クリスティーナ プリティーさん
Christina Pretty
When I lived in St. John’s, I was a student of Nami’s. Now, I am an
Assistant Language Teacher in Japan with the JET Programme! I am placed
in Yurihonjo City in Akita Prefecture (in the Tohoku region of Japan).
My city is beautiful! We are on the coast of the Sea of Japan and we are
surrounded by mountains and rice fields. It is a very scenic place to
live and I love it here! Yurihonjo, like St. John’s, is a quiet city.
Not many people speak English here, so I've had lots of opportunities to
work on my Japanese.
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My job keeps me very busy, but I enjoy working with my fellow teachers. Everyone is so nice and so helpful! I eat school lunch with them every day. In Japan, the school lunch is delicious! I was surprised; in Canada, school lunches are not always that good.
The students at my school are very kind. Teaching them is so much fun! I love greeting the students in the hallway, and they always reply back “hello!” with such enthusiasm! I was amazed that they clean the school every day by themselves. I help them sometimes, too – it’s a fun way to spend time together.
Japanese festivals are amazing to see in-person. I have been to two so far – a Bon Odori festival in Ugo, Akita, and a fireworks festival in Omagari, Akita. The fireworks festival is famous in Japan and for a good reason – it is over three hours of beautiful fireworks displays! Some of the displays are even choreographed to music. I love trying the food at festivals – I had takoyaki (fried octopus) in Omagari and it was delicious!
Of course, moving to a new country has led to some challenges, too. Going to the supermarket was difficult at first – it would take me 1.5 hours to grocery shop because it took me a long time to read/look up kanji. However, I am getting much more comfortable with it and now I look forward to trying new products every time I go to the supermarket and the convenience store.
Even though I've only been in Japan for a month, I am really enjoying my time here. I hope that, if you get the chance to visit, you will enjoy it here, too!
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