Where and When <\/strong><\/p>\n I was lucky to have been placed in Ono, about an hour away by bus from Sannomiya, in Kobe. I had originally planned on staying in JET for about 2 years, but almost immediately after arriving, I knew I wanted to stay for five! Ono is considered rural for sure, but over the years it has been growing steadily. I was there when the schools had air conditioning units installed, when the Saty department store turned into an AEON, and when an actual hotel was built nearby!<\/p>\n I got to live in the same apartment building as six other JETs, and in my earlier years we hung out together a lot, playing video games, going to karaoke, having dinner parties, and going out to restaurants. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a particular yakiniku place in Ono called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ikkyu,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which was our go-to place for special occasions, especially when it was time to say goodbye to departing ALTs. It became a tradition when I was on JET, and of course when it was my time to leave Ono, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where we went!<\/p>\n As a full-time elementary school ALT (one of the very few at the time), my greatest lessons were learned on the job. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have younger siblings or any experience with children, and when I applied to JET I wanted to be in high school because I felt like I would\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been able to relate to them better. After five years of teaching children, I learned to exercise patience and discipline\u00e2\u20ac\u201c sometimes having a homeroom teacher in the room didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always mean the class would be well-behaved, so I would have to take charge and it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always easy! I was surprised at the amount of praise my co-workers gave me on my lesson plans and execution. I thought they were just being kind, but after seeing how much my students enjoyed English class and how well they were learning, I realized that I had a talent for teaching. My experience with teaching language at a basic level has helped me after coming back to the US, as I am now teaching Japanese words to my two-year old niece using gestures and repetition.<\/p>\n![\"CChaseItsukushima](\"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/CChaseItsukushima-Copy.jpg\")
<\/a>Favorite JET Memory <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>Most Valuable Lesson <\/strong><\/p>\n