I haven’t been very active on this blog in a while. The turmoil of preparing to leave and then deciding to stay in Japan is partly to blame. My work situation has changed a bit with a second school and a commute added. Once I get home, my time seems to get filled with other projects (yup, still making masks for myself to wear) or general life (cooking for myself despite getting bored of planning recipes).
I feel like I have less energy and time. It seems like I come home, sit down to catch my breath, and eat, and all of a sudden it’s 8 pm.
Maybe it’s just the 2020 effect. Sapping me of my motivation and energy while dealing with everything that’s going on. I’m lucky that my life hasn’t been too impacted by the pandemic, and things are more or less running as normal here in Japan. Everyone is mostly wearing masks, using hand sanitizer, and register lines are still distanced. But just like many other places, Japan is going through another rise in cases. Positive COVID cases are popping up closer, hospitals are filling, and everyone is getting ready to hunker down for winter.
I was recently given the yearly re-contracting papers. As a 5th year JET, I am at the limit and can no longer extend my contract. But everyone keeps asking, and indicating they would be happy for me to stay if it’s possible. On the one hand, this has been a little reassuring. Teaching isn’t my passion and I feel like someone else could do better work, so I worry that my work isn`t as good as it should be. But if the teachers and my Principal and Vice Principal are happy, then maybe my work is more satisfactory than I thought. It feels nice to know that others are happy with my work or that I’ve made a good impression. It’s tempting to want to continue that and stay in a safe and stable situation. I do enjoy Japan. But now I think I’m more at peace with the decision to leave.
I don’t have the same doubts or lingering attachment as I did last year, or even this summer. Even though the stability is attractive, I recognize that I’m not going to be able to progress in my career and life goals the way I would like to if I stayed in Japan. I have other projects I want to spend my time on and I can do that more efficiently outside of Japan. It’s hard, given the economic situation, to give up a stable setup, but it helps that I’m at the contract limit and can just go back home and live with my parents in the meantime, so that makes the decision a little easier.
In terms of next year, everyone keeps asking if I’m still planning on going to England, especially given the current situation. From my perspective, pretty much everyone is going through another wave of infections, and England is still 9-10 months away for me. There is time for things to improve, vaccines are starting to roll out, and I’m going to try and be optimistic because I have already deferred twice. Worst case scenario, they will have had more experience and opportunities to iron things out when it comes to distanced learning and adjusting the curriculum to keep everyone safe. I plan on reaching out to the outgoing students from my program to see what their experience was this past year and what changes the curriculum experienced. I’m not going to make any big decisions now and hope for the best.
I am also, as usual, formulating new backup and short term plans. I have kept in touch with some of my biology/wildlife teachers and recently joined a local Facebook group for vet tech and animal-related jobs and internships. If it comes down to it, I can go back to volunteering/interning at these local places I’m familiar with and work on honing my practical skills again. My Master’s degree is still my planned next step, but it doesn’t hurt to have backups in mind.
Anyway, now that I’ve kind of come to terms with all that, I am going to try and spend my winter break relaxing and making plans for the new year.
The last few months have been hectic and stressful, which is why I’ve kind of hit pause on this blog. There have been some big changes to my plans (as you probably already know from the title) and having to readjust after has taken some time.
Originally, I was planning to return home on August 4th. Leading up to that, I needed to pack up and ship my belongings home, clean out and organize my apartment and desk at school, and finish various other leaving procedures like canceling contracts and figuring out how to get to the airport. During all this preparation, however, I was still getting updates on how the US had not curbed infections. They were still rising, in fact. There were hot spots all over and who could have predicted that Americans could not do the absolute bare minimum.
Anyway
With various international travel restrictions, even getting home was going to be tricky since flights were reduced. My flight had already changed once to include a transfer between airports. On top of that, my University hadn’t given any guidance on entry procedures or support for incoming international students (such as if and how self-isolation would be handled).
Doubts and Regrets
As my leaving date approached, I started to feel more doubt and apprehension. In Japan, I had stable employment, health insurance, a comfortable apartment. Not to mention I was in a country with lower infections and widespread use of masks (and no one passing out from lack of oxygen despite 90% humidity and summer heat. Shocking). Going back to the US, even briefly, carried more risk than staying. I would have to pass through 4 international airports, 2 in hot spots, to get home.
I was worried for several reasons. I could pick up the virus in transit and pass it to my family. I didn’t have health insurance in the US, so getting sick could wipe out my savings. The virus also has a wide range of symptoms, with some people experiencing extended periods of illness and even long-term, potentially permanent, damage to their health. Not good considering my career goals would require me to be fit and healthy. More and more I was regretting not re-contracting.
The way the JET Program works, you make your decision to re-contract or end your time on the program in December. I had already made that decision before the pandemic hit. However, as the virus spread, states of emergency declared, and travel restrictions put in place, it became less and less sure that the new batch of JET participants would be able to get into the country for 2020. Their start date was already pushed back because of the (now postponed) Olympics, but due to the virus departures had been pushed back again. Very little information was coming out about what would happen in September. Everyone was wondering if they could get in at all or if the program would be postponed for a year. It didn’t help that a lot of the JET participants come from the US, which was barred entry to Japan because of spiking cases.
I was given a second chance.
Given the current state of the world, leaving ALTs were given another chance to extend their contract, including 5th years who would get special permission to stay a 6th year. The new deadline was the first week of June. I turned it down because I was hoping things would improve. I wouldn’t be starting my program until October, so I thought there was still a chance things could improve by then. I already had everything planned out and a room arranged for Bristol. I was excited to get back to biology and start taking real steps towards my career. Honestly, I was kind of tired of teaching. While I enjoyed living in Japan, I wasn’t in love with the job and was ready for a change.
But then things didn’t get better.
And now we’re back to that weekend of worrying. The weekend before my goodbye party and final apartment check. A weekend of doubt and feeling like maybe I had made the wrong decision. I wondered, given the desperate state of things and the possibility of no incoming replacement, if I could ask for another chance to extend my contract. It was so last minute though. I thought it would be impossible.
And then a third chance.
An hour before my goodbye party on Tuesday, I got an email from the BOE. They said that it seemed hopeless that the new ALTs would be able to get in, and if anyone leaving was still interested in staying to let them know ASAP. I took it. I went to the principal with one of my JTEs to explain the situation. He was happy to have me stay and called the BOE on my behalf.
So it turns out, I’m postponing after all. I’m disappointed but I think this is the safest thing to do. On the bright side, I’ll be able to save more money to cover my living expenses for Bristol. I also hope to work on other skills, such as learning GIS, so that I can make the most of this extra time to prepare. And maybe I’ll even manage to stay on top of this blog 😉
(she typed ironically not realizing it would be months before this post actually got uploaded)
After my plans to send stuff home was thwarted by a pandemic, I had to come to terms with the fact I would now need to pack and ship several boxes home somehow. In the end, I was probably always going to have to resort to a shipping company since I vastly underestimated how much stuff I actually had.
Whittling It Down
First I had to finish separating the clothes and various other items I didn’t need or want anymore. Some things needed to be thrown away because they were worn down or just really old. Other things I just realized I didn’t wear or wasn’t that attached to anymore. Once I had created a large pile in my hallway I asked a friend to give me a lift to the secondhand shop. With that gone my hallway felt larger and I felt a little relief.
The Packening 1
After weeding out all the clothes and miscellaneous stuff I didn’t want or need anymore, my first round of packing was to see how much of what was left would fit into my suitcases. While I’d narrowed down my winter wear to a solid set of well-worn pieces, the downside was that a lot of these were bulky items, like a few sweater dresses. I also had a sheepskin rug and a couple of jackets I needed to get back which took up quite a bit of space. Thinking I might need to just pay for an extra bag, I kept going to see how much I would fill.
Just my running clothes took up a good half a suitcase. I was starting to worry. I realized I was not going to be able to fit all my clothes into 3 suitcases, let alone all of my other stuff. Godzilla figures, books, camera equipment, and laptop. Fours years worth of stuff all needed to come with me. I had hoped I could ship some of this a bit at a time via airmail, but with the effects of the pandemic that was no longer possible (or at the very least incredibly inefficient). I was going to need boxes and a shipping company to get all this home.
Test Pack
So thankful for my co-teacher driving me because there was now way I could walk or ride my bike carrying these boxes home.
Before I decided on the shipping company, I wanted to try and figure out exactly how many boxes I would need. With the help of one of my JTEs, I made a trip to a home center to get a few boxes of varying sizes. My plan was to fill these and see how much was left. Or even fill, take out, and refill a few times to try and gauge how many boxes I’d be sending. It turned out 3 would not be enough.
Checking to see if the box is big enough to fit my largest Godzilla. He fits!
While most of my winter clothes fit in 1 box, I had a lot of other miscellaneous things to bring back with me (the Godzilla figures for one). See, the downside to being good at neatly stacking and putting things away in smaller boxes is that you end up with more stuff than you realize. I have a small apartment and everything is put away neatly. I would be leaving all the furniture behind and some other things like kitchenware and some room decorations, so I didn’t think I had that much to bring back. I failed to realize just how much of my stuff I had stowed away.
Searching for Shipping
I started researching international shipping companies but wasn’t getting many results. I was also a little frustrated with how they did their pricing. A lot seemed to be by weight but I obviously wouldn’t have the total weight until I finished packing, and even then it could be inaccurate since I was using a basic bathroom scale. I didn’t want to wait until I had completely finished packing to get the booking process started. After asking for recommendations in a JET Facebook group only one company was suggested.
They were able to give me their pricing/estimates for shipping by sea and air and after receiving estimates from 2 other companies, I decided to go with the one I was originally recommended. Japan Luggage Service would ship to the port nearest my town and their prices were a little better than the other quotes I received. I was going to have to just swallow the high cost of getting all my stuff back (~$800-$1000). I hadn’t planned on paying that much but considering my flight was being covered by my school and this was the first time I’d be “moving house”(and internationally), I guess it averages out ok.
Return to the Home Center
I had an idea of the price and what limit I was working with. The base cost was for 1 meter cubed of space, so if I’m paying for it, I may as well use it up. I needed double-thick cardboard for sea shipping and a few more boxes. I got another ride back to the home center, only to find the sizes available were not what I was looking for. Awesome. They only had the extra thick boxes in one of the sizes I wanted. I bought 3 in that size and a roll of bubble wrap for my Godzilla figures. Then we checked out a couple more home centers to see if they had the other sizes. No such luck. Only the first home center even had the extra thick ones. Oh well. I could at least start with what I had.
The Packening 2
To keep things organized, I bought some smaller boxes to divide things up and make it easier to pack in the bigger boxes. I spent a whole weekend packing things into these smaller boxes as well as into the 3 large boxes I had bought. I tried to write down the contents of everything since it was required for the paperwork but honestly, I skipped the minutiae of some of the smaller stuff because I couldn’t be bothered. Do I really need to count every single keychain and phone strap souvenir I have? If I estimate how many books I have and am off by a couple is it really such a big deal?
I had quite a lot of printed material (books, magazines, postcards, letter sets) and that weight can add up fast. I’m on the 3rd floor of the building and there’s no elevator so I needed to be mindful of the weight. I did some switching around to try and distribute the book weight throughout the boxes, with the smaller boxes on the bottom and clothes to fill the rest of the space. I was semi-successful.
Taking a Break
Surprisingly, I was mentally and physically exhausted after a weekend of packing. Even though I hadn’t been doing anything that strenuous, I think just being on my feet all day long and trying to constantly organize and rearrange everything really took it out of me. Looking at how much was still sitting out also kind of made me feel like I had a long way to go, even though I knew that some of it was being left behind. I took a popsicle break and then tidied everything up. I stacked the boxes I had finished and organized what was left to assess what still needed to be packed.
An earlier lunch break, trying out a potato and sausage pizza from Dominos
Once everything was neat, I felt better. I realized there wasn’t as much left to pack as I thought and I could briefly relax. I put together the things that would be left behind and bought a few more small boxes to put things in. I realized the closet had emptied out a bit and most of my clothes were packed except for what I needed. I was making good progress. Still needed more boxes though.
The Final Home Center Run
I made one last run to the home center with my JTE during lunch and bought 3 more big boxes as well as 3 of the long boxes. I also picked up a better roll of tape. The previous weekend I had taped up 3 boxes with a roll of cheap stuff that screeched whenever you pulled it and kept tearing which made everything take longer. I paid for a nicer roll of thicker, quiet packing tape for my own sanity. I was also positive these would be the last boxes I would need.
The final pack, for real this time
I spent a second full weekend packing. This included reopening one of the boxes to remove some weight. This is where the long boxes came in. I figured if I put more of the books and DVDs, the heavy stuff, in the smaller long boxes, even if I filled them they wouldn’t be too heavy to carry. This would remove some of the weight from the bigger boxes and I could fit more clothes and miscellaneous items. I filled the 3 long boxes with my books, magazines, and some stationary and was able to fit most of my clothes in the larger boxes. My Godzillas were occupying most of one box along with some plushes to fill space. In between were boxes of various souvenirs and merch I had bought in my 4 years in Japan. The whole time I was trying to keep (mostly) meticulous track of the number and type of items in an excel sheet for the shipping paperwork.
I did some math to try and make sure I was under the base limit and wouldn’t incur additional charges (90% sure I’m ok) and finished taping the last box shut on Sunday. I was able to keep the weight of most of the boxes down to a reasonable level, with maybe one being a little heavy for 1 person to carry. In the end, I had 6 large boxes and 3 long boxes that are stacked on my floor taking up about half of my apartment. I packed away most of my clothes so now I should be able to fit what clothes I have left (plus camera equipment and laptop) in my 2 suitcases and carry on bags without needing to pay for extra luggage.
Relief and Reflection
After dedicating 2 full weekends to packing my belongings, I am so happy it is over. I have to wait for my school to reserve my flight home before I can arrange to ship it, so, for now, it’s just sitting taking up floor space. A constant tangible reminder that I’m really leaving soon. I never thought I would spend 5 years of my life living in Japan (4 of those working) and I’ve come to really enjoy my lifestyle here. Even though I would like a bigger kitchen and a little more space, I really did enjoy my little apartment. It was enough. And I think because it was my first real apartment as an adult, it’ll always hold a special place in my memories.
Through the packing process, I think I’ve also realized how much stuff I buy. Japan is bad for encouraging this with limited edition items (like all the special aluminum coke bottles which yes I did pack those the cherry blossom ones are beautiful), and of course, there’s the fandom side of buying all the keychains and posters and other merch for your favorite shows or characters. I think that is something I won’t really have to worry about once I leave Japan and don’t have easy access to those kinds of things. The other side is souvenirs and hand made goods. I’ve done quite a lot of travel in my 4 years in Japan, way more than I ever did back home. And in the desire to commemorate and remember those trips I tend to buy souvenirs. Especially if it is a special or local product.
Me coming back from Ecuador with an Alpaca wool blanket, an alpaca wool jacket, a hat, and a bag full of, you guessed it, more souvenirs.
And if I see handmade goods, as someone that enjoys crafting, I want to support that person and buy from them. So I have a lot of miscellaneous handmade keychains, masks, and purses. Adding on to that, I am bad for buying fabrics and patterns and other things I think I could use for decoration or in a future craft project. I recently bought some summer weight fabric when the mall reopened with the intent to sew some shirts even though I probably won’t have the time to do that for another year.
Moving forward, I want to focus on other ways of remembering my trips instead of just buying something that looks cute. I want to put more effort into my photography so I can capture the views and the experience. I also want to maybe try something more artistic, like an art journal, that might force me to spend more time in the moment rather than rushing to the next attraction. And when I do buy something, I want to be more intentional in what I buy. I want to get something with more use or meaning, like my alpaca blanket from Ecuador or sheepskin rug from the Isle of Man which provide comfort and warmth during the winter. Or try more foods which I can enjoy while there but won’t take up luggage space.
Getting back to Japan though, my time here is coming to a close. I really enjoyed living here, and want to come back again someday, but realistically I can’t have my dream career here. I need to get back to biology and conservation, where my heart is, and try and build a career for myself.
Just a meandering look at changes to daily life in Japan during the pandemic.
In my last post, I talked about how the coronavirus situation unfolded for me in Japan and some of the bigger changes going on in the country. Now that school closures have been extended (again) and I’m starting to get a little bored working from home, I thought I’d write about some of the changes in my daily life.
The Rush for Masks and Toilet Paper
In Japan, it’s pretty normal for people to wear masks outside for a variety of reasons. If you have a slight cold, trying to block pollen, or even to keep warm in the winter. Usually, there’s a whole section of masks to choose from at the drug store and even at school in the staff room, there’s a box for teachers to grab a mask from if they need it. Given this, I wasn’t expecting masks to run out that fast because I assumed most people already had some at home anyway. Japan didn’t seem to be taking the virus that seriously at the start, so I thought there wouldn’t quite be that rush on supplies like I see back home when there’s a hurricane. I live just a couple minutes from a drug store and planned to grab a pack to have on hand, just in case, on one of my many trips to pick up snacks.
Turns out I was already too late. I noticed a big gap on the aisle as I walked toward it. Empty shelves where the masks used to be.
Sign: Masks, tissues, toilet paper out of stock
This didn’t bother me too much since I don’t usually wear masks. What was a little worrying was when toilet paper disappeared too.
Luckily I had been to Costco in December and picked up a big pack of toilet paper, so I was fine. But the fact that it was constantly out of stock by the time I was heading home for lunch was surprising and started to become worrying as my own stash started to dwindle. A rumor had been spread online that toilet paper supplies could run low because China would be using the supplies or ingredients to make masks. This turned out to be laughably false since the materials used for masks and toilet paper are different and 98% of the toilet paper in Japan is produced domestically. Not from China.
Before I started working from home, I would see a line of people waiting outside the drug store for it to open. The stores had instituted limits on how much people could buy, 1 pack of masks and toilet paper per person. Even so, it was consistently sold out or not in stock by lunch. Eventually, the TP panic died down and once it started to stay on the shelves I bought another pack. The shelves are back to being fully stocked for TP but there still aren’t many masks.
Luckily I happened to have enough fabric to make a few masks.
Since I can’t seem to buy disposable masks, I finally made my own cloth mask. Being a hoarder of craft supplies came in handy and I happened to have enough fabric to work with and a borrowed sewing machine to use. After a few unsuccessful patterns and 1 failed mask, I made one that fits ok.
Shops, sheets, and sanitizers.
Another one of the early changes was some of the germ-fighting measures the food shops implemented. Supermarkets and bread shops have always had a bottle of hand sanitizer out front but not everyone used them. I am one of those people mainly because more often than not the supermarket’s automatic dispenser either doesn’t respond or is empty. After Coronavirus started to spread though, they pulled the hand sanitizer out so it was a little easier to see and use. Other places that didn’t have it before started putting it out for customers, like my local drug store.
My favorite donut shop, which usually had trays of donuts for you to grab from and put on your tray, attached vinyl sheets that you had to lift to grab the donuts. Later on, convenience stores, supermarkets, and drug stores erected vinyl sheets in front of the registers to limit any cross-contamination between customers and cashiers. (Just don’t sneeze on your hand before you give them the money.) At the bread shops and the deli section of the supermarket, everything was prepackaged into plastic trays or bags instead of being left out for customers to grab on their own.
Supermarkets, drug stores, convenience stores, and more have put up these vinyl screens at the registers.Normally, these foods in the deli section would be on trays for people to grab and package as much as they want. Now everything is prepackaged.
The most recent development is many shops closing and restaurants changing their operating hours. My local mall closed everything except for the supermarket area and local restaurants have earlier closing hours. Some of the izakaya (bars), which are normally small, enclosed spaces, are shifting to selling pre-made lunch sets to make up the difference now that they can’t operate as normal.
Local bar has started selling lunches.
The Food Situation
I did a pretty good job of gradually stocking up on food early on just on the off chance that people went crazy and stripped the shelves a la US hurricane season. Despite the toilet paper panic buying, no one was panic-buying food at that point. There were a few times the ramen shelves got low but everything else seemed normal. After the state of emergency was declared this changed a little and in kind of a weird way. My mom had been telling me how everyone was buying up dried pasta and pasta sauce back home in the US. Dumb because you can’t just live on pasta, you need some fruits and veg in there. Theoretically not a problem because the fruit is comparatively cheap and easy to get in the US and our refrigerators are larger, so more storage space. Chop that stuff up and freeze it.
Shock! Empty ramen shelves!
Not the case in Japan. I did fill up my modest freezer space with some fruit, vegetables, and meat; bought some canned goods and dried beans, and some seasoning and quick meal packs so I would have a nice diversity of foods to get through. I’ve cooked pasta once in like the past 2 or 3 months. I was not surprised by the instant ramen selling out. It’s Japan. I was surprised that pasta also sold out in Japan. The rest of the aisle, with all the other Asian noodles and seasonings, seemed well stocked. Why is everyone buying pasta? Potato chips also got a little low which I thought was odd until I realized that Japan doesn’t have the same diversity of snack foods as what I’m used to in the US. (I weep as I get to my last few fig bars from Costco)
My small (cluttered) fridge. To give you a sense of size, the top only comes up to my chest (I’m 5’4″) and it’s only about as wide as my body.Even more shock! WHY is the pasta gone?
Most of the food is staying stocked but some of the meal and seasoning packs are consistently low. Flour is also sold out because everyone has started baking at home. Even though I had a decent stock of food, I still find myself heading to the store as often as I used to. This is because everything is smaller here. My fridge, the portions sold at the supermarket, and the space I have to store dry goods. I keep burning through bread, eggs, and milk. I miss the days where I could make a trip to Food Lion or Walmart and get 2-3 weeks of food in one go and not have to go out again. I think Japan is socially set up on an assumption that you’ll grocery shop nearly every day, buying the ingredients for that night’s dinner and not much else. I laughed when I read that Tokyo was advising people that they needed to go to the supermarket less to reduce crowd exposure, and try and get enough food for 3 days at a time. 3 days at a time? Minimum I always try to shop for a week’s worth.
My food situation is fine with the exception that more time at home makes me feel snacky and I’m trying to resist eating too many potato chips.
Trying to branch out from potato chips. Fish fry flavored rice crackers.
Social Distancing and Avoiding Travel
One of the earliest changes I saw with regards to social distancing was actually with the movie theaters. In February I went with a friend to see a movie and noticed that every other seat was blocked out so that you couldn’t buy 2 seats next to each other (seats are chosen at the kiosk when buying your ticket in Japan). Then there were suggestions to change work times to avoid peak travel and work from home. I won’t go into that too much since I mentioned it in the last post, except to say it has not worked well for Japan.
Heading into April one of the big changes/worries was cherry blossom season. Often, people will take tarps or blankets to the park and have a group picnic or drinking party with friends and coworkers. Popular cherry blossom spots can be quite crowded with people looking to celebrate the start of spring and get some nice pictures. To combat this, some parks put up ropes to discourage people from having picnics in the grass (to no avail) and even my local park had signs up. Luckily, our park is pretty small (not a tourist draw) so locals could walk around or have a small picnic with their family and still maintain social distancing.
Sign in the local park asking people to refrain from drinking parties. Luckily the park didn’t have too many people so it was easy to practice some social distancing.
Around this time there were some campaigns for an at-home hanami (flower-viewing) party which I leaned into. Dominoes pizza put up some videos with music on YouTube that you could watch at home with a hot pizza (no-contact delivery available). I spent a day or two making cherry blossom decorations and after a walk at the local park, came home to have my own solo hanami party.
Sakura decorations: check. Pizza: check. Got everything I need for my own cherry blossom party.
The next big change is the requests for avoiding travel. Last week was Golden Week which is a peak travel period in Japan. It’s one of the few times when multiple public holidays line up together and Japanese people have the opportunity to travel without having to use as much paid leave. Imagine everyone taking a holiday at the same time and that’s pretty much Golden Week in Japan. Japan had hoped things would normalize by this time, and the original school closure was due to end this week. But social distancing and contact reductions did not go as planned (not even close) and people have continued to go out in crowds and use public transport as usual (partially due to the poor implementation of work from home).
Only recently have they been requesting more businesses to voluntarily close and areas that have reopened too soon have seen cases spike again. With that in mind, and the cheap airfares, there were renewed calls for people to exercise restraint and stay home this Golden Week. Okinawa, a popular destination, had openly asked people to stay away with the hashtag 来ないで(don’t come). Students in University have been asked to stay there and not travel back to their home prefectures and they have even started announcing over the public intercoms requesting people reduce their excursions.
How I’m Handling Things
I’ll admit it, I miss traveling. I had to cancel a family spring break trip and have now passed two 3-day weekends and a week of public holidays sitting at home. Looking back on all the trips I’ve made during these times (as Instagram is kind enough to bring up in memories), I can’t help remembering how much fun it was to go out and explore a new place. A chance to get out of the house and stretch my legs, see new sights, try new foods. I was looking forward to a couple more trips before I end my time in Japan, but I’m grateful I was able to travel as much as I have in the past 4 years. I’m staying home now (and by home I mean literally not going farther than like a 1-mile radius of my apartment) and sacrificing travel for the safety and health of the community I live in. It sucks, but I can’t complain since I have food and entertainment and a salaried job.
So what exactly am I doing with this time?
For a start, I’ve been working from home which has been pretty easy though it’s starting to get a bit boring. My contract allows me to also use this time to study Japanese so I’m going to try breaking up my workdays with some more studying. I have plenty of books I can practice reading with and I’ve started making online flashcards again.
I’ve been bouncing around doing crafts again, trying new things and trying to make new project ideas a reality. This has been a little less successful since I tend to start many projects but finish few. The cross-stitch patterns I downloaded from The Stranded Stitch have been a lot of fun to complete and don’t take too long to finish. Crochet has been trickier as my habit of ignoring the needle and yarn sizes for patterns means the pattern usually does not turn out right and I have to start over again. I need to just pick something easy and repetitive so I can use up all this yarn I’ve been hoarding.
Finished my second cross stitch. Stranded Stitch has a lot of fun patterns you can download and print at home.
Socially I haven’t been struggling since I normally don’t go out that much anyway. I’m pretty much living life as usual with less travel. That being said, being stuck at home so much has become a little monotonous. One of the Facebook groups I’m in has been having weekly watch parties, so I’ve been able to get a little social interaction out of that while watching some new shows and movies. That’s given me something to look forward to during the week. My almost daily skype calls home have continued as usual so I can chat with my parents or siblings. And of course, I can send quarantine memes to my co-ALT while we work on lessons together via google drive or chat over messenger about we’ve been watching lately. Add in all the streaming services I have access to thanks to family accounts and a VPN and I have plenty of options for killing time. Killing it, but not necessarily being productive. That is one thing I’ve been struggling with.
The first of many watch parties.
Exercise is another thing I’ve been lacking. I thought all this time at home would be a great way to get back in the habit of regular exercise. Unfortunately, I’ve mostly been staying up late watching streaming, snacking, and sleeping in. I did sign up for a virtual run event and so far I’ve managed to do each weekly run, but my goal would be to run 2-3 times a week. Now that the school closure has been extended and I will be working from home a little longer, I’m going to try harder to establish a daily routine and incorporate short workouts and runs.
Run for myself? Maybe tomorrow. Run for the animals? Sign me up I’m already out the door.
All in all, things are not too bad on my end. Just trying to do my best to stay healthy and occupied.
Looking at how the pandemic has progressed for me in Japan and what this might mean for my postgrad plans in the fall.
A whole lotta questions and indefinite answers. Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash
The recent pandemic has led to a lot of changes and disruptions. There is no vaccine yet and there’s no way of knowing for sure what the near future holds. This means that my postgraduate plans are at risk of being postponed, and before that, whether I can even get out of Japan is unsure. My current situation is that I am working from home while schools are planned to stay closed until May 6th. I’m mostly staying at home in my apartment except for grocery runs. In the meantime, I thought I’d sum up what my experience has been so far and what my contingency plans are.
Background
To start, some quick background on my situation. I’m currently in my 4th year on the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET). I teach at a prefectural high school and was planning to finish my contract and return home this summer in August before starting my postgraduate program at Bristol University in September. I live in Hyogo prefecture, one of the prefectures with several cluster outbreaks and one of the original 7 prefectures that Abe declared a state of emergency for before it was extended to cover the whole country. And currently, school is closed until May 6th and I am working from home.
The Beginning
Japan gets a lot of tourists from China, so when cases spiked and travel restrictions were enacted on China’s end, Japan took notice due to the large drop in tourists at popular sites. Many places banked on reservations for tourists traveling during the lunar New Year, and the decrease in tourists was noticeable in places like Kyoto and Nara which are regularly packed. However, at this point, Japan seemed less concerned with the possibility of the disease spreading and more concerned with the economic repercussions. In February, there was a new tourism campaign where posters of nearly empty sites were put up encouraging people to take advantage of the rare lack of tourists.
Top poster: “It’s been a while since there were more monkeys than humans” Bottom poster: “Crossing easily…excuse me.”
I’ll admit, I did make a trip to Kyoto (2/24) as there were still very few cases (2 in Kyoto at the time) and an uncrowded Kyoto was too much to resist. I headed to Arashiyama since I had already planned to go and enjoy the hot springs and had made a trip only a few weeks before that. I planned to limit where I would be going, just the hot spring, the main shopping area, and park so I wouldn’t be traveling that far and I could get there without going through Osaka, a travel hub. The lack of visitors was refreshing but locals were already feeling the sting. I talked with an artist selling postcards of his work and he said that an art conference he was planning to attend in Tokyo had been canceled. Stories in other areas were starting to come out of drastic declines in visitors and sales while it seemed Gion was happy for a break from the tourist hordes.
Left: Spring 2018 when my mother visited, the famous bamboo path crowded as usual. Right: Winter 2020 the same bamboo path with far fewer tourists. You can actually see the path!
Watching and Waiting
As a member of an international exchange program, belonging to several program-related groups on FaceBook (prefectural, regional, etc.), and having friends from a variety of different countries, I had a lot of virus-related information flowing through my feeds. I also had some insight into what was happening in different areas of Japan. Many were skeptical and suspicious of Japan’s handling of the virus. The cruise ship quarantine was botched and a story came out of people disembarking from a flight from Wuhan, which had passengers who tested positive for the virus, who did not get tested. Testing was voluntary but if you tested positive hospital quarantine was mandatory. Have fun picking through that logic loophole.
A lot of us suspected Japan was refusing to test and covering up cases in a bid to have the Olympics continue as scheduled. (We were unsurprised when suddenly after the Olympics were postponed there were a large number of cases reported in Tokyo.) Finally, there was an outbreak in Hokkaido and Japan had to start taking things more seriously. Hokkaido closed schools, but things still somehow felt far away as everything in my area seemed to be business as usual, except for masks being completely sold out.
Sign outside my local drugstore:masks, tissues, and toilet paper out of stock.
I decided not to do any more travel for the time being and start gradually buying some extra food supplies to have on hand. The end of the academic year was coming and I was focused on getting through my last few classes, preparing for spring English programs, and saying goodbye to my 3rd-year students. Then, the evening before my school’s graduation(2/27), Abe made a surprise announcement. Large crowds were a risk factor for the spread of the virus and it was graduation season. Ceremonies were to be minimized, shortened, limited in attendance, or altogether canceled. Schools nationwide would be closed until the spring holidays to try and curtail the virus spread. Parents and teachers rejoiced at being given no notice and no time to plan for this change and suddenly have to make arrangements for their children at home while still going to work. (sarcasm)
Schools Close (The First Time)
Luckily for our school, students would still be able to have their ceremony but there would be a hand disinfectant station at the gym entrance and all but the core parts of the ceremony were cut. After ceremony celebrations were to be kept short, although seniors still took a couple of hours to take pictures and say their goodbyes, and as usual the English club party was on the long end. Once students had left the teachers had one of many meetings to try and figure out what was next. Essentially, the school was closed to students, spring day camps were canceled, and no club activities for 2 weeks. ALTs began to watch what was going on closely as we had already been watching how the virus was hitting other countries.
With the best interests of students, staff, and ourselves in mind, ALTs wanted to stay at home during this period. Despite an implied need to limit outings and keep gatherings small, the board of education would not let us stay home unless we used paid leave. Usually, this is the norm during spring break but we were hoping that in these circumstances the rule would change. It did not. I took a couple of Mondays off and one week of half days. Waiting to see more aggressive containment policies or signs that the virus was being taken seriously, as we watched nearby Asian countries take more serious measures such as South Korea’s aggressive testing or Taiwan and Hong Kong’s strict travel and quarantine restrictions. Surely Japan would do something any day now?
Starting to take it seriously?
More and more cases were starting to pop up. Online, ALTs shared that coworkers were coming in coughing, sick, but being denied testing. Or, not wanting to get tested because of the social stigma. Japan, perhaps still in denial, limited the testing to those who had been abroad recently or in contact with someone who had. Typical of Japan, they said they didn’t want to fill up hospital beds as positive cases were required, per law, to stay in hospital. It didn’t occur to them to change the law for asymptomatic cases. And despite aggressive testing leading to positive results in places like Italy and South Korea, Japan decided to focus on backtracing cluster outbreaks. In other words, wait for an outbreak to happen and then take action rather than try to identify and isolate before it spreads.
Like in the U.S., some governors seemed to take things more seriously than others. Before a holiday weekend (3/19), the governor of Osaka requested that those in Hyogo, which had growing numbers of infection, refrain from traveling into Osaka and vice-versa. Osaka is a large city and a travel hub which is the perfect recipe to spread the virus. The Hyogo governor, instead of supporting the moderate restraint requested by his neighbor, claimed he was being overly cautious. I wonder what he thought when news came out that Hyogo residents that had attended a concert in Osaka then tested positive for the virus?
Not what you thought. . .
With community spread confirmed and cases growing by the day, Hyogo finally had to face the facts. The school closure was to be extended with some modifications. Were those modifications online classes? Nay! Despite the image many may have a high-tech Japan, it is far surpassed by its Asian neighbors which were able to set up virtual classrooms for their students to stay on track through quarantine. Computers at home in Japan are not as common as many rely on smartphones for their internet browsing. Schools continue to almost exclusively use chalkboards with limited use of technology in the classroom and many teachers lack experience or confidence in using it.
A typical classroom at my high school. Teachers write everything on the blackboard. Each floor has 2 large monitors (not all of which work) that can be rolled in but are bulky and difficult to position so everyone can see because there are so many desks.
So what were the modifications? To reduce the number of students at the school, they split the attendance and had each year group come on a different day to pick up/turn in assignments and receive updates. Clubs would be canceled (there was a brief period during the first school cancellation when clubs were allowed with reduced duration, only 2 hours allowed). In the meantime, ALTs were in an uproar. The best way to reduce the spread of the virus was to stay at home, and it looked like schools were resistant to this idea. Many ALTs e-mailed their embassies, their prefectural advisors, CLAIR (manages the JET Program along with the government), and Boards of Education outlining their worries and reasons why we should be allowed to work from home.
Logic Finally Wins. Sort of.
Many excellent points were made. ALTs travel throughout Japan and internationally a lot more often than our co-workers, so there was a higher chance we could have picked up the virus. Many are not fluent in Japanese and could have trouble navigating the healthcare system if we were to get sick. We are also far away from our home countries and families and so lack social support in the event of having to quarantine ourselves. On top of this, we were dealing with the anxiety and worry for our families back home. We don’t receive sick leave and the amount of paid leave varies. This means that if we become sick, we may run out of paid leave, and because our contracts may not allow unpaid leave, we could lose our income and position within the program. Otherwise, we could have our pay reduced because of missed working time.
As educators, we are also very concerned with protecting our students and coworkers. If students continue to attend school it increases opportunities for students to spread it among themselves, or to us, and vice versa. The staff room also breaks most of the “3 c’s rule” Japan has been touting to reduce risk. Avoid closed spaces with poor ventilation, crowded places with many people nearby, and close-contact settings. Desks are close together in tight rows and people covering their mouth when they cough or sneeze (let alone washing their hands with soap) is not as common as you would hope. Many teachers may be older and so at increased risk from the virus. Meanwhile, ALTs, which are supposed to be assistant teachers, have fewer administrative responsibilities and a lower workload. Most of us are used to using technology in making our lessons (google drive, PowerPoint, etc.) and are better positioned to do our work at home with our personal laptops.
With all this considered, in addition to official recommendations for social distancing and self-quarantine, we had good logical reasons to work from home. However, that would be deviating from the norm, the established rules, and Japan doesn’t like that. Even in a global pandemic. Luckily, it seems there was enough pressure, between embassies, ALTs, and finally an announcement from Abe declaring a state of emergency for 7 prefectures. Word came down that ALTs would be allowed to work from home given some additional paperwork and restrictions.
Work From Home
Sorry, some ALTs. In some places. In my case, prefectural ALTs directly hired by the BOE would be allowed to work from home on days students didn’t come to school. That would be 2 days a week. Meanwhile, municipal ALTs living and working in the same city as us could not. (Not long after this staff from a local elementary school would test positive. The municipal ALTs did finally get work from home permission.) It was very haphazard. At any rate, we took it as a win. Implementation of this varied among schools (some people had already been allowed to work from home and others had different requirements for showing their work) but it was better than nothing and honestly more than I expected to get.
The new rules were we had to fill in a form showing which days we would work from home and then outline what work we planned to do for those days. We have to email at the beginning and end of our shift and cannot leave our apartment within those hours except for our lunch break. We also have to report what work we have done during the day by the next working day. (This part has been vague in my case since I haven’t been told what exactly they want so I’ve just been attaching whatever I’ve done to my end of shift e-mail.)
Schools close. . .again
This lasted all of a couple of days before there was another change. Despite splitting year groups, having hundreds of students still commuting to and from school from the surrounding cities on public transportation doesn’t do much to reduce the chances of catching and spreading the virus. The first week into the modified schedule and school was abruptly closed again to students. Some students in Kobe were among another spike in cases. This meant that students would not be coming to school at all and we could increase the number of days we would work from home. It also meant that the Japanese teachers would also finally be allowed to work from home some days.
Getting Back to the Point
Sorry, that was a long ramble and I still haven’t addressed the main subject of this post: how the pandemic may affect my ability to start my postgraduate program. As this whole situation has devolved there has been a weird disconnect between the inaction and small changes I was experiencing in my daily life while there was a massive influx of information and updates online within the JET community and the news I was reading. I may go through some of those moderate changes in a separate post but let me explain how it is finally starting to affect my future.
When cases started to increase in Japan and international flights were being reduced, the U.S. Embassy sent out e-mails advising travelers to return home and refrain from any unnecessary travel. Initially, this was aimed at short-term travelers in Japan who might not have the income, health insurance, or resources to be able to quarantine in place. Later, another e-mail was sent advising English teachers specifically to either return home immediately while there were still flights or be prepared to stay in Japan indefinitely. It will come to no one’s surprise that as an American I opted to stay where I had affordable health insurance and income and not risk my family’s health with an international flight back or my financial security with the U.S.’s hyper-inflated healthcare costs. (Let alone use up funds earmarked to pay my tuition.)
The main problem here is whether I will be able to get a flight out of Japan in August. International flights out of Japan are down to about 6% of the normal volume. In light of this, and Japan’s lagging response, a fair number of ALTs cut contract and flew home early to be with loved ones. (This may also have helped push BOEs to allow work from home as that would be preferable to suddenly having no ALT, no replacement, and getting left dealing with their remaining belongings and bills.)The situation is constantly changing but seeing as we are most of the way into month 2 of the outbreak and conditions are not improving, it’s hard to say if things will have settled down by the summer. Even if they do, we don’t know what restrictions may still be in place. I would have to make 2 international flights, one home to the U.S. and then on to England. If quarantine was still required for international arrivals that could add up to 4 weeks for me. That doesn’t give me much time to move back to the U.S. and prepare for another year abroad.
In light of this uncertainty, I have been e-mailing people within the JET Program, the embassy, and my University to find out if there are any plans for if conditions do not improve. Bristol is so far still holding to the September start date. Within the JET Program, some areas may be considering extending our contracts into the summer if ALTs are not able to get in or out as planned. In the meantime, contracting organizations have been encouraged to support ALTs leaving and paying for their flights home. Normally, COs pay for our flight back after completion of our contract. Leaving early would void this and the ALT would be on the hook to pay for their flight. Now though, with the global situation and the fact that schools are closed for the foreseeable future, they are being advised to consider our contracts as fulfilled and still pay for our flight.
Contingency Plans
Like I said before, I’m going to stick it out until the end of my contract. Hopefully, things will improve by the summer and I can return as scheduled. If not, there are a lot of alternatives I have to juggle. The main factor being Bristol. If I cannot get to Bristol in time, I would need to defer. Difficult because I have already used my one deferral and haven’t heard back yet on the possibility of a second. If they push back their start date that might give me enough time to move and repack. If I can and do defer, I will probably look for an internship to pass the time and work on my career skills. Possibly return to one of my previous internships. It’s all still up in the air. Not reassuring or helpful for making plans.
In the meantime. . .
I’m enjoying work from home, although having to turn in work every day when normally my work at school would be sporadic is a little annoying. It is nice though to do things at my pace in the comfort of my home. Before stores closed I picked up some additional craft supplies and I already had a healthy stockpile at home to work with. Surrounded by books, crafts, and my trusty internet connection, staying at home isn’t that bad. I still go into school once a week to help record and upload English videos for the students, and since my school is right down the street I don’t have to use public transportation. Now that Japanese teachers can work from home too, my exposure to other people is limited. So I’m going to keep holding down the fort here and wait for any more updates.
Picked up some more embroidery patterns and thread.
Further Reading
This was a long and roundabout post, but if you are interested in reading more about the situation in Japan, and why certain things are happening (or not) the way they are, I am linking some articles below. Some interesting stuff in there.
Note: The Japan Times limits the free articles you can view. Try opening an incognito window if you reach your limit.
After living abroad in the same apartment for 4 years, it occurred to me that I would actually have to search for accommodation for pretty much the first time in my life. Up until now, housing had always been provided or quickly offered. I lived at home for most of my time at University. When I decided to move closer to school, I spent a very brief time looking at apartments and craigslist ads before my boss offered to rent me a room in her house. I stayed in a dorm during my year abroad and then went back to living at home while searching for jobs and internships. The internship I was accepted to had a house for interns to stay in and when I was selected for the JET Program, housing was taken care of by my contracting organization.
So that leaves me, a 28-year-old soon to be postgraduate student, having to search for accommodation abroad for the first time in her life. Now, technically I was guaranteed university housing for my first year. But University housing isn’t always the cheapest or best quality. (I also later found out it would not work well for my specific program) I wanted to minimize my costs as much as possible and find someplace I could be comfortable in for the duration of my degree.
What surprised me:
Going into this search, I expected things to be expensive and competition to be high, but there were still a few things that surprised me.
1. High-end Student Apartments
Going through some of the student accommodations offered by private companies, I was surprised that there were several marketed as high-end apartments. I don’t know how things are across the pond, but isn’t the student experience about making the best of basic accommodations and getting a place that’s up to code, clean, and functional? Smart-TVs, design-led, modern, high-spec kitchens, I’m reading through these descriptions and wondering who can afford this?
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen bottom of the barrel basic dorms that I could barely stand one night in. But I’ve also been in student apartments that look totally fine and liveable without having luxurious modern design and built-in TVs. Maybe this is on me for even looking at private accommodation providers in the first place. Maybe this is a cultural difference. I understand the attraction in terms of social life and convenience, I mean, who wouldn’t love a smart tv and in house cinema you could rent to watch movies with friends?
2. Prices
I knew since I would be living in the city, and a University city at that, I would have to pay city prices. But given my limited rental experience, the numbers were still a bit of a surprise. (And that was before converting the currency、ouch) Trying to look at other options revealed that elsewhere prices weren’t much better and house shares often had the added cost of bills to consider. Not looking good. I was also momentarily confused by the fact that rent was listed on a weekly basis? I’d only ever experienced paying rent on a monthly basis, maybe prorated if I leave halfway through the month, but generally given on a monthly basis. So for like half a second, I thought the rent wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. And even when I thought I found somewhere reasonable, there was another surprise.
3. Speed of Reservations
Big city competition means places get snapped up as quickly as they’re listed. Those accommodation provider apartments had already been mostly reserved a year in advance. My mother found a listing for a place I thought would be perfect, a small apartment with its own kitchen and bath, and when I sent an email to enquire only a day later it had already been reserved. Reading through the student Facebook groups I had joined, any listing quickly had multiple people commenting with their interest. Others said that if you didn’t have notifications for various apartment sites set so you could answer immediately, someone else would take it before you had a chance to see it. That just increased the pressure to find something and make a decision on it fast, which I was reluctant to do because of the high costs and the fact that I couldn’t check the places out in person, not to mention the disadvantage of being in a different time zone.
4. Conflicting Reviews
Wanting to do my due diligence in research, I tried to find student reviews for the university and private accommodation. The problem was that some of the places I looked at either had very few reviews or had very conflicting reviews. I wasn’t sure if I should trust the handful of negative reviews bringing up valid issues about temperature and air circulation or give more weight to the more numerous positive reviews. It also sounded like the university postgraduate housing blocks were in noisy areas with a lot of construction. My current apartment is right on a road and I’ve had enough of being woken up by large trucks driving by. I wasn’t interested in trading that in for construction noise.
What I was looking for:
Going into it, I thought I had reasonable wants for my accommodation. After living in my own apartment for 4 years I have gotten used to not sharing and wanted to continue that streak, but I’ve done okay with a shared kitchen in the past. The main features I was looking for were:
My own bathroom and shower
Near transport and/or the zoo where my practical sessions would be
Preferably in a quiet area
Bills and furniture included
Is this reasonable? Or delusional? I don’t really know, being an inexperienced renter and all.
I wasn’t going to have a lot of money to spend on furnishing someplace for such a short time, and bills included would just make budgeting and payments easier. I’ve never been big on parties or nightlife so I wanted to stay as far away from that as possible so I could concentrate on my studies. I would really only be traveling to maybe 2 places regularly for classes so as long as transport links were relatively close that would suffice.
What was suggested:
The University accommodation office‘s website had a lot of information and links to read through, which I did before starting my search. There were links to private accommodation providers as well as specifications and costs for University housing for postgraduates. They also had some tips for choosing a place and what to look out for. The problem was they strongly advised against signing an agreement for a place without seeing it in person. Difficult to do when you are living halfway across the world and will only have about a month turnaround moving from one country to another and starting school. This worried me since I didn’t want to commit to something and risk getting scammed or have a bad living situation. The speed at which listings were getting filled though meant I wouldn’t have time to arrange a trip to do an accommodation search. I also didn’t want to wait until the month before classes started when competition would probably be highest.
What I went with:
The downside to starting my search so early was that most listings weren’t for the next academic year, but were for short term winter or summer lets. Seeing how fast things were getting snapped up though, I was afraid to wait too long. I tried to get a lettings agent to help me with my search, but they didn’t respond after I told them I was out of the country. I responded to a post on the school search board and again, never got a reply. Finally, I found another place that looked nice on the student union’s lettings page. I contacted the live-in landlord through the page and was able to ask a few questions and set up a meeting in just a few days. It wasn’t a self-contained apartment but it did hit some of the points on my list.
So what did I end up with?
House share
Shared bathroom and kitchen
Quiet residential area near park and shopping street
Large bedroom with bay windows
View of the garden
Bills inclusive
Includes cleaning of the room, linens (which are provided), and common areas
Initially, I was kind of against a house share since I had seen so many that were listed as being for like 7 people, which I felt was too many for me to deal with. I also really, really wanted at least a private bathroom since I’ve never actually had to share before and, let’s face it, sometimes when you have an upset stomach you kind of want a private bathroom to deal with that. After seeing the listing, the house rules, and speaking with the landlord though I decided it would be doable for the short time I’d be there. The house has 2 bathrooms and only 3 other rooms are being rented so I wouldn’t have to share use with that many people (one of the school dorms said bathrooms may have to be shared with up to 9 people. No thanks!) and she said it had never been a problem. It was also in a great residential area which would be quieter than the dorms in the middle of the city.
A big plus for me was the proximity to the park where I could go for runs and enjoy some of the green space as well as being close to one of the main shopping streets with supermarkets, restaurants, and independent shops. And of course, having bills inclusive and furnishings provided would make things a lot simpler for me as an international student. The price was just slightly cheaper than the postgraduate dorms (although still a tough swallow once I converted the currency). Overall, the convenience and location made it worth not having a private bathroom so I made a deposit and have secured my accommodation in advance.
I think searching for accommodation can be pretty stressful, especially if you are searching from outside the country and can’t make it there to check things out in person. I was really afraid to leave it last minute and risk having to settle for something I didn’t like or would cause more stress or be too expensive. Given the conditions I was under, the best I could do was search through the University run listings page. I’m looking forward to enjoying the big windows overlooking the garden and thinking about what things I can bring to personalize the room a little (a favorite blanket or some postcards perhaps), so until then I can relax a little and enjoy my remaining time in my little Japanese apartment.
First, I needed to check the requirements for the program itself. Since I would be studying abroad, I had the additional step of dealing with a different grading scale in the U.K. so I had to check the equivalent qualifications on the University website to see if my grades matched up to the academic requirements.
Submitting an application means more time on the computer researching and writing. Photo by Jacqueline Kelly on Unsplash
2. Check necessary documents for application
Academics
I needed copies of transcripts and my degree which meant having to pay for new official copies from my University. Luckily, my University offered pdf transcripts that I could upload so I didn’t have to wait to receive them in the mail. Unluckily, I still had to pay for a hard copy, which would ship to my parents’ house, to access the pdf copy. Makes perfect sense, how else would they squeeze more money out of me?
CV
I was not very familiar with CVs as we usually use resumes in America, so first I had to figure out what the differences between these were. Basically, this came down to CVs being longer and more detailed, in that they showed all your skills. But I was also advised for my application to try and keep it short. So, still like a resume, I guess? At least in terms of length. I reached out to program alumni for some clarification/advice on how to organize my CV and what they gave priority in theirs. Based on their advice, I tried to tailor my CV to the program and put the more relevant animal experience first with my other experience in a separate section.
Personal Statement
What are they looking for in applicants’ personal statements? ( Motivation and Experience) What do I want/need to tell them that they can’t get from my CV/transcripts? (Uhhh, how passionate I am and what a great student I’d be?) How do I distinguish myself from other applicants in my storytelling? (Make a Lion King reference? (I did really do this by the way)) Writing my personal statement was rough, but I gave myself plenty of time to work on it and had my family read over it to give me some feedback.
Reference Letters
I needed 2 references, preferably academic but one professional would also work if relevant. Luckily I had a few professors and supervisors friended on Facebook so they were easy to contact. I had also had multiple classes or worked for an extended period with them so they were familiar with my work. I gave them copies of my CV and personal statement and had no problems getting my letters.
3. Check the deadline!
I was planning on applying early and deferring for a year, but I still wanted to get my application in well before the cutoff. Or at least, plan it that way so that if I ran into any trouble I would be on time instead of late. The only problem was, there was no date listed for international applicants. After contacting the department to clarify, I was basically told that they would keep applications open for international students for a balanced cohort but submitting earlier was best.
First, I made a list of everything I needed and worked my way down it, checking things off as I went. I tried to get the easy things taken care of first, like starting the online application form and submitting a transcript request. The CV also wasn’t too hard as my previous resume was already animal-focused since I had used it for my internship. I just needed to update it and rearrange it a little. The personal statement was the hardest, and after many outlines and drafts, I was finally able to complete it after about a month and 10 or so drafts. Then I could forward it to my reference writers. Once I had all my materials finished and uploaded (including my reference letters) I did one last check over everything and hit submit.
Once everything was submitted I could relax a little before waiting and hoping to hear back that I was accepted. About a month later I got an email that a decision had been made on my application. I had been accepted to the program. I was super stoked to hear I had gotten in and after giving myself a couple of weeks to relax I had to turn my attention to the next major hurdle: searching for funding.
After a lot of thought, weighing the pros and cons, and coming to the decision to go back to school, the next step of my postgraduate journey was choosing a master’s degree program. Easy, right? Just sift through hundreds of programs at different universities around the world. To make things easier, I made a list of different things to consider when researching programs. This is how I chose my master’s degree program.
1: Research vs. Taught
There are 2 main types of Master’s degree programs to choose from: research and taught.
A research degree offers more independence in your study because there aren’t regularly scheduled classes or exams to attend. Instead, you get to plan and conduct research on a topic of interest with help from supervisors. This is great if you have the self-discipline to do it. (I do not.)
Taught degrees, on the other hand, are more structured. They have scheduled classes and exams, similar to an undergraduate degree. They also sometimes have a research component to them so you can still get academic research experience. If you know what kind of career you want(I do), a taught masters can be a great way to get the experience and instruction in the specific topics you would need for that career.
I didn’t mention it in the last post, but another reason I hadn’t considered doing a postgraduate degree was that I thought that all postgraduate degrees were research degrees. I didn’t have much confidence in my ability to carry out a large research project, and couldn’t think of one thing I wanted to research. I was also worried that spending all that time on research would leave me unprepared for the more practical side of an animal care career. On top of that, I feel I do better with a more structured, predictable schedule to work with.
Taught degree it is then.
2: Degree Concentrations
Decision 1 down, now it’s time to narrow down a degree concentration. There are 3 main things I considered when looking at degree concentrations:
What are my interests? I’ve always been interested in animals and already had a Bachelor’s degree in biology with a focus on conservation, so a program that covered topics related to conservation and animal care was what I was searching for.
What are my career goals? Going along with interests, what kind of career was I aiming for? What type of concentration would help me get that job? Looking up job listings in the field and seeing the qualifications and requirements of the job gave me an idea of what topics would be helpful to study, but I also wanted to keep my options open and learn skills that could apply to a variety of jobs. In my case, not just animal handling and care in a captive setting, but techniques useful for field study as well.
What is my previous experience? When applying for a postgraduate program, they’re going to want to know how your academics and experience make you a worthwhile addition to the program and capable of completing the course material. While I only had 2 internship experiences, these were in 2 different aspects of wild animal care and conservation: wildlife rehabilitation and zoo work. Looking back at these experiences, I enjoyed both so programs requiring similar work would be a good fit and also meant I would be well prepared for the coursework.
The next thing to look at is the actual content of the course.
What core classes do I have to take? Are there additional classes I can choose from? Is there a research component? Is there a practical component?
This is where I had to do some combing through the course catalog and program page. I read through all the class descriptions to see what would fall in line with my interests and match the needs of my future career. I also wanted practical experience so I was looking at what programs offered that as well as how much. A few other things I looked at were: What additional opportunities are available, such as fieldwork or the use of special facilities? What is the research component and how is research conducted in the program? For example, does the school provide connections with other schools or facilities for completing research?
After I narrowed it down to 2 programs at 2 different schools. I tried looking up student reviews of the programs, attended an online info session (which ended up not having anyone for that specific course available to chat with), and joined the postgraduate student Facebook group for the other school. I was able to get in contact with 2 graduates from the course and get some additional information about what the course was like and what they liked about it. This helped me decide that this was the degree program I wanted to go for.
4: School
So I found a program I like, time to take a closer look at the school. Now, I may have this a bit reversed compared to other people. They might choose to look up which schools have a good reputation for their degrees first and go from there. I prioritize the program content over name recognition of the school. While name recognition may make your degree stand out on applications, if the program isn’t something you’re passionate about it seems like a lot of effort and cost just to put a famous name down on your degree.
(By which I mean, I didn’t think to look up what schools have a good reputation for that type of program, but I also don’t care about name recognition so…)
Here is a list of some of the things I looked at when prowling the university website;
I. Is the school/faculty reputable?
I know I said reputation wasn’t my top priority, but it’s still something I’m going to look at. Partly to know that the school is good, but also to have a realistic expectation of how difficult it may be to get in.
II. What kind of research are they doing?
I also want to see what kind of research they are doing. I thought that this might help me get an idea of what research I could do as well as see what impacts the school was having.
III. How employable are graduates?
I put a lot of thought into choosing a program that will assist in my career goals, so something to look into is what kinds of jobs are program graduates getting and are students from the University overall able to get employment post-graduation.
IV. What are the school’s priorities? What is its atmosphere?
This is a bit vague, but basically, I was trying to get a feel for whether the atmosphere of the school resonates with my interests and needs. How are the grounds and study areas? Does the school support the things I care about, like environmentally friendly initiatives?
V. What amenities/services are offered to students?
I was going to be living away from home (again) and spending a lot of time on or around campus, so I wanted to know what services are available for students. Assistance with finding accommodation and funding was high on my list, but other things I looked at were the campus gym or study areas, student groups and clubs, accessibility, etc. In terms of accommodation, what is available? What are the costs?
#5: Location
In addition to scoping out the university’s services and amenities, I also wanted to get a feel for the city it was located in. How easy would it be to get around? What kind of entertainment/recreation is available for when I have free time? What is the atmosphere of the city?
This was to give me a better idea of what studying the program at the university will be like. I wanted to be excited to study there and feel like I would be comfortable living and studying there. The less stressed I am the better I can perform in courses and maybe even have a social life!
One final note to think about was if I was going to study abroad for my degree. This adds additional considerations such as language barriers, extra costs, and paperwork. However, the positives could outweigh the negatives. In my case, the U.K. was attractive because of the shorter program length which would help minimize costs.
6: Cost
Speaking of costs, education costs money and I am but a poor student. There were a few different aspects of postgrad costs I had to think about when choosing a program. First, of course, is the cost of tuition. Depending on the length of the program and if I would be an out-of-state /international student, the tuition could be higher. Then there are the living expenses. Will I live in University housing or rent privately? How much will utilities, food, and transport cost? What other expenses might I have, like for research? And while we’re on the subject of other expenses,
Debt
Coming from a country of exorbitant student debt, loan payments were another expense to take into consideration. Looking at the cost of international tuition in the U.K., it was close to what I would probably pay as an out of state student back home. With the shorter program length, this could be manageable. I also had a manageable amount of debt (about 1/3 the national average), so I wasn’t drowning yet.
If you don’t want to drown in debt, it’s good to have something to keep you afloat. And that’s where funding comes into play. When looking at schools and programs, I also looked at what scholarships and funding were available. This meant program and school-specific grants, grants aimed at international students, and really anything I could find online that I was eligible for. I made a list of scholarships and grants I could apply for while trying to calculate how much I could save up.
When I initially decided to get a master’s degree, I had no money. By the time I started seriously researching programs and planned on applying though, I had paid off my student debt and would be able to have some savings before starting school. By studying in the U.K. with a shorter program length, I could minimize tuition and living expenses. There were some scholarships I planned on applying to, but if necessary I could take out a loan to help cover my living expenses and not be too burdened since I was starting debt-free.
Using this list, I made a spreadsheet with the different categories so I could make quick comparisons and narrow down my choices. Deciding to go back to school can be overwhelming, but breaking it down into smaller parts, and focusing on one thing at a time, really helped me get through the decision process. And in the end, I chose the University of Bristol’s MSc Global Wildlife Health and Conservation program.
To kick off this blog, I’m going to explain why I decided to get a Master’s degree. Which in this case, starts with why I DIDN’T want to get a Master’s degree.
It’ll make sense eventually, I promise.
After high school, I spent 6 years getting 2 Bachelor’s degrees and I was tired. When I was finishing my degrees, my main goal post-graduation was getting into internships, and there were some good reasons I didn’t feel the need to get a postgraduate degree.
Why I didn’t want to get a Master’s degree
#1: Not a requirement for my career field.
In general, the basic qualifications needed to get a job as an animal keeper in the U.S. are
A Bachelor’s degree in Biology, Zoology, Animal Science or another related degree such as an Ecology or Environmental Degree
Practical experience Sometimes you can swap the degrees for extensive experience and some places may want something more specific, such as large carnivore experience.
Let’s look at a few examples of jobs and what their requirements are.
San Diego Zoo Research Assistant
Bachelor’s Degree and at least 2 years of experience.
Hoofstock Keeper job, Phoenix Zoo
Bachelor’s degree and at least 6 months experience.
Zookeeper Peoria Zoo
4-year degree and 1 year of experience.
Notice a common theme?
Experience is key.
When it comes to animal care, having the practical experience to do the required job and the responsibility to carry out those tasks safely is emphasized more than an advanced degree. After getting my degree, building up that experience was more important to me than going back to school for a degree that wouldn’t necessarily increase my chance of getting a job and could put me behind on experience.
Number 2: Academic Burnout
I mentioned this before, but I was tired of school. To get into University, I tried to maintain high grades and take as many honors and advanced placement courses as I could in addition to extracurricular activities. I spent nearly every summer during my college career doing summer classes, working part-time, or doing volunteer work/internships. Now that I was finally coming to the end of 19 years of schooling and hitting that milestone of graduating from University, I was ready for something else. I wanted to start working and gain experience in the field I had been studying for all those years.
Number 3: Cost
I was very lucky and most of my education was covered by financial aid. However, I did not come out of school debt-free. I was unable to get a job until my 3rd or 4th year of college and the bulk of that money went first towards covering gas for my 3 hour round trip commute to University, and then second towards my rent, food, and gas once I moved closer to school. This wouldn’t have been so bad, but then something unexpected happened.
Despite consistently living in the same state for well over 10 years,
Despite having a paying job and paying state taxes for over a year,
My university reclassified me as an out of state student, more than TRIPLING my tuition. This risked my ability to get into the classes I needed to complete my degree and forced me to take on loans in the meantime to ensure my education would not be interrupted.
Hey look,it’s our old friend, student debt.
I’m getting a little off-topic here. Long story short, after a long, emotional fight, I won and the University had to pay me back the overcharged fees. The point is, I now had student loans to pay back and no savings since everything had gone towards my living expenses. Coming up on graduation, not only was I looking into internships, but I also had to worry about loan payments. Considering all this, taking on even more debt to pay for an expensive postgraduate degree was not at the top of my list of things to do after graduating.
So What Changed My Mind?
Napo Tamarin, Ecuador
A. Developments in the Amazon During my year abroad, I came across a news article online. This article was the turning point. It was an article about China’s plans to build a railroad through the Amazon.
When I was in the 3rd grade, I had a teacher that taught us a lot about the rainforest. Everything in the classroom was rainforest themed, and even our lessons and activities related to the rainforest. One that sticks out in my mind is when we were given a paper to color in that formed one piece of an Anaconda. After we all finished coloring, during recess she hung it up on the wall circling the classroom so we could see just how big an Anaconda was. The experiences I had in this class fed my interest and curiosity in the natural world and culminated in University where I was finally able to achieve a dream of visiting the rainforest on a 2-week field course.
All this to say, the Amazon rainforest holds a special place in my heart.
Back then, the rainforest had been under threat from humans and *surprise* that hasn’t changed. The idea of China building a railroad through such a crucial habitat was horrifying. In the article, a professor from James Cook University in Australia had explained why this was a bad idea and would only open up the forest to further damage and exploitation. Glad to see someone with sense, I looked up the University and started reading through the degrees they offered. Seeing some of the concentrations and classes were in areas I was interested in, I started to weigh the idea of going back to school and how I could afford it.
B. Bracing for Competition Another reason I thought a Master’s degree could be beneficial is to stand out a little more from the competition. Jobs for zookeepers, wildlife biologists, and animal care specialists are highly competitive. This means standing out from other applicants who may have the same education level as me but more experience would be difficult. Getting an advanced degree, I thought, might help me gain some useful skills and give me an edge over other applicants.
C. It’s all About Connections When searching for a job, networking and building connections are crucial to getting the heads up on job openings, and having a personal connection to vouch for you can make the difference in a sea of applicants. This is true for many jobs but perhaps even more so in the close-knit animal care community. Given my limited experience (at that point I had only volunteered and interned at 1 facility), going to another university for an advanced degree could give me the chance to expand my network of connections. It could even open up field research opportunities which would let me experience a different aspect of the career.
After a lot of thought and a few detours, I made the final decision to get a Master’s degree. In the end, I found a different program at a different university but I am now on the postgraduate path. I am excited to dive into a subject I’m passionate about again and I hope you will come along for the ride.
