these various events had been, as well as eating noodles, drinking beer and watching kids catch goldfish with little nets, nothing could possibly stand up to the giant-man-catching-fish-mobile, which acted as the climax of the festival.

I don’t really know what purpose it served, or what it represented, but it was half carried by men and half motor driven, which I think is sort of cheating. At one point it actually crashed and tipped forward, almost squashing some poor man’s food stall, but eventually it made it’s ungainly way through the crowds and out to freedom.

With that done, there was just time for me to buy a delicious chocolate coated banana, which I don’t think is traditional Japanese food, then time to head off home.

An interesting tidbit to end today’s update: As of tomorrow I have exactly one month left in Japan. Eeeeeeeeeeeeek.

Related posts:

1. Junten School Festival 2008
2. School Festival
3. Sheffield University World Food Festival 2007