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2014 JET-MIP REPORT: JOSHUA WARNICKAPRIL, 2015: BREEZE ISSUE #90
A FREE MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF JAPAN & TEACHERS OF
JAPANESEJOSHUA WARNICK
Juanita High School
Kirkland, WA
The program in Japan was indescribably
amazing.
I mean, come on, if you send a teenager with
an immense amount of wanderlust to Japan for
two weeks, then ‘amazing’ should be the leastof your expectations for his conclusions. The
people were amazing, the food was amazing,
the country was amazing, and so the program in Japan was too, by extension.
All this has really done for me is whet my appetite to return, though. For all the amazingness ofJET-MIP, it felt a little bit... locked in. It’s pretty tough to escape the tour buses when you’ve got
to move thirty-two kids plus teachers plus any shepherds that may have come along for theride and you have to do it on a timetable. When (not if ) I go back to Japan, I’m gonna do it on
my terms, but that doesn’t change the fact that this trip has essentially cemented in my mind
that this is something I want to do. Japan and her language are a part of my future; I was pretty
sure of that before I arrived and now I’m absolutely certain. There’s a lot I still need to do, anda lot more I want to. Wasn’t I supposed to go to Rikuzentakata? Weren’t we , as a group,supposed to go there? I guess I’ll have to swing by at some point in the future. What about
Kesennuma? And there’re a whole lot more towns in Japan, with a whole lot more to discover.
Ohhhh, I’ll be back. Maybe I’ll bring one or two friends along, too, in the spirit of bridgebuilding.

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While I was in Japan, I met a lot of kids and adults. The kids were like me in that classic
teenager-of-the-future way; some were shy or modest about their talents or weaknesses but all
were proud of who they were and both excited and scared of their future. “My English is not sogood,” they’d say. Your English is fine! You just need to keep trying at it, like me every time I
walk into my Japanese class. I know for a fact that my Japanese could be better, and I try toget better every day. I mean, come on! They do things that American high schoolers don’t evendream of as possibilities. Sure, they’ve got the ‘pure’ athletics like track or soccer or swimming,
but they’ve also got kendo or shamisen or calligraphy et cetera , and if our educators are to bebelieved, even in a purely intellectual comparison they’re easily miles ahead of American
students. If they can be that smart, they can learn English easily.
Then there were the adults, who seemed very excited that this was happening. They seemed
acutely aware of the fact that these kids would be the Japanese and American electorates oftomorrow, and they were glad that it was us. Maybe it was just the specific adults who werewilling to involve themselves with JET-MIP, though; after all, there’re always disgruntled
members of bygone eras content to shout from the rarified pedestals of their longevity down at
the upcoming generation about how the world will be ruined when power comes into theirhands. I’m glad they weren’t involved, or else I might have gotten into an argument in alanguage that I’m not nearly good enough at to argue convincingly in (yet).
I really wouldn’t have an answer ready for you if you were to ask me about how I’ve affected
the Japanese people I met. I got about ten or twelve meishi (business cards) and gave somepeople my own. I guess that’s pretty significant. The other Americans were all cool and I like tothink I made friends with a few of them, but the truth is, as it always is with others’ opinions ofme and the impressions I give, is that I don’t, and can’t, know what kind of effect I’ve had onthese people that I met. I’d like to say that I helped them understand that we’re fundamentallythe same; maybe their skin’s a different color from mine but we both like sushi and can speak
Japanese (although one of us probably a little better than the other).
I really don’t think there’s anything I can say about Taylor or Monty that will sound right. Theysay ‘don’t speak ill of the dead’ but I find it equally hard to speak kindly of them because
nothing comes off, to my ear, as genuine or sincere. I didn’t know them. I don’t know what theirparents went through. All I know is that I was sent to Japan in their memory. I guess if there’s
something I have to say, it’s this; I’d like to thank them for having the drive to chase after adream. Those dreams have given rise to dozens more in one of the most important geopolitical
relationships in the modern world, and they made me a few friends, too.
In honor of Monty, Tokyo Banana ga ichiban ii (Tokyo Banana is the best).

NIPPON THROUGH MY EYES PHOTOSUBMISSION

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“It’s In Japan, Too”
I now know there is at least one rowing club in
the Osaka area. I chose this picture because
rowing is my sport, and finding it in Japan wasa huge deal for me! It was really exciting andgave me hope that I wouldn’t have to give up
the sport for however long I choose to spend
in the country in the future.

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Japanese Langauge Education Update 172014 JET-MIP Report: Angela Zhu2014 JET-MIP Report: Jayson Wood

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2014 JET-MIP Report: Joshua Warnick

2014 JET-MIP Report: Konou Xiong

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