Voluntary service II: "Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving."

The problem is that I never had the chance to leave.
Today I have officially canceled my enrollment in the FSJ-Programm, as I could not ignore the current developments any longer. Going to Tokyo for an whole year would have been risky and even though I am very sad about the outcome, I did the final phone call.

The result is, that I am now without any gap-year placement and the typical application time frame is already over. So my only remaining option is to enter university, do my bachlor and maybe do something diffrent afterwards, before enrolling in an master course.

Of course this is not what I planned, and I am not happy at all about the devellopment, but still all my thoughts are with the people of Japan, especially with the population of shaken Tohoku and also the Tokyo metropolitan area, knowing that an evacuation of up to 40 mio. people is not possible by any means.

Voluntary service I: explanation, application, first preparation

Hey y'all!

Yesterday I spoke of my occupation for the next year. Today I thoroughly want to explain, what that was all about:

I have been learning Japanese for three years already, and also got into a interesting programme last October, which brought me to Japan for two weeks. Over all this time and events I came to the decision to make a gap year over there.

In Germany (at least last until last year) every (male) one had to do military service, if they are not "incapable" for physical reasons. But of course many people are not willing to enter the military, so that they had the alternative to do kind of civil service. For that service you have also the possibility, to go to an foreign country, and that's just what I have chosen for myself (even though my because of some new policy I don't need to do something like this any more). The kind of service I chose is called FSJ (germ. Freiwilliges Soziales Jahr - voluntary social year) - I might use that abbreviation in the future.

 So I found this organisation called IJGD which offers in cooperation with   "Deutsch-Japanisches Friedensforum Berlin" (German-Japanese peace forum Berlin) such an international voluntary service in Japan. As their condition fit into my possibilities, I wrote an application in January and was accepted for an interview on the 12th February.

The Interview was was part of a so called "application day" which consisted of an presentation of IJGD and the voluntary service programme of them, followed by single interviews and language test (as Japanese abilities were an necessary requirement for the programme). There were 25 applicants, and therefore we had plenty of time to talk to each other. They also featured some Turkish/Persian cuisine, thus the local speciality (the interview site was located in Berlin Kreuzberg)

While my language test was a piece of cake, my interview had some nasty points in it, or better said: I gave some answers to questions, which I regretted afterwards for being unwise for an job interview.
Because of that fact, I was perfectly unsure whether or not I would get the programme place. There were striking arguments (the breeze-like language talk) on the one hand, and seemingly disqualifying ones on the other hand.  But I very badly wanted (and want) to do that gap year, and so I got more depressed with every single day without an confirmation.

But like I told you 2 days ago: I got the very confirmation on the 1st March. You cannot imagine how I felt and reacted. Ok, you can easily: It stared with an load outcry of happiness and good feeling for the whole evening (I just had to complete the day with a glass of whine)

I am allowed to work at the "Happiness Adachi" retirement home in Adachi-Ku, Tokyo. The next step is, that I have to apply at my future workplace to introduce my self in English or Japanese. I'm struggling to do that in Japanese, which is not so easy but I try hard.