So previously I had been working for a private company in Fukushima. I loved the job, the benefits were great (free apartment, free car, free internet, utilities paid, and a nice salary. I was able to bank a lot of cash each and every month mainly because I lived so far away from anything to be able to do things that cost money.
The downside was exposure to radiation. Daily Cesium and other elements were being measured with numbers like 0.289, 0.558, 1.309, etc... with normal exposures in non-radiated areas being like 0.0005 or less.... It was clear I had to leave the area as my wife was feeling uncomfortable. The government claimed that it was safe but who knows.
So I left Fukushima and moved to Osaka. I taught for the Board of Education there for about 2 years. Not wanting to deal with the bureaucratic nonsense of 3-year contract limits and having to reapply to the same job every three years I decided to go back to private teaching at a private company where I could be a homeroom teacher again.
And so there is where my story is now. I am teaching 4 year old classes in English using a proprietary curriculum that in my opinion is seeing results. Students are being exposed to a lot of repeated vocabulary, expressions, sentences and dialogue through stories, poems, songs, and daily classroom English. It is a challenge being a homeroom teacher with 30 students teaching an English course 40 minutes a day five days a week with all kinds of other activities and responsibilities going on. However I have to say, it is loads of fun and I feel my job is rewarding now more than ever.
