About

Hello – こんにちは (Kon’nichiwa)

On August 2nd, 2025, I will be departing to Japan, known as the Land of the Rising Sun. Two and a half months prior to that date, I left the country of Armenia, the Land of Ararat.

There, I was a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) serving in the education sector from March 2023 to May 2025. I co-taught English under the Teaching English as Foreign Language (TEFL) framework at a school nestled in a small remote village called Dzoragyugh. The grades ranged from third to ninth and each class had anywhere between two to six students.

Outside of teaching English, I enjoyed spending my time chatting with my Armenian host family, exploring the country with other PCVs, and getting lost in my thoughts by means of hiking, reading, and watching movies. Japan, in many ways, will be different.

For one, I will not be a volunteer with Peace Corps, but instead, be an ALT with the JET Program.

The JET Program

Founded in 1987, the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program offers an unique opportunity to work in schools, boards of education (BOE), and government offices throughout Japan. Essentially, it is a teaching exchange program with more than 80 countries currently participating in one of the three positions: Assistant Language Teacher (ALT), Coordinator for International Relations (CIR), and Sports Exchange Advisor (SEA).

Assistant Language Teacher (ALT)

Over 90% of all JET Program participants are ALTs, including me. I will be in the Hiroshima Prefecture, working at two elementary schools and one junior high school. My duties will include working closely with the Japanese Teachers of English (JTEs) and providing support in the classroom such as preparing learning materials and outside of the classroom such as helping out in extracurricular activities and assisting in foreign language speech classes, and a plethora of other duties.

What Does This All Mean Going Forward?

Going forward, the JET Program will be an entirely new and different experience. In Armenia; I lived with a host family in a small isolated village, taught English with a student population less than thirty, and perhaps most notably, worked as a volunteer.

In Japan, I will have independent housing (apartment), and though I am teaching English—in many ways I will serve as an assistant to the JTEs—and of course, the classroom sizes will significantly be larger. The JET Program is not a volunteering government agency unlike the Peace Corps, as there is a working salary on a year-by-year contract.

Starting in early August 2025, Japan will be my home for the next year—definitively—and perhaps for the next couple of years, depending on how everything unfolds. This blog serves as a platform for my thoughts to be expressed in a written format for my family, friends, aspiring JETs, and anyone who wants to follow the journey of Tenzin in Japan.