What ALT Dispatch Companies Want YOU to Believe

So, you wanted to come to Japan and you've managed to secure a job with a (dispatch) company that promised you that they would give you a placement and will send you into public schools to become an assistant language teacher (ALT) to Japanese English Teachers (JTE).

Now you're finally in Japan. Of course, the first thing your company wants you to do is to attend their orientation/training sessions. Your actual job will probably start a few days (a week, if you're lucky) after the training session is over.

The training session may take 3 days. Maybe 4.

Maybe even 5, which is essentially a whole work week. You're probably thinking it's a huge drag (it is), but at least you'll get to meet some new people who will be experiencing this for the first time too - whether it's their first time teaching, first time living in Japan, etc. Build at least a temporary support & network. So there's some plus to it.

You get to the training session.

Spoiler alert, folks - but it'll probably be information about the company you're working for, Japanese work culture, etiquette, important laws/rules (someone will most likely have a hearsay on how a guy received drugs from a friend and got arrested), etc. If you're lucky, you might actually get a run-down on how ALT differs from actual teaching, and learn to pull easy hat tricks out in an impromptu class.

And if you do, here are some things that you really should take with a grain of salt once you truly enter into the realm of ALT-ing. Listen to them, but follow them... sparingly. Because you know what? You're the one who has to deal with the school and know what's happening at the school in real time, not the dispatch company (as much as they want to believe that).

Discipline

God, please discipline the kids.

The first dispatch company I worked for REALLY rammed this down our throats at orientation to never discipline the students. Our supervisors told us to let your JTE do all the work in this regard and follow their lead (which is partly true). The reasoning they gave was that you didn't want to get in trouble with the school in case anything went wrong, as we were not licensed teachers in Japan.

Now, if you were someone who believes in corporal punishment as classroom discipline - then uh... yeah, please listen to the dispatch company and DON'T DISCIPLINE. (please)

But otherwise, you should definitely discipline.

Japan isn't exactly a place that likes conflict, so I do find that many teachers here in Japan use avoidance as "discipline" - so to speak. For example, if the whole class was sleeping or talking, the teacher would prefer to just soldier on the 50 minutes over the kids instead of losing his/her temper...

I mean, there's a bit of a middle ground here. You don't need to do nothing, but you don't need to go all the way to 100 either. As a second "teacher" in the room, you often don't need to be in the front of the room 24/7. Instead of disrupting the whole class and losing your temper on behalf of the JTE, you have a chance to go right up to the chatty kid's desk and take the conversation away from the kid. Much better to be using some English with you, then to be doing fuck all the entire class. And of course, there are other subtle ways to utilize yourself in the classroom if you feel you're not being useful in a disruptive class.

But please, don't listen to your dispatch company and be a complete tool and let the kids run all over you. Japanese teachers fully expect you to pull your weight. You don't have to be a teacher, but at least act like an adult to a room full of children.

Here's the thing though: If it happens once, maybe talk to your teacher first - it is possible there is a good reason as to why Taro is not responding well to your class. Talk about what you guys can do it if it happens again. And if it happens again, you can discipline and your teacher will be on board with you. (you always want your JTE & school to be on your side!)

One thing I do want to mention are detentions.

Japan doesn't really have a detention policy or culture here. The concept is... foreign, to them. If that method is your go-to discipline, you would 100% want to run it with your teachers first. As many students have after school activities, etc, giving after school detention may be extremely impractical.

Doable if you have a solid plan, but it may be met with some resistance.

Definitely just talk to your teacher first.

NAKED INC. at Heian Jingu (Kyoto)

Digital Art has quite a market in Japan, as you probably already know if you've done any amount of research into Japan travel in Tokyo... and probably came across "TeamLab" (the exhibit that everyone has photos of when they post about Japan, I assure you). While they are the most well known, they are definitely not the only players in the game.

NAKED INC. (yes, yes... get all the giggles out) is arguably one of the next biggest players in the Digital Art/Projection Mapping game in Japan. While you may not have heard of them by name, you probably have seen some of their work all over Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, all over Japan and even some overseas.

Particularly, a lot of the projection mapping in various castles around Japan are done by NAKED INC. Like the Ninja Night at Himeji Castle I've posted and several Nijo Castle projection mapping projects that I never posted.

If you're an Osaka resident and go through Umeda often, then you've definitely seen NAKED INC's work near Higashi-Umeda (at the WHITY underground shopping mall).

Osakans, does this look familiar?

Recently, they've moved into Temple and Shrine projections at Heian Jingu in Kyoto. I was lucky enough to be able to go on a weekday night to enjoy the projections without too many people.

This projection is limited from December 15th (Wednesday) to December 30th (Thursday), 2021 and from January 6th (Thursday) to January 16th (Sunday), 2022.

More information here on the website.

Let's get to the photos!

Just a normal photo on Heian's torii gate at night.

Here it is! Let's go inside. Click on the side to scroll through the photos below:

One of their signature exhibit is their "DANDELION PROJECT".

This is a little cute set up where you can input your own name on this website they have. It creates a screen that the machine scans to create a nice little dandelion projection mapping with your name on it. It's really cute.

I don't want to spoil too much because this really isn't a huge exhibit, even though the Heian Jingu grounds and gardens are quite huge in size, but their other signature this time is in the gardens area on this bridge (it's a beauty in the daytime if you get a chance to go in).

Oh and yes, every group who enters gets one free lantern to carry around the grounds until you exit. If you would like an extra lantern, you will need to pay an extra 300 yen. Make sure you visit the tent to your left as you enter the grounds.

And that's it. I hope you get to visit!

If not, I hope you enjoyed my photos, and finally - I leave you with a creepy photo of myself.

What Christmas in Japan is Like

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone has a good holiday and is enjoying the festivities in their own way. I came across a Facebook post earlier this week asking how Christmas in Japan is like, so I want to discuss a bit about it.

Earlier this week, I posted some photos of Christmas decorations in the heart of Osaka around the station area. While it seems festive enough, how do people here in Japan really celebrate Christmas?

Short answer is, people really don't.

As a coworker of mine put it recent, "Japanese people celebrate Christmas all through the month of December with all the Christmas songs in stores, decorations, illuminations and displays but once that clock hits December 25th - Christmas is over!"

Since my coworker put it that way... it's kinda true.

No Fireworks or Countdowns

Though this is certainly more of a New Years tradition, I do remember having Christmas countdowns on TV in Canada (and even in Hong Kong - Christmas is quite a huge deal there).

Lots of my friends when we started going to college, would often buy fireworks in Wal-Mart for both Christmas and New Years do celebrate in the park. Depends on everyone's availability of course - since most of my own friends celebrated New Years with immediate family, Christmas was more of the "huge group gathering". We also had a few people who had birthdays around Christmas, so the festivities were more common around Christmas.

Either way, fireworks is strictly a summer activity here in Japan. Whether you do fireworks during Christmas or during New Year, you would be very hard pressed to find any to buy at a local store. So it's best to give up on that idea now.

Fried Chicken and Cake

I'm sure if you know a thing or two about Japan and Christmas, I'm sure you've heard of the tradition of buying KFC for dinner. It is quite a thing here to eat fried chicken during Christmas, for whatever reason.

Usually starting around mid-November, KFC would start accepting preorders for KFC set dinners.

These usually come with some number of pieces of fried chickens, and depending on the set, it will come with a special KFC Christmas plate and a cake.

Yes, you heard that right, cakes.

Along with fried chicken, cakes are pretty synonymous to Japanese Christmas. These days, more and more businesses are riding the Christmas gravy train selling chicken during this time. Places like your local convenience stores and even restaurants. Convenience stores will often also offer preorders on a number of cakes.

The Family Mart offering for 2021

I would 100% stay away from these "Christmas Cakes" if I were you. Not only are they usually very small in size, prices are often around the 3000-4000 yen range for just a plain strawberry cake or chocolate cake. If you are still interested in getting a cake, it's best to get one that's not labelled "Christmas" - though you should still expect there to be a price difference from the normal cost.

These days, food stalls in the B1 levels of Department Stores also seem to be offering a huge range of chickens and fried chickens. And of course cake, if you're brave enough to enter the battlefield of desserts between December 24 and 25th...

Certainly much cheaper to get a chicken at Costco if you can get there...

Work as Usual?

Believe it or not, Christmas Day for Japan is almost always a work day. Previously the 23th was a holiday as the previous Emperor had his birthday then, but now the Christmas holidays are just business as usual for most people.

This means people generally only celebrate at night, if they can - assuming they don't rack up overtime at work.

Illuminations and Dates (Not a Family Gathering)

This is why night time Illuminations are particularly popular in Japan (and in a lot of Asian countries), since this is the only time they can possible have some free time.

Most young couples will take advantage of this time to go on dates. Most families will spend time during the New Years when they return back to their hometown (which is also when there are actual national holidays for everyone).

Is Christmas here different than your own home country?

How do you guys celebrate Christmas?