It's exactly one year today since I touched down at Narita airport at the beginning of my JET career. Throughout the year I've reflected often about my experiences here, so I'm not going to write a big essay about thoughts from a year in. However, I do have a few words I'd like to say.

My friend Brandon challenged me to think about my goals on the JET Program and why I was staying for another year. Although it wasn't something I had sat down to deliberately spend some decent time thinking about, I do think about it on and off and so it was relatively easy for me to put my thoughts into words. There are many, many reasons, but the main ones I think are that I enjoy life here (much more than life in Perth) and that there is still so much more for me to achieve here. Digging a little deeper, I enjoy teaching and the difference I can make both at school and in the community. I have room to improve as a teacher and I want to take that opportunity and make JET work for me - I have a feeling the skills will come in useful in the future. I also made a promise to myself to become fluent at Japanese before leaving Japan, and that plays a big part in the decision. A lot of Japan is still a mystery to me because of the language barrier, and the challenge to smash through that and understand is something I relish and that is very rewarding for me.

On another front, the end of the JET year brings with it a whole heap of new JETs and the departure of a lot of old JETs. Some good friends are leaving this year and that's something that I am dealing with for the first time. Thankfully none of the people were best friends or people that I saw a lot, but I still feel their absence. I can't call them up any more at random points in time and just head out with them for a random dinner in Kobe. Does it bother me? Well, yes and no. I've become used to this kind of thing over the years so I get over it pretty fast, and with communications the way they are, people are never really that far away if you really put in some effort.

I also spoke to Brandon recently about this yearly cycle of JET. He's going into his third year so he's had two years of changes. The point he made was an interesting one and was brought up in a larger conversation about Japanese vs gaijin friends. We both agreed one of our goals was to make more friends in the local community, and Brandon was quick to point out that they're less likely to leave every year, hehe. So to sum up this rather random yearly reflection, I have absolutely no regrets about coming, I'm excited about the year ahead, I'm keen to learn more Japanese, improve my teaching skills and meet a lot more local people, and I haven't decided exactly how long I'm going to stay. I'll worry about that when the recontracting letter arrives in January :)