My first year in Japan, Part I

My town was in Kumamoto Prefecture, which is in the center of Kyushu, the southwesternmost of the four main islands of Japan. My job was to teach as an assistant English teacher in the elementary and junior high schools of Arao City(pop. 58,000). There are five junior high schools and twelve elementary schools in Arao. Many teachers I worked with did not speak English. I did not speak Japanese.

When I arrived in Arao, I was taken to my new employer's office where I introduced myself. Then, I met the town mayor. I talked to my predecessors for about an hour. Then, I was dropped off at my homestay family's house. I stayed with them for one week.

After my homestay finished, my supervisor and I sorted through furniture from my two predecessors' apartments.
Arao City has been having major financial struggles over the past several years, and cutting the budget for education was a result. The drawback was that I took over two peoples' jobs and responsibilities. The benefit was that I got consolidate the nicest furniture from their two apartments into one, which made my apartment rather nice.

I found a small photocopy of a map of Arao in a folder(in Japanese with English scrawled all over it) left for me, and was told by my supervisor to come to the Board of Education in the morning at 8:20. I sat down on my new bed. I was, well, home.