Welcome to the third megathread for JET participants to vent the excitement of their next adventure!

There is a 300 comment limit before reddit starts to hide comments, and the mod team will do their best to open up a new thread as this happens. Please be patient while we craft and sticky the newest thread.

Please read the additional threads here:

The 2019 Placement Megathread - The First Avenger

The 2019 Placement Megathread Part 2 - Age of Ultron

RULES

Keep all placements / placement-related things in this thread. All other threads will be removed. This includes asking for more specific information about your prefecture/city/school, when you will find out more specific information, so on. If you made a new post and it was deleted, try again by commenting here!

We understand you may: want to commiserate about not getting your Top 3; be confused about having no idea where your placement is; or rejoice in having gotten your first pick. Please keep griefing to a minimum, and focus on the positives. This is a good chance to search through this megathread and find others in a similar boat.

We highly recommend you join your local AJET chapter's Facebook page. These people are going to be your neighbors and your support over the next year or longer. Go make some friends and get the local information that Google can't provide. Here is the Master list of JET Facebook Groups which should be your primary source of local information (Current JETs, please let me know if there are new groups that need to be added).

GENERAL PLACEMENT FAQ

Where/What/HUH? exactly is my placement??

Japanese has a bunch of suffixes that they add to the end of names to tell you what they mean. In the case of placements that have ~ken, ~ken (eg. Hokkaidoken, Hokkaidoken), it means that you are a JET who will be employed by the Prefecture(likely High School). This means that your final placement likely hasn't been decided yet but you know the Prefecture that you will be going to.

Here is a list of most of the suffixes you might run into and what they SHOULD mean (sometimes they use historic suffixes for places).

Population must generally be over 50,000 to be named a city, but a city does not lose “city” status if the population drops below 50k. This should not be used as an indicator of relative "inaka-ness"

My placement has the school name in it. Why is this different?

Usually when you get a placement with a school name in it, it means that your contract will be with a private school. The majority of private school placements are in Tokyo, but there are going to be some outside of Tokyo. However, it is possible to have a private school placement without the school name being given to you immediately.

I don't like my placement. Can I change it?

Unfortunately, the nature of the programme doesn't allow for people to change placements once they have been assigned. If your placement is a deal breaker, the only way to change it is to back out of the programme and face the consequences. This means you cannot apply next year, and for UK JETs it means being blacklisted from the programme. There is consideration for extenuating circumstances if you do back out due to something that may be out of your control, please contact your consulate.

Transfers are typically only granted if you require special medical care, are getting married, or wish to continue on JET although your current placement is being eliminated. Transfer paperwork begins in November for July/August transfers. On the whole, transfers are exceedingly rare; there have been cases of married couples being denied a transfer because it ultimately is up to the contracting organizations to approve.

I wanted a city placement and I got a rural placement/tiny island 10 hours from anyone else placement. Should I still go?

In the wise words of Life After the BOE

My consulate has already sent out the placements and I haven't seen anything yet. What gives?

It can take time before you’re actually placed, so please be patient. You might get a message next week, you might not know for another 2 months. Contact your consulate and please be courteous with them; they are trying very hard to get all of their ducks in a row, too. The waiting is hard, but it’ll come soon enough!

What should I do now that I know my placement?

Master your Google Fu skills. Check out Wikipedia and relevant Facebook groups, try to get familiar with where you’re off to. Don’t forget to eat all the food and see all the friends/family in the meantime!

Can I contact my predecessor?

Some positions have rules as to when the pred can officially contact their successor. Trust, everyone is eager to get in touch with everyone else, but also be respectful of the red tape. Maybe you’ll be in touch with “someone” from your prefecture/city with unofficial advice before you get the bonafide email. But ESID, right?