Coming soon:

Tokyo Orientation for new JETs
At the end of July we stock up on beer and teaching anecdotes and get ready to welcome the new JETs after their brief visit to Tokyo. We don’t need to tell you much about the Tokyo conference, other than that you’ll also be welcomed by a couple of Kitakyushu ALTs.If you have any questions, then feel free to ask them. Also meeting you in Tokyo will be our supervisor, who’ll give you the official welcome and your travel information. Loads of information for you guys can be found in our Newcomer's Guide.

Warm Welcomes
Group A arrival in Kitakyushu is usually around July 20th while Group B arrives one week later. Since school has already finished for the summer, quite a few of us will be eagerly waiting for your arrival, to help you settle in to your new apartments, and show you around. Drinking will probabably ensue...

Prefectural Meeting
Although employed solely by Kitakyushu's Board of Education, our new ALTs attend this large conference as part of the Fukuoka Prefectural ALTs. It's an opportunity to find out a little more about your new home, how to cope with everyday living here, and meet the other 200 ALTs who live in and around Fukuoka.

Kitakyushu's Festivals
The festival season of July and August culminates in the Wasshoi Million Festival (see photos, left), a giant 3-day event held around Kokura Castle and its grounds. Involving lots of public drinking and daft dancing it's a huge carnival with a great atmosphere, and if you're lucky you might be invited to take part in the dancing! The highlight of the festival is a street procession of hundreds of dancers and floats, although rather different from the Brazilian versions! It’s possibly the best introduction to the city (and vice versa) you could possibly wish for.

Homestay
In recent years, new ALTs have been offered a homestay, giving them the opportunity to stay with a 100% genuine Japanese family for a weekend, so that you can experience the ‘Japanese way of life�Ethat you may otherwise only be able to read about in books. Although your participation is optional, it’s an experience to be recommended.

Japanese study courses
The summer vacation schedule varies from year to year, but one element remains; a very effective study course. Arranged through Kitakyushu University, it's normally a 10 day intensive course for beginner, lower intermediate and higher intermediate levels solely for us ALTs. Once again this is entirely optional for you, but it is a chance to get your motivation going at an early stage, and you’ll have plenty of time in the evenings to go to some bars and... erm... review for tomorrow. For some extra tips, see our Japanese Study resources.

Lesson demonstrations Presented by our very own ancient and wizened senior ALTs, these demonstrations are intended to give new ALTs a few pointers and top tips for fun in the classroom. You'll also hear all sorts of stories about the weirdness of Japanese junior high schools (mostly true!).

Settling-in time
We know new ALTs will probably be fed to the back teeth of the ‘advice�E of senior ALTs (or conversely fed to the back teeth of eager new ALTs! [hee-hee]), but why not suck in some more - it’s your last chance before school starts. It's also your last real chance to get help on fixing up your apartment, find out where the video store, etc. etc.

Start of 2nd school term
Since the Japanese academic year starts in April, this is the 2nd term in junior high schools here. Apart from the obligatory spate of introductory lessons for new ALTs, one particular school event looming on the horizon is Sports Day. This is a very big event in Japanese school life, and therefore merits lots (and lots) of preparation.

Some real teaching
Hopefully the self-introductions will be out of the way, and you can get down to some more creative teaching. Take a peek at our collection of Lesson Plans & Activities if you're in need of inspiration.

School Culture Festival
As the second term rolls on, one special event worthy of mention would be the Culture Festival, where classes perform music recitals, songs and self-penned dramas. Usually confined to one day (sometimes two for larger schools), this is another major event in the school calendar, and again is preceded by lots (and lots) of preparation.

Prefectural Mid-Year Conference Once again re-uniting all 200 ALTs from throughout Fukuoka Prefecture, this compulsory teaching conference is held near Fukuoka in the first week of the month, and also involves around 100 JTEs from junior and senior high schools. The seminars and workshops given by ALTs and JTEs aim to stimulate new ideas and approachs to team-teaching, in addition to providing material for future lessons and activities.

Kitakyushu’s English Festival
This afternoon event is organised by a committee of english teachers from various junior high schools throughout the city, specifically for junior high school students. The reason this event is mentioned here is because it takes place at the Kitakyushu International Association building in Yahata, and also because the organisers always request ALTs to attend (since the students are our own students). It takes place in Yahata International Village, also in the first week of the month.

ALT Christmas Party
Usually set for early December, while most people are still here, this traditional event also features the 'Secret Santa' ritual of pulling names from a hat and anonymously giving a small (and suitably daft) gift to one of the other ALTs. The party may or may not also involve alcohol at some point.

Christmas vacation
Being a non-Christian country, Japanese businesses don't close for a vacation until the 29th, although school term does finish shortly before Christmas Day. Many ALTs take this opportunity for some well-earned R&R, popping off to (hotter) foreign climes.

Start of 3rd term
School starts up again with the third and final term of the academic year in the second week of January; a term that is considerably shorter than the previous four-month one.

Extra school visits
As the academic year begins to wind up and the 3rd year classes start to dwindle (high school entrance exams beckon), ALTs often find themselves with large holes in their weekly lesson schedules. So the Board of Education sometimes ships us off on occasional extra school visits (elementary schools etc.).

Graduation 3rd year students leave junior high school for good, at the end of this deeply sombre ceremony. Be prepared for an awful lot of weeping students (and those are just the bad-lads!), and even the occasional teacher!

Spring Vacation
School closes in the last week of March, marking a short two-week holiday and also the annual turn-around of staff. Teachers usually stay at a school for a maximum of six years, before being transferred away to a new school within the Board of Education's sphere of control.

Start of 1st term
All those cute li’l first year students will be turning up in droves in their oversized uniforms and huge smiles. This, by the way, is the time when you can have the biggest effect. Their teachers will be really enthusiastic (?) simply because they don’t have to teach those serious/studious third years anymore. Hopefully you can introduce any good classroom rules (for both students AND teachers) right from the start and get rid of those little phrases that irritate all of us (‘I’m fine thankyou�E- how dull!). A good first goal might be to eliminate any katakana english from greetings and simple phrases (‘harro...�Eand ‘sankyou�Ebeing good examples) , and from the alphabet - and make sure your JTE knows the difference between ABC and ABSHE. Above all, the first term and the new first grade should really cheer you up.

Cherry blossom season
About this time, the cherry blossom season starts in southern Japan, slowly working its way northwards with the warmer weather. Traditionally signalling the advent of spring, it also signals the advent of huge outdoor barbecue and drinking parties in parks and castles throughout Japan. Kokura castle is a particular popular spot.

Kobe Renewers�EConference
This 3-day conference is attended by all 1st year JETs renewing for their 2nd year, and is hosted by the thriving port city of Kobe, this event is really good fun, and not at all hindered by the uncertainties which are found at the Tokyo conference sometimes. And the fact that you get enough free time in the evenings to have some fun probably helps somewhat - many ALTs can heartily recommend the Hard Rock Cafe; we haven’t got one in Kitakyushu, it’ll be full of partying ALTs (not as bad as it might sound), and one year we even got the staff dancing on the tabletops!!

Preparations for leaving JETs
Retiring JETs tend to start thinking seriously about making arrangements for returning home or moving on around now. This obviously entails packing, shipping stuff home, and selling apartment contents to new arrivals or those remaining. With that done, it's time to settle back and enjoy the rest of your time here in Kitakyushu, and finish in style.

Fond farewells
The end of the first school term is officially closing ceremony day, which is usually only a few days before an ALT's contract ends (for those originally in Group A). ALTs who originally arrived in Group B, they will be departing one week later. And that's it - the year over!

Keep in touch...
For those ALTs leaving, please don't forget to leave contact addresses or e-mails, so everyone can keep in touch in years to come. You never know, you may one day feel like coming back to visit! Last-known whereabouts and details of JETs from years gone by can be found in our Hall of Fame.