JET: Groups?

[Anathema]

I have a quick question about JET.

I was thinking of applying in a year or two, but I also have a friend and his girlfriend who are looking to apply also. My question is whether we would be able to get placements realtively near to one another or would we simply be placed on an individual basis?

Cheers!

[YellowShell]

I have a quick question about JET.

I was thinking of applying in a year or two, but I also have a friend and his girlfriend who are looking to apply also. My question is whether we would be able to get placements realtively near to one another or would we simply be placed on an individual basis?

Cheers!

If everyone is accepted, they will try to place you together but there is no guarantee.

[JusenkyoGuide]

Forget it. Unless your friends are married, CLAIR won't make any effort to put them near each other, let alone a friend.

CLAIR is annoying that way.

[Pierrot le Fou]

If one of them gets in, and the other doesn't, CLAIR can arrange for them to come to Japan and live with their partner, although they won't provide a job or a plane ticket or anything. I think it's more for Visa help or somesuch (though I'm not positive about that, I just know that I have JET friends who are living with their girlfriends despite not being married).

Chances are you won't be placed near each other unless you can somehow finagle all getting the same placement, which would require you to pick the most unpopular town with 3 ALT spots open. Good luck with THAT. And even that isn't guaranteed to work.

[kitsunepixie]

Your chances may be better if the town that you and your friends are from have a sister city in Japan that just so happens to need ALTs...almost all my ALT friends are from Hawaii and went to the same university, though they didn't exactly mean to come to the same place. It just worked out that way because the city I live in is sisters with a city in Hawaii.

[Pierrot le Fou]

Yeah, sister city trumps all. I am also in my town's sister city here. I never knew it was the sister city of this place though 'til I got here.

Those from Boston would be placed in Kyoto city via this system. Lucky bastards.

[satoharu]

Yeah, sister city trumps all. I am also in my town's sister city here. I never knew it was the sister city of this place though 'til I got here.

Those from Boston would be placed in Kyoto city via this system. Lucky bastards.
I was thinking that as I was reading this thread, as I'm from Boston. But then again, they just might not want me or be full in Kyoto. Whatever. That's still not coming for ages yet for me though, so things could be totally different by the time I end up trying JET, if I still even want to at that point.

I still always thought it was cool to have Kyoto be my sister city though.

[Pierrot le Fou]

Unless you're doing CIR (for which there are fewer positions open generally), you will likely get a placement in Kyoto (city or prefecture). It seems that there are a disproportionate amount of Massachusetts residents in Kyoto. Those who didn't get placed in Kyoto that I know of were CIRs, and got placed in prefectures next to Kyoto instead.

[MNJetter]

Forget it. Unless your friends are married, CLAIR won't make any effort to put them near each other, let alone a friend.

I know a couple in my prefecture, both JETs, who were placed in the same city. It is possible.

It's more likely if, like my friends, you all request a city that's large enough to have many ALTs (and therefore nearly always has openings) and yet small enough to not be requested very often. Like Aomori City.

[羽之助]

Or anywhere in Iwate. Just request some extremely low-populated prefecture and hopefully you'll be placed in it together.

[Anathema]

Thanks for the replies :)

I looked for sister cities for Portsmouth, UK (my home city) and the result was encouraging: we have "sister links" with Maizuru, Kyoto.

http://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/yourcouncil/5907.html

Maizuru isn't one of our twinned cities however, those are Caen in France and Duisberg in Germany.

Well, more research later. I'm off to my language class now :hat:

[koku]

I know a couple in my prefecture, both JETs, who were placed in the same city. It is possible.

It's more likely if, like my friends, you all request a city that's large enough to have many ALTs (and therefore nearly always has openings) and yet small enough to not be requested very often. Like Aomori City.


Are you in Akita? MN's sister city (well, St. Paul really) sucks :(

What is it, a 4 hour ride to the city? Maybe 2 hours on the fast expensive train?

[Rogue_7]

Denver's sister city is Takayama. Which I hear is really pretty and stuff, but not exactly a center of night life. More like a center of tourists!