One more year.

So, I turned in the paperwork yesterday to request one more, and my last ever, year on the JET Programme. Year 5. [After which, they kick you out.]

And while it's entirely possible they could say "no" - I think my four years in, and the fact I got re-upped last year, are indicative that the odds are in my favor that I'll be sticking around till summer of 2010. I'm supposed to receive the official accept/deny notification sometime around mid-Feb. Officially Feb 13th, but last year they forgot altogether to let me know that it'd been accepted/approved and I had to ask sometime around March. Which wasn't as big a deal as it sounds as there was kind of a conceptual understanding that I was going to stick around.

If they do come back with a "No thanks" that renders the rest of this post moot, but hey, you go with what you know.

[As an aside, it was a bit of an ego-kick that when I did turn in my papers the response was along the lines of "Oh yes, the economy is bad in America now." Hmmm... would that I'd had the fluency to get across the point that that really has nothing to do with why I'm hanging around another year. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice bennie, but... no, that's not it. And the other articulated reaction that I caught was "Now we have to look at the budget." I wasn't expecting rose-petals thrown at my feet, but a little something-something would've been nice. Eh, cross cultural communication and me being an overly sensitive goof, probably. They, last year, were trying to talk me into staying a 5th, when I was saying my 4th was my last... but then, that was over drinks... and in Japan you can say anything over drinks...]

So, why 5? And after I started off year 4 with every school-related blog post lamenting that it was "last" time for everything? Well, the thing is, the Mrs and I have moved every 2 years since we've been together. Hawaii, 2 years. Japan [the first time] 2 years. NC, 2 years. DC/VA, 2 years. And then I went and broke the mold here in Japan, as we're hitting the 3 1/2 year mark. So, there's that. We've both got a bit of the wanderlust thing going on.

But me, not so much recently. In Japan, I've been oddly fulfilled and not terribly inclined to be moving on to the next thing. The job itself is probably the favorite job I've ever had. Connecting with the kids, developing relationships with them, even hamstrung by language and culture, has been a really rewarding experience for me. And the big reason I want to stay is so that I can see this year's 2nd graders graduate next March. They're really a great group of kids and I feel like I've really connected with a bunch of them. [Hell, I'd like to see this year's 1st graders graduate 2 years from now, but logistically that's an impossibility in the job...]

The wife, otoh, has kind of the opposite feel for it, in that she is more than ready... far past ready... to get on with "what's next" and whatever place and step is next. She was definitely in for 2, and then the 3rd, as I was digging it and 3 years used to be the "max" on JET, but year 4, that we're in now, has been kind of a painful stretch, and the idea of a year 5 is a non-starter. While she excels at the private company English deal, it's not that challenging for her and not where she sees herself in the long run. [I don't see myself teaching in Japan for the "long run" either, but the "long run" is far less a consideration in my decision making process...]

So the idea of year 4 as my last year on JET was really based on her desire to move on to the next thing. But she called it early, and obviously, that I'm really not ready to go. I enjoy my job. I like Japan. And while I think there are a bunch of things in the Japanese educational system and the culture that are kind of painful, I'm really satisfied with the role I play in it.

But she's ready to go. But I want to stay. An intractable problem? Nay, I say unto you.

There's really no better way to put this than the way my better half summed it up the other day - "It's really a lot better that we end up missing each other for a little while than we do something 'for the other person' and end up resenting one another." Bibles of truth in that.

She would really regret it if she stayed in Japan, spinning her wheels. I would really regret it if I left this job and this experience before I had to.

So, we're gonna do the 'long-distance' thing for a while. In a few months she'll be heading back stateside to begin the 2nd stage of an interview process for a govt job, and I'm gonna stay here.

Piece of cake. We actually, before we got married, did the long distance thing for 2 1/2 years. VA to NC for 4 months, TN to NC for 3, and then the biggee at the time - Hawaii to NC for 2 years. And at the end of all that we got married. So, 17 months this go-around should be a cakewalk. Especially now in the age of the internet and Skype videophoning. Hell, when we first started dating we had email - kind of - and massive monthly phone bills... so I really don't anticipate a problem this time, the ease of communication being what it is.

At first the idea of being married, and living apart for a while, really bugged me, and it was the reason I held off on actually saying to myself "Yes, I do want to stay another year." One of the reasons, though certainly not the main one, that I got out of the military is because I really don't think a relationship should be such that you're regularly spending 3-6 months away from your significant other on a regular basis. Naive and overly romantic, sure, and there are lots of folks who make it work, but it just didn't really seem like something I wanted to do. But again - "missing you is better than resenting you." And life and relationships are never the simple story you think it is when you start out. So it's certainly not optimal, but it's what's gonna work for us, right here, right now.

So the next year and a half are gonna be different. Gonna be some changes. Sandy's gonna head back [quicker than I want] and lay the foundation for "what's next." Not to mention being able to decorate and clean all on her own, without having to deal with my "input." :) I'm gonna finish out here in the way I want, no regrets. We're gonna burn up the internets with communication and do our every 6 month "time for a visit" trips. [Tentatively, me, back stateside for a few weeks in July/August... her, back out here around Xmas/New Year's.] And I'm gonna have to muddle through Japan, limited linguistic ability and all, without the backstop of a fluent Japanese speaker in my hip pocket.

[And you know, while it makes no rational sense, I keep having the impression that a lot of other things around work and such are going to be in flux. March is the time for teacher rotations and staff rotations at the city hall, and I just have this feeling that I'm going to have a bunch of different faces in my world come March time-frame. I mean, my supervisor at the Board of Ed has already lasted a year longer than the other two supervisors I've had since I've been here, so I figure he's definitely - and sadly, as he's a great guy - due to rotate. And I just have this - and it is nothing more than a feeling, really - that the English dept is gonna have some changes. But who knows? I'm probably just taking the changes that are happening to me and extrapolating needlessly.]

Anyway. One more year. Most likely, anyways. Barring the Board of Education discovering they don't want me anymore. :)

Gambaremasu.