Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Advice for my successor #2

I thought of some more pearls I'd like to share. I don't know who you are yet, and neither do you, but listen up:


  • Don't be one of those ALTs who complains that you have too much free time. During breaks you can read a book, study, do some blogging (wink), chat with teachers and/or students, wander around the school, watch a club activity, or if you're at the visit school you can grab a nap on one of the couches. You'll be missing that time when you have four classes in a day, plus ESS after school, plus a meeting with a teacher during your only free period (Can you guess why I'm thinking about this right now? =P).

  • There are some pretty cool JETs, but don't get caught in a clique. You're in Japan, so hang out with some Japanese, too!

  • The brakes on the bicycle I'm leaving you suck, but don't bother buying a new one. The brakes on all the bikes suck.

  • If you go to the Indian place in town or the one near the station often enough, they will give you free stuff on occasion. No matter how often you go to the ramen shop down the street, they'll never give you anything on the house.

  • Clean the apartment as often as you feel necessary, but don't kill yourself dusting and vacuuming. Literally like 20 seconds after you clean an area you will spot some more dust there. It's an uphill battle.

2 comments:

  1. The dust thing drives me crazy. I wonder if it's a Tokyo thing (pollution) or a Japan thing, or just ones proximity to streets. But, I have the same problem with instant dust reappearance. It's so bad that I have to dust just before people come to the apartment or I know it'll be back.

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  2. Yeah, I hear you. It's not just Tokyo, apparently - happens all the time to me, too, and I live near Osaka.

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