Placements

[Kbryder]

Hey guys. I have met many different people from the Chicago area, but I wanted to start a thread where we can all share where we will be in Japan. (once we find out) I would like to know if anyone will actually be near me in Japan when we get there, and it would be awesome to make some more friends, specially people near me. Plus, this could make for some potential traveling opportunities if you meet someone in an area you would like to visit.

Through this, once we find out, we can start to meet people near us. There's really not much that we can post about at the moment, but we can share where we hope to be placed. I really hope to be in northern Kyushu personally.

So where would you like to be? Once you find out your general area, let us all know.

[Bejma]

I did not make a placemeny request. The only place I would really not want to live in would be a major city, and since I know majority of jet placements are rural I'm not worried.

I wonder when placements will start rolling in. Maybe at the end of may...? I'm not sure when they started last year.

[ChottoMonkey]

it would be awesome to make some more friends, specially people near me.

You will have the opportunity to meet everyone in your region / prefecture at orientation (seating is defined by area). If you plan to keep this thread updated with prefectural placements, this will be a nice resource for those JETS who are on the forums.

[lenamarie0485]

Hey guys. I have met many different people from the Chicago area.

Hey I see you're from Oshkosh? I'm from Milwaukee, me and one of my other classmates were shortlisted. If you're ever down this way let us know!
(I put down Osaka Prefecture, Fukuoka, and Yokohama; wished I had put down Hokkaido. Guess all this cold weather made me not want to go to a cold place... but I love snow so *crosses fingers for snow country* )

[eacat]

Once placements come out, would you be willing to track consulates as well as placements? Just so we can keep track of who is reporting in.

Please and thank you!

[Jeffles]

I'm not sure when they started last year.

IIRC, I received my placement in June last year. Because of May 11th, though, our whole application process was delayed a bit. You might find out earlier. I can say, though (at least for my town), that decisions have not been made yet. I don't think we've even seen the short list yet. All we know is the number of empty spaces in our prefecture, which is pretty much useless info for you guys.

Guess all this cold weather made me not want to go to a cold place... but I love snow so *crosses fingers for snow country* )

Well, pretty much anywhere you go that isn't Okinawa is going to have stupidly cold winters. Snow is definitely not guaranteed, but if there are any mountains nearby (and there will be, since the country is pretty much made of mountains), then snow will never be far away.

[BrianPaulson]

Is "stupidly cold" really all that accurate? I mean, our coldest day this winter was probably around -5? For a day? Milwaukee probably got lower than that. The problem is that it isn't always much warmer than that in the classrooms. You can have all the joys of freezing without the snow!

[kawaiijutsu]

Tradition seems to be that once people start hearing, someone makes a threat with a Master List of things, separating people out by Prefecture (off to the side, you can give people info like consolate, SHS/JHS, etc). People post in that thread simply stating the needed info, and the person who opened the thread can update the master list. Quick, easy reference.
As for me, I found out placement around mid-June last year, but wasn't told of my city/town/etc (I'm a prefectural, aka SHS ALT) till the start of July.

[Keshu]

For the placements, each prefecture works differently. In some you'll know right away your town/city, in others you'll learn a bit before departure. Some (in rare cases) even find out when they arrive in Japan (but they at least know their prefectures before that).

Some BOE (board of education) are right on top of this and you hear from your pred really early... Some aren't. I learn about my placement when I was upgraded (I was an alternate so they ask you if you accept your placement or not) but my BOE didn't contact me until late. My pred actually contacted me a few days before my BOE did (and even then, it wasn't actually the BOE, it was the JTE I would be working with.... I didn't have any contact with the BOE before I got of the airplane in Hokkaido after Tokyo orientation).

Basically the ESID also applies here. When you learn your prefecture, if you have serious questions you can find the AJET chapter or your prefecture on internet (website or facebook). For really serious matter or concerns, you can contact the PA (prefectural advisor) who work in that prefecture. Keep in mind that it will be an extremely busy time for the PA so they might not be able to get back to you right away but they will do it as soon as they can.

[Siyris]

Some hope for those of you waiting --- my BoE supervisor has said that he knows the 7 people who are coming to my city. He is not yet able to tell us the names as he has not received the reply forms (you know, the ones you all had to turn in a week or so ago where you say 'Yes I'm in!'), but he does know who he wants to come to his BoE. So I -think- that the process from here is: We get the reply forms in Japan, make sure everyone has an ALT/SEA/CIR where one is needed, and then that information goes back to Tokyo, then back to the various embassies. Shouldn't be too much longer.

[rebeckyc]

Hey everyone!

Well all the contracting organizations have names now. Prefectures are all ESID though, but my contracting org aka a cho-BoE already knows the names of the 2 people taking our spots, and we can contact them now. Don't worry placements will be coming VERY soon. Again though, prefectural ALTs may take longer to find out specific cities, but everyone will know more or less where they are going soon.

On that note, anyone from Singapore named Angie? Because I'm your predecessor! I'm so excited to meet all the new JETs!!

[hawkharness]

Shouldn't be too much longer.

Well all the contracting organizations have names now....placements will be coming VERY soon.

There goes my focus for the rest of the day

[ume no hana]

Shouldn't be too much longer.

Well all the contracting organizations have names now....placements will be coming VERY soon.

There goes my focus for the rest of the day

my thoughts exactly!

[nyc_to_japan]

Shouldn't be too much longer.

Well all the contracting organizations have names now....placements will be coming VERY soon.

There goes my focus for the rest of the day

my thoughts exactly!

Ditto. Time to go back to the obsessive email checking phase of the JET Application process, a phase that seems to take up a majority of this whole thing! I can't wait to find out!

[Kirari]

Well all the contracting organizations have names now....placements will be coming VERY soon.

There goes my focus for the rest of the day

my thoughts exactly!

Ditto. Time to go back to the obsessive email checking phase of the JET Application process, a phase that seems to take up a majority of this whole thing! I can't wait to find out!

True story.