I've made one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make, and informed my supervisor and the other teachers that I won't be recontracting for another year in Niikappu.
A lot of thought went into the decision, and it was not made lightly. I worked my ass off to get here, and now that I am here it seems like such a waste to head home after only one year out of a possible five. I realized that there is no shame in doing this, though. One year is a long time to be in a foreign country. It's a long time to be in a rural town. It's a long, cold winter with few friends. Read more »

There is NOBODY my age in this town.
This makes it extremely difficult to make friends here. It's tough to find young people in Niikappu who aren't my students. I assume all the young adults are in college in Sapporo or otherwise, and all the college graduates have moved on from Niikappu to more bustling places. I guess I'm not sure what I expected from Niikappu. I just thought every age group would be represented, I suppose. But instead it seems to be a lot of kids, a lot of middle aged people, and tons of old people. Read more »

I've been so busy lately that I haven't really had time to update my blog.
I did a lot in the last month! There was a festival at the shrine in Shizunai, and I went to it with some of the teachers. The official reason was to keep any students from getting rowdy or staying out too late, but there weren't any of our students there so I just had fun. Read more »