Hello Elissa,

Thanks for joining our site!  I'm actually from St.Louis, so not too far from Nashville. There is one JET from Tennessee here I think, but many from countries all over the world. We have an active community here at FJET of about 100 people, so in my opinion you're lucky to be placed here. It's not the big city, but we have "a lot of nature" as the students say, and plenty of things to do and see, and we try to stay involved with community involvement and just fun stuff, too. To get started, check out the FJET Guide.

There is a ton of info in there but just poke around and feel free to ask any questions here. 

Hi Elissa!

 Welcome to Fukui!  I'm Melissa and you'll be hearing from me pretty often in the next few weeks -- in fact I'll be sending all the new people a big e-mail tomorrow.  Until then, as Steven says, browse this site, especially the FJET guide. 

 You'll be getting some info in the mail about ways to prepare.  For now, if you want to do anything to prepare. I'd recommend taking lots of pictures of really normal things -- your house (including your yard if you have one), your bedroom, your family at the dinner table, 4th of July, a typical American breakfast (lunch or dinner -- several examples are good), a typical classroom, your grandma, etc.  If you have any typical holiday pictures, gather up the most representative ones (just one pic per holiday will do).  If you take some nice clear pictures now, I guarantee you'll have the opportunity to use them in one of your classes later.  I always wished I would have done that kind of stuff.  It's our normal lives that we don't think much about that are the easiest things to discuss, compare and enjoy with our students.

You could also take really simple videos of your family members or friends introducing themselves in simple English, too (Hello, my name is _______.  I am ______ years old.  I am from ________.  I like (the name of a fruit, sport or color).  You can use them in different ways in your class.  Different accents are nice -- if you are from Tennessee and any of your family members or friends have a really strong Tennessee twang, it might be interesting to compare them with someone who doesn't.  Just keep it really really simple in the language department!

Other than that, just enjoy your last few weeks at home!

Hi Joe!  Welcome!  You'll get your specific placement in about a month.  Even without it though, you're in pretty good shape.  Shiga is our neighbor prefecture to the south and it's also where the closest shinkansen connection is (they are building one if Fukui right this moment, however!).  Depending where exactly you are placed in Fukui and where exactly you want to go in Shiga, you shouldn't be more than a couple hours away on average. 

 Total time from Fukui City to Tokyo, with connections and all is about 3 to 3.5 hours.  Sometimes it's only 2.5 hours if you can catch certain runs.  All in all, it's not so bad, though it can get pricy.  Osaka and Kyoto are much much closer, cheaper and just as interesting!

 We look forward to meeting you too!

 Melissa

Hi Alice,

How awesome that you knew about Fukui ahead of time.  If you are into snowboarding, while the resorts around here are on the small side, the options abound.  We even have a guide written by a former Fukui JET who writes about snowboarding professionally! 

 Welcome!

Melissa

Hi Kim,

 Welcome to Fukui!  To be perfectly honest, Fukui doesn't really have an urban area.  It's listed as "semi-urban" in most literature, and even that might be a misnomer.  Fukui is by and large rural.  Fear not! however.  Kanazawa City in Ishikawa Prefecture is an hour to our north by train (handy for day trips and weekends) and it has most everything you might desire.

Depending where you are in the prefecture, Osaka and Kyoto are also one to two hours away by train.  Osaka in particular is a major metropolis and perfect for Saturday nights on the town.

While we aren't the most cosmopolitan prefecture, the prefecture has over 800,000 people and Fukui City has 250,000 people; the sheer volume of that alone means that the city has plenty of shops, restaurants and cultural centers, in addition to beaches, mountains and the ubiquitous rice fields.  

We JETs (from large cities, little farms and everything in between) get together often and keep each other pretty entertained as well.

I think living in Fukui, we get the best of both worlds - small town Japanese life, with the opportunity to meet and interact with our Japaenese nieghbors plus major urban centers just a stone's throw away.  I've lived here for 3 years and the more I explore this place, the more I find to love.  I hope you and everyone else will agree!

Looking forward to welcoming you,

Melissa

Hey Kim,

I'm also from trinidad (siparia). I've been a JET in Fukui for about 2 years now and it's great. It's a bit quiet, but  accessable to the surrounding part areas. Email me if you have any more questions.

port1a.sensei@gmail.com

Take care and eat all the things you want now. There arn't any caribbean resturants here :)

Portia. 

Hi Spencer,

Welcome to Fukui!  Glad you were final able to post -- it seems there was a glitch on the sight for a day, so we're sorry that you were put out!

About your survey, I'm actually the one that reads them, and since I've seen your post above, I obviously already know the scoop, so feel free to complete it with whatever requests you'd truly like to see met.  Placement is a rather difficult process for a variety of factors, so we can't guarantee that anyone's requests will be fully met, but we certainly try to keep them in mind.

Your assumptions about placement in Fukui are pretty accurate.  Besides the far north of the prefecture, just about any placement can get you to Osaka or Kyoto in under 3 hours.  People living in the very south of the prefecture to tend to go to the cities more often, but I think that is a combination of both proximity and the number of attractions in one's own town.

Hope that helps! 

Melissa

Hello, and welcome to the Fukui club!

Just a quick answer: I think it's pretty easy to get to Kyoto/Osaka if you're anywhere near the main JR train line. That means that if you're out to the east (Ono / Katsuyama) or further south than Tsuruga, it will be more inconvenient. You'll soon find, however, that the problem is not so much time as money. Train tickets are costly, especially if you plan to go frequently. There is also a cheaper bus from Fukui to Osaka, though, which stops in Sabae, Takefu, and Tsuruga.

Hope that helps!

Benjamin

Fukui CIR / Prefectural Advisor

Hi Spencer!

Just to echo what Benjamin already said, being placed close to a JR line would probably be best.

 I live in Fukui City and my boyfriend is in Kyoto so I know that train route well. It's about a 3 hour ride on the local train (that's if you find one with good times at the transfers, it can be over 4 hours) and 2520 yen one way. Travelling a lot by train can get expensive even if it doesn't seem that far.

Hi again Naomi!

We "met" on the JET Programme Forum, but I'm glad to see you've made your way over to this one.  Feel free to look around and ask questions here as well!

Melissa

Hi again,

You should definitely prepare for winter.  You can check out the Pre-Departure Handbook the FJET Presidents posted on this site for complete details, but I'll give you a quick run-down now.

Fukui has a full 4 seasons.  Spring and Fall are gorgeous and the temperature is very moderate.  Summer is pretty typical until August -- most of the month is very very hot and humid.  Winter time gets fairly cold.  It rarely gets below freezing, but still 1 or 2 degrees above is small comfort, I know ;) 

To prepare for the cold days, you should bring clothes you can layer at work and at home (think thin undershirts, a t-shirt, button-ups, sweaters, blazers).  Be sure to have an overcoat, hat, mittens and scarf.  Warm socks and some thin long pants that you can wear under your trousers are helpful, too.  It does snow here, but it's more wet than fluffy -- combine that with the fact that it rains quite a bit year round and you'll want to think about some waterproof shoes for walking to work, water resistant/proof coat for winter, and maybe even a full rain suit (water resistant/proof track suit, basically) for the rest of the year.

If you are not used to winter, I know it can sound overwhelming, but with proper layering and plenty of heaters in your apartment, you'll be fine!  Also, it won't be cool for quite a while after you arrive here, so you can send the majority of your cold weather gear to yourself by post so you don't take up precious suitcase space!   Just bring along a few things though for either the FJET Mt. Fuji trip or an unexpectedly cool evening.

Melissa

Hey Elissa -- you're right about the weather here resembling Tennessee weather.  Actually, a Japanese friend of mine who used to work in the U.S. said that she spoke to the owners of a Japanese company that is located right around Chattanooga and they said that they really liked the area they were in because it reminded them so much of Japan.  They weren't from Fukui, but they thought the weather, environment and people (their work attitude, anyway) were similar to various regions in Japan.  It was sort of interesting for me to think about that.

By the way -- galoshes are a very good idea!  As for the overcoat, they certainly sell them here and if you can't find something in Fukui, you should be able to find one in a city nearby.  It might be more expensive here though (but with the cost of shipping from the U.S., it might even out).  Also, Japanese women tend to have rather narrow shoulders -- not a problem for everyone, but it's something to consider!

Melissa

Hi Richa,

Did you say hiking? Japan is a hiker's paradise (especially compared to the midwest. I know, I lived there for five long years!) There are a couple of peaks you can get to by public transportation. Plenty of other trails are not too far away by car. I go several times a month and will be happy to give you some ideas for places to go once you get here. As soon as you're out of the city you're surrounded by rice fields and mountains; it's what I like best about Fukui! 

-Benjamin

Hi Richa,

Welcome to Fukui!  We're excited to meet you, too!

Melissa

Hi, Alice ^_^

Kat here...if you're interested, we also have an Ultimate Frisbee team.  it's not necessarily a competitive team but we have alot of fun at practices and we take part in a tournament every year.  also, the FJET sports reps are planning on "renting" school gyms over the winter months to play different sports like futsal (indoor soccer), basketball, volleyball etc.

You can teach us netball, too  ^_~  Bronwen goes on and on about it.  

 so...have you invented a new law, yet?  oh and btw, the guy you mentioned before...did he happen to be named Sam?  (you might have been asked this numerous times already ...sorry! just curious)  ^_^

kat 

Hi!

 I'm so glad that the Pre-Departure guide was helpful!! For me, the numero uno, biggest, most important thing is my computer. It's my life line to my family and friends back home... and provides hours of youtube entertainment! (-_^) For me, I wish I would have thought more about the omiyage... I wish I would have brought smaller and very light things... That's just my opinion!
What about the other oldies??

 (^_^)

Lauren 

Hi Lucia,

Welcome! As for your plantains question, unfortunately, they are not widely available in Japan.  I may have seen plantains here once, but the memory seems suspect.  Ack!  Sorry!

As for other important things, as I mentioned in a post above, I really thought that I should have brought more simple, everyday pictures of my home, my neighborhood, my food, my family.  Nothing fancy -- just straightforward stuff, like a week's worth of pictures of your breakfast every morning.   I've heard of people who made a small photo album with pics of family and typical things in their life and they carried it around everywhere -- good for impromptu self-intros with a focal point should the conversation lag.

One thing that I wouldn't have brought?  English teaching books.  I did a lot of ESL tutoring before I came here, so I brought a lot of my resources.  Totally useless. No matter how simplified the books are, they are still far too difficult for the students here.  If you do need resources, the internet overfloweth!

Just my two cents!

Melissa 

Hi, Lucia ^_^  I've been thinking about your question about plantains for the last couple of days and I still don't really know what to say.    There are alot more sweet bananas than not here.  The Philippines export alot of bananas here to Japan so you might get lucky and find a plantain or two. 

Hm...as for things to bring here other than clothing, I'm with Lauren, a laptop with wireless  is a good thing to have. many ALTs here have a hard time getting internet connection the first couple of months so having a laptop that has wireless is a good thing.  there are a number of places in Fukui City now that offer free wifi: the libraries, cafes like Seattle's Best Coffee and even McD's

Besides that, something to entertain you like movies or tvshows that you've already downloaded onto your computer.  I know that you'll probably want to go out and enjoy all that you can during your first couple weeks here.  You can go to festivals, exploring and traveling but there are times you might want to just sit at home and enjoy the AC.  I know I did and having something to fill the time was nice.  

 I brought too much clothing with me and I think that I shouldn't have.  Basically, it's really humid here and I brought clothes that didn't breath well and I also stuffed too much of my winter gear into my luggage when I should have brought omiyage (basically souvenirs from home that you give to teachers/friends here).  It's nice to bring mementos from home so that you display them in your apt.

 I think that is pretty much it.  It's basically what everyone else has been posting hee hee.  sorry this was soo long!

 kat

 p.s.

don't forget to apply for an international driver's license!! 

Hi Kristen!

Welcome to Fukui! Once you get to Japan, we'll give you detailed information regarding the different methods of sending money home.  Most of us use Go Lloyd's (you can google it), but there are postal money orders and other methods as well.  You can set any of those up once you arrive in Fukui.

You will have to have a Japanese bank account (which we'll help you set up) in order to receive your pay every month (it's automatically deposited). You can send money from that bank to any other account via an electronic bank transfer.  If you want to save money or send money home regularly, it's usually easier to have your own account back home as well.  Using Go Lloyd's, you get a bank transfer card and you can use an ATM to wire money from your Japanese bank account to your American one (other countries apply as well).

Also, as credit cards and debit cards are not easy to come by here, it's nice to have  debit/credit card from your bank at home to use for buying plane tickets or shopping on-line.

Any other questions, fire away!

Melissa

Hey!

Everyone has their paychecks directly deposited into their personal account at the Fukui Bank. It's pretty easy to send money home via GoLloyds or through the post office. There aren't any US banks here in Fukui. Hope that helps you!

 Lauren

Hi Kristen,

I have a bank account at home and like most of the others, I use Go Lloyd's to send money home to that account.  My bank offers online banking so that helped a great deal in getting all those nasty bills paid.  

 Here in Japan, I have a Fukui Bank acct and a Postal Acct.   The latter is very useful to have because banks close early here (3pm) and so do the ATMs (9pm) .  The Post office ATMs are open until midnight I believe and if you have the right logo on your debit or credit card, you can take money out from your acct at home from there.  Plus, if you travel within Japan it'll be more convenient since most ATMs in convenience stores won't accept a Fukui Bank card.

It seems like a big juggling act to have soo many accounts but all three will have its uses.  Also, we have bank books here that you can you place in an atm and you can get a printed update of your acct.  inside that book instead of a pesky receipt ;p 

kat