Yamasho, says Shintani-sensei, is in Ise City (Ise-shi), "which is in the middle of Japan and is famous for Ise Grand Shrines." He refers to Ise-shi as "a small local" and quiet town. The Ise-shi guide on the Mie JET Web site says the city is home to 100,000 people. A map showing major train routes makes me rest easy -- two major lines make it to Ise-shi, but not further south (see map below).
(EDITED to add: I now think maybe a commercial high school is somewhere between industrial and high academic. Or maybe commercial is a low level but with a focus on commercial areas rather than industrial ones. But I'll leave my original speculation below in place. Either way I'm not concerned, just curious.)
I don't yet know much about my school, nor do I know exactly what the "commercial" designation means. At first I thought it meant it was a low level school, but then I recalled that there is also a kind of high school known as "industrial." Yamasho's 800 students can choose one of three courses: commercial, IT or English. Sixty-five teachers (I'm not sure how many ALTs) guide the students through their three years (Japanese senior high schools are U.S. grades 10, 11 and 12).
Adding to my new theory that Yamasho is perhaps a high level school, Google uncovered a 2005 brief from a Web site called "ELT News" which described an "English Boom in Ise."
(The brief was summarizing another article from Asahi.com). The ELT News item said Ise "has been caught up in the internationalization that has followed the opening of the Chubu International Airport and the Aichi World Expo, and residents are feeling a growing need to acquire English language skills." Specifically, "Ujiyamada Commercial High School became one of the latest additions to the government's SELHi (Super English Language High School) scheme...."
I have no idea what this means, but it sure does sound rigorous. I don't know how I would fare in a super English language program.
Ise itself sounds like a nice enough city. Bigger than where I am now and within two hours by train of Osaka and Nagoya, Japan's second and third largest cities, respectively. Here's a nice map of the region.
Above is a map showing two major train lines, which fortunately both have a bold line reaching as far as Ise. Looks like I barely made the frequent train grid. The Mie-JET Ise guide says there are frequent trips to Nagoya from Ise, but farther south trains are infrequent or not available. While I don't know my living situation yet, I'm hopeful that I'll be able to use public transportation instead of buying a car.
I've now scratched the surface of Ise-shi, capping an unusually early morning. The house cleaning lady comes Monday morning, and I usually sleep through the vacuuming. But today, with my placement info to research, I headed out in search of coffee shops with Wi-Fi. At Starbucks I bought an iced tea and a yogurt parfait but then found that their Internet access is not free. Starbucks = evil. I then headed to another place on third but their Wi-Fi wasn't working. I chugged my coffee and bounced to the Beanery on second, where I'm happily in the back corner, online and set for the afternoon.
I'm waiting for Japan to wake up so the people on the Mie-JETS forums can fill me in on Ise, and perhaps my predecessor (if I have one, fingers crossed) will find some time to e-mail me and give me some details.
About time:
It's 11:30 a.m. for me in Oregon so in Japan it's 3:30 a.m. ... my system is this: from Oregon time, count ahead four hours and switch from morning to night or night to morning ... daylight savings time standard time or whichever is not currently happening means it's five hours instead of four.
That's all for now. Since I have no job or class or anything to do but prepare (for four weeks) I'll have plenty more updates as I learn more.
1 comment:
Super! English!
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