To Tokyo or Not

Should I move to Tokyo in September or should I stay in Naha?

A new life...

in Tokyo?

Or another year in Naha?

I have to figure these things out...


I am not doing what I originally intended when I came to Japan and I am not exactly content with my job (though I think a large number of ALTs are not for various reasons).  Outside of work, I feel like I am not invigorated or connected to the city I live in.  And I guess because of this, I try to be as creative as I can in my classroom.  My job...it's not a bad job, it's just that it's not a job that allows someone to do their own thing.  I know that a number of teachers in the USA now feel the same way thanks to No Child Left Behind.  Everything is corporate now, and not in a good way...  In Japan, education works in a similar fashion.  Teachers do not have ability to design their own curriculum for the most part.  They must follow a teaching plan so the students can pass those damn tests.

I have tried this year to bring creative projects and ideas into the classroom since the teachers I work with didn't want to have anything to do with planning the lessons, but I have noticed that the more I bring my own ideas into it, the less receptive they are and the less I do anything creative, the easier the class is to manage.  So if I just do exactly what the text book tells me to do then all is well.  Lamentable.

I assume the ALT before me did the same crap and spruced it up with a few games, some interactive projects as rewards...etc.  And the ALT before that probably as well...

I've been thinking about teaching Drama and ESL at a school in Tokyo.  It's much closer to what I really want to do here.  That being said, I have made the decision to take the path of least resistance this year and to just go wherever life takes me, instead of struggling to stay afloat in a dreamworld that may no longer be possible and stewing in my own sense of failure.  Going with the flow and not resisting change...