Mid-Year Conference 2008

Every year, each prefecture gathers its JETs for a conference. Nagasaki does its conference in November. This is the basic structure of the conference: an introduction is given, including speeches by various bigwigs in the prefecture. The rest of the work day is spent in smaller seminars. The next day follows the same pattern, with a keynote address followed by more seminars, then closing remarks and announcements.

The speeches and seminars themselves are only marginally useful in a professional setting, but most of the veterans understand that enduring the seminars is a small price to pay for an expenses-paid (flight and hotel) "business trip" attended by 150 fellow foreigners. That's the true benefit of the conference: the chance for us to see fellow expatriates we met in August when we were bright-eyed-and-bushy-tailed newbies, many of whom we haven't seen since then.

This year's conference fell on a Monday and Tuesday. My school gave me a lump-sum stipend to cover airfare and two nights in a hotel. I slept in Saturday and headed to school to give the seventh Harry Potter book (in Japanese) to Ayaka, the girl who borrowed the English version from me last year. Unable to drive, for fear of losing my job if pulled over, I caught the bus. I've taken the evening bus many times, to catch the 6:30 flight from Tsushima. That one makes the trip in about 15 minutes. This one, however, had a different route, taking a couple of side trips. I caught the bus at 12:05, and got to the airport at 12:26. My flight departed at 12:30; even by Tsushima's lax requirements, I was too late.

There was no problem scheduling me for the next flight instead. I contented myself reading at the airport for three hours. I got to Nagasaki that evening, checked in at the Toyoko, and hit up Milan, the nearby Indian restaurant. I spent the rest of the evening reading and relishing the comfort of a bed.