Pre-Departure: First Video Log

Hey guys! Just leaving a post with my first video log which has gone up. Few things to say about the video which is all explained in the video description as well. Firstly apologies for the low quality, I messed up the render profile and it turned out to be only 480p. All future videos SHOULD be 720p HD as my camera is after all, filming in 1080p. 

In addition all the footage you see is taken during free time when we're not working. This was during the evenings only as during the day we were in seminars and lectures from around 9 until 5. In these sessions we were even a crash course in teaching, an overview of children's rights and also safety information for going abroad as well as helpful survival information. This trip to Coll was by no means an easy one where we could goof off all the time so if you're a volunteer about to go on Training, be warned! Get a good nights sleep because oh boy you'll need it! Enjoy the video!

Pre-Departure: Introductions

Introductions

Welcome to my first blog entry for my year abroad with Project Trust. This post will just quickly explain what this entire blog is about. 

I have been selected to go abroad with Project Trust, a registered educational charity, to Japan in 2014 and 2015. While there I will be volunteering with the board of education in Toya, Hokkaido. This means that I will be working as an assistant language teacher with various schools but also helping out in the local community. I will be staying in Japan for 12 months and during that time I will be keeping this daily blog as well as a weekly video channel on YouTube. 

As for myself, I come from a large town just outside Manchester in the North West of England. I am 18 years old and I study BTEC ICT, Japanese, English language & literature and Film Studies. In the future I hope to attend Roehampton University and become a primary teacher. I love teaching and thankfully I've had the pleasure to work in schools and after school clubs for a combined time of 9 months. In addition my hobbies are Kayaking and Archery, both of which I hope to continue while in Japan. A long side this I like to create short films and write screenplays but I doubt I will have the time to undertake any projects such as that. Finally I have a massive massive interest in Japanese culture, especially media culture such as Anime, Music and Manga. This means you will most likely see many anime references in my writing or posts dedicated to such. Currently my favorite anime has to be 'No Game No Life'  

I will depart for Japan on the 5th of September 2014. There are 7 other volunteers going with me and we will then split into pairs at different projects spread all over Japan. We will all be doing English teaching work which doesn't seem very charitable but it is important to remember that Japan has some of the worst English speaking grades in the world. Their culture is quite isolated as well to the point where the government is desperate to bring in westerners to share their culture and teach English.

As I said before, I will be updating this blog daily once I am in Japan. For now posts will be made sparingly and I promise, once I am writing these daily I will start talking a lot more casually as I attempt to speed write these as quickly as possible. If anyone wishes to get in contact with me then feel free to use any of the messaging services on my blog or post a comment to an article and I will do my best to get back to you. Feel free to ask me questions about my work or Project Trust. However it is important to note that this blog contains material which is purely my personal opinion only and not that of Project Trusts. 

Hope you'll read more!