 This year’s JETs have the opportunity to go to a truly special event: the Setouchi Triennale. Every three years this festival ignites the sleepy islands scattered between Kagawa and Okayama prefectures with a blaze of modern art. Many of these islands would have almost nothing to offer outside the festival season, but this…
 For a small country, Japan is surprisingly full of remote and beautiful places. The Ogasawara islands take the cake, on both remoteness and beautifulness. Accessible only by a ferry from Tokyo—a ferry that takes 25 hours in good weather, runs once a week, and costs 25,000円 one way—few people ever make it out….
While for most of us October is the Month of Halloween, on the Shinto calendar it is the Month Without Gods. That’s because they are all at Izumo Taisha in Shimane Prefecture deciding on your love life for the coming year! But who are these gods? And where are they when they’re not matching…
Dear ghosts, skeletons, youkai, zombies, and Hyogo-dwelling JETs, I am Jillian, a Hyogo AJET member and the book club supreme leader. I love books, cats, and tea, so basically I was born for book clubs. I work at a part-time high school in Nishinomiya (my students are mostly adorable punks), and though we…