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Read more about the article Unbeaten Paths: Nanyo Summer 2022 – New Faces in the Inaka
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Unbeaten Paths: Nanyo Summer 2022 – New Faces in the Inaka

Edited by Jordan Rocke

G’day everyone! Finally, here’s our beloved small town newcomers in the Inaka heart of Ehime, Nanyo! This isn’t just the final Unbeaten Paths for this year, but assuming there is no surprise flood of Ehime JETs between now and April 2023, this will be the last Unbeaten Paths that I (Jordan) will be running. This is the 12th entry in the series, and I’m so incredibly blown away each year by how many people are willing to take the time to write up an introduction to put out into the world, saying hello to the other JETs in Ehime. What started 3 years ago as a simple project to allow JETs from smaller participating countries to talk about how they became interested in JET without the networks that US, American and Canadian JETs have has turned into a project that occupies a spot on my calendar every year (or several spots, thanks to the odd arrival patterns COVID forced on us). During COVID, where events are often difficult to justify, it has been a wonderful way for me, and hopefully others, to learn a little about the other JETs who aren’t that far away.

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Read more about the article Unbeaten Paths: Chuyo 2022 – New and Newer Faces
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Unbeaten Paths: Chuyo 2022 – New and Newer Faces

Edited by Jordan Rocke

G’day everyone! Took a bit longer to put together than I was expecting, but here’s the new cohort of the Chuyo JETs for summer 2022! For anyone who missed the deadline but wants to be included, please let me know and I’ll add you in!

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Read more about the article Unbeaten Paths: Toyo 2022 – The New Faces
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Unbeaten Paths: Toyo 2022 – The New Faces

Edited by Jordan Rocke

Welcome to the after-summer 2022 Unbeaten Paths! For those who are new to the premise, this is a set of introductions, divided by region, of the new JETs in our community! There’s no obligation to write an introduction, so this isn’t an exhaustive list of all the new folks, but I’m always really glad of how many people do take the time out of their day to put an introduction together. If you are a new JET who missed out and would like to be included , please reach out at themikanblog@gmail.com and I can add you in!

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Read more about the article Backtrack #21: Just A Lot of Heartful People (Ingrid Lezar, Uchiko ALT 2008-2011)
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Backtrack #21: Just A Lot of Heartful People (Ingrid Lezar, Uchiko ALT 2008-2011)

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What’s your name, when and where was your placement, and where are you from originally?

I’m Ingrid Lezar (née Strasheim), originally from Stellenbosch, South Africa. My placement was in Uchiko from 2008 to 2011. 

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Read more about the article Two Whole Days of Near Non-Stop Rugby: The Tokushima AJET Touch Rugby Tournament
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Two Whole Days of Near Non-Stop Rugby: The Tokushima AJET Touch Rugby Tournament

By Jonty Cook

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Every year – barring the Covid Era – the Shikoku University hosts a touch rugby tournament over a summer weekend for all to participate in. This year, we managed to scrounge up an Ehime team of 5 people to play, with another joining along as our support, photographer, and sideline coach. Not quite the team of a required six on the field, but we were ready to accept our role as the scrappy underdogs, underestimated by everyone and determined to shock and awe. We were the Ehime Goonies.

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Read more about the article Listen to the Japanese School Band
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Listen to the Japanese School Band

By Patrick Peh

A Door Opens

Beyond this door, you will find young aspiring musicians of Uchimiya Junior High School  preparing for their big day tomorrow. Tomorrow is August 2nd, which is the second day of the JHS division for the 70th All Japan Band Competition in Ehime. This band of 30 odd members will perform under category A in the competition. This article hopes to be a refreshing post as I only talk about Japanese bands in schools, which is different from The Sea, The Iwa & The Classroom where I would write about things around the neighborhood.

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Read more about the article Unbeaten Paths: Nanyo 2022 – Latecomers and Second Chances
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Unbeaten Paths: Nanyo 2022 – Latecomers and Second Chances

Edited by Jordan Rocke

G’day everyone! Here’s part 2 of the roundup of 2020/21 JETs who haven’t had a chance to introduce themselves previously. If you’re looking for the Chuyo and Toyo folks, you can find them here!

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Read more about the article Unbeaten Paths: Toyo & Chuyo 2022 – Latecomers and Second Chances
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Unbeaten Paths: Toyo & Chuyo 2022 – Latecomers and Second Chances

Edited by Jordan Rocke

G’day everyone! Once again we are gathering up introductions from new Ehime JETs. This pair of articles is going to be a collection of odds and ends. We’ll have bios from some folks who have arrived in the past few months, delayed due to a series of pandemic and/or military based inconveniences, as well as a few folks who for one reason or another weren’t able to get an intro in closer to when they arrived. My goal is to have these articles be the last entries for the 2020/2021 arrival group, so we can smoothly move on to focusing on the 2022 arrivals later this year!

We didn’t quite have enough entries for Toyo and Chuyo to justify separate articles, but I hope to have Nanyo out within a fortnight of this article! If you are a new JET and would like to be included in one of these Unbeaten Paths, please get in touch at themikanblog@gmail.com.

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Read more about the article To Clean the Mirror: Why I Love Yokai
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To Clean the Mirror: Why I Love Yokai

By Andrew Pappas

Monsters have always fascinated me. I used to be really afraid of them when I was a kid. My aunt and cousins like to retell the story about the time a witch mannequin at a shopping mall scared the heck out of me, so much that I refused to take another step and my mom had to take me back to the car. I was then again struck with terror that same day by a werewolf mannequin in a bowling alley till my uncle brought me over to it and pulled off the mask to reveal a cardboard cut-out of Elvira, the famous cult horror movie show hostess, and I saw there was nothing to be afraid of.

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Continue ReadingTo Clean the Mirror: Why I Love Yokai