Shimokitazawa!

I got a specific job offer with Aeon!  The offer is for a school in Shimokitazawa, a neighborhood located in Setagaya-ku, four stops from Shibuya on the Inokashira line, four stops from Shinjuku on the Odakyu line.  If I got a bike, I could probably bike from Shimokita to Yoyogi park.  Shimokitazawa is an awesome neighborhood!  Back when I was first in Japan, when I was living in Ikuta, my roommates and I would sometimes go out in Shimokita, and when I was living in Shinjuku I would go there sometimes for shopping or concerts.  Shimokita is filled with cool little independent shops, vintage shops, cute cafes, cool bars with live music.  The scene there is young and creative, and I'm super excited that I got an offer for such a cool place!  Because I told my recruiter that I would be okay with suburbs surrounding any of the major cities, I was a little worried that I would get placed way out in Kanagawa or something.  The start date isn't until October, unfortunately, but I can deal.  Besides, this way I'll have some time to do some part time work in Jacksonville to save up a little bit of cash before I go.

The school is pretty small, with 250 adult students and only 35 kids.  There's one other native teacher, I didn't ask where he's from but it's a guy.  There's also one full time Japanese teacher.  That's one thing I like about Aeon actually, they employ Japanese teachers as well as native speakers, so the students are able to learn both in their native language and in full immersion English classes.  I think my recruiter said that the other native speaker has been there for 3 years, so I'm gonna take that as a sign that it's a good school to work at, haha. 

Shimokitazawa at night, stolen from a google image search

Street in Shimokita, also stolen from a google image search

Job offer!

I got a job offer with Aeon!  It's just a 'general' offer though;  apparently what they do is offer you a position, make sure you're still interested, and then let you know when something opens up that fits both your criteria (mine was that I absolutely did not want to live in a rural area) and the branch manager's criteria (i.e. they try to have diversity at all their schools, so if a position opened up in, say, Yokohama, but there were already two Americans at the school, I might not be able to get it).  So, I guess cross your fingers that something opens up fairly quickly!  I would much rather go to Japan with Aeon than with new Nova, considering all the troubles that new Nova has faced since its bankruptcy back in '07.  I'm glad to have the offer, anyway;  I was actually about to start looking for positions in Hong Kong instead if I didn't hear from Aeon or Interac soon.  I could learn Chinese, right?  Well, this offer is fortunate for my Japanese!