Inooooo Chooooo

So my school, Ino-Cho Business High School, has it's own song! Harris Academy never had IT'S own song. But I'm sure if it did it would've been an unbearable droney thing with the school band...

Ino-Cho High School's Song

Whereas this wee tune seems pretty decent to me. I also found out that the school has a Kendo Club. A KENDO club =D Brilliant. Kendo is the one thing I would love to take up, so I hope they let me join. I hope I can find a Karate club somewhere in the city that I can join too...

Contact Has Been Made

I just had an apple there. It was a big apple.

Then I figured I'd search for the worlds biggest apple...

It is BIG. And funnily enough it was grown in Japan... Strange coincidence? I think not.

Anyway.
So yesterday I logged into my email and saw I had a few of my normal junk mail and... what's that? An email with Japanese characters in it?? I THINK IT IS!

SO I got an email from my EFL Supervisor, which is like the Supervising English teacher from my Board of Education. She welcomed me to the prefecture, and told me I'll be working at Ino Senior High School in a town called Ino. And soooo, more Googling ensued.





So turns out Ino-Cho is a twenty minute train journey from Kochi City! Which is great stuff, as I was slightly freaked out that I was going to be dumped up in the mountains somewhere... AND I had an email from my predecessors friend saying that my predecessor lived in Kochi City itself and got the train in to work. So, everything's sounding pretty good right now! I only work at the one Senior High, so hopefully I should get to know the staff and kids pretty well and I might be living in the city!

Now I just have to wait until my predecessor is allowed to contact me, which hopefully should be sometime this month. For now I'll just plan my luggage and any day/weekend trips I can do in my free time =D

An aerial view of Kochi City, there's LOADS of rivers and water. 

AND they have dead sweet wee trams! 

ONLY 6 WEEKS UNTIL I LEAVE SCOTLAND. Woah...

Where I Shall be Living Soon

Thought I'd post up a few photos of Kochi that I've found online. Looks like a lovely place so far, with 84% of the region covered in forest, mountains, some of the best beaches in Japan and the best surfing spots outside of Okinawa think it's going to be a blast!

Shimanto River, apparently the only river in Japan to not have a Dam

Katsurahama Beach just outside of Kochi City, I shall make sure to make use of
these great looking beaches!

I also watched a whole bunch of videos on youtube about Kochi, this series was pretty decent. Even though part 2 was all about bamboo in Kochi... 

I can't wait to find out where exactly I'll be living and what my new flat/house will be like!! Exciting stuff all this. The JET Programme loves to keep you waiting, and I'm actually getting used to that now.

Kōchi HERE I COME!!!

Yep, finally after 6 or so weeks since finding out I was accepted onto the JET Programme, we in the UK got our placements emailed to us. We'd been waiting, and waiting and waiting some more... But finally, on the 30th of May 2012 we got a text saying our placements had been sent by email! Rushing from my xbox to grab my laptop, waiting (some more) for it to turn it's lazy arse on, I got to my email ANNNDDD....

Nothing. This moment was followed by practically all of us UK JETs on Facebook getting stressed out and moaning. Then someone phoned JET and I decided I wasn't going to wait ANY longer, so I phoned too =D The manny at the JET Desk is brilliant, he's always so calm even though I'm sure he must harassed non-stop by us lot. They resent my email, and I rushed to check it....

You have been placed in Kōchi Prefecture.

My first reaction:

Kooooooocccchhhhhhiiiiiiiii????!!!??!

Where the hell is that?!?!

GOOGLE.

At the same time as frantically typing KOCHI into my friend Google, I was busy getting excited because I also found out my departure date in the same email! I was in Group A and hence leaving from Edinburgo on the 28th of July. The UK JETs unlike everyone else had to wait ages to find out what departure group they were leaving in, this is because of those darling Olympics messing everything up in our country.

So this was the first picture I saw come up on Google whilst I was typing Kochi Prefecture.... 

First thoughts: WHERE HAVE THEY PUT ME?

Second thought: I knew I'd end up on the smallest island... Isolated from the world....

Third thoughts: Shut yer face Pam and look it up!!

The Wikipedia page for the Kochi Prefecture is sparse to say the least. With very little information on anything much. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dchi_Prefecture But I continued my research for a good wee while before announcing to my family the location where I'll be spending at least the next year of my life...

Now my thoughts are all positive =D Well mostly. I know I'll be out of the way of touristy places, but it's only a 4-5 hours coach journey to Osaka. So that is pretty smart indeed, with Kobe practically the same distance away and Kyoto maybe a 6-7 hour coach journey away, it's no bad.

Also, Kochi itself and the island of Shikoku looks like it will be an amazing experience. Being the island with the least tourists, it's said to be a true Japanese experience. I'm excited. OF COURSE. And as I've only been told my Prefecture, apparently that means I'm working with High Schools. Which is good because High Schools should mean I'm in a city or large town of sorts... THANK GOD. What with my lack of driving ability and all....