August 2015

With August comes the continuation of sickeningly humid heat, the buzzing of cicadas, and a new year on the JET program. It is a time of beginnings and goodbyes. To all of our new JETs, I say “Welcome!” To our returners, “がんばれ!” To those leaving, “Good luck!” My name is Brittany Teodorski and I’m taking over as editor from Sean Mulvihill. I’m a third year in the small town of Ono. Only one person I’ve talked to has ever heard of it and it was quite a cause for celebration in my beloved Kyoto.

I remember one of Ono’s welcoming weekends (right after the Yashiro orientation coming up for prefectural ALTs) It was awfully wonderful and wonderfully awful (okay, maybe just awful). I went to Himeji with several new friends to see the then-still-under-construction castle and one of my favorite cat cafes. That was good. The first attempt getting there went horribly awry and led to thumb-twiddling at Ao station. Never heard of it? There’s a reason. That was bad. I went to the Ono Matsuri and watched some truly spectacular fireworks. That was good. I later fell into a gaijin trap trying to outpace dawdlers in the dark. That was bad. Returning to the matsuri was good. Losing my wallet was bad. Having had only a bit of cash in there was good. Finding a mukade on my pillow later that night was bad. To this day, I still check my bed every night. While I’ve had more many-legged visitors, they’ve thankfully stayed away from my mattress. Hopefully everyone has a much more enjoyable first few weeks here!

In this month’s edition of the Hyogo Times, we welcome Mandy, an Osaka JET, as our food and cooking columnist. Her recipe this month is perfect for even the culinarily challenged (such as myself). Our online editor is taking over The Refuge and I’m very excited to see where her story will lead! Returning this year are Rackle, with articles on summer matsuri and special interest groups, and myself with a review on Fukuoka and some suggestions to pass your time while at school this summer. You’ll also get to read greetings from this year’s members of HAJET and a little bit about some second and third year JETs.

Over the next year, I hope I can serve Hyogo well as editor. I also hope you write for us! We’d love to have your submissions, be it current events, fiction, pop culture, pictures, reviews; you write it, we’ll almost definitely publish it! In the meantime, work hard and take in as many experiences as you can. As one of my friends is fond of saying, “We’ve got a long drive home.” But it’ll be over before you know it. Don’t let your tank run dry and don’t be afraid of taking a less-traveled path. You never know what wonders you may discover.

Brittany Teodorski