JET Connection / From JET to part-time guide
Midori Matsuzawa Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
This is the fourth installment in a series that profiles some former participants in the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme who have maintained their connections with Japan.
Sometimes Joel Dechant leaves his home with a completely different job description in mind. Most of the time he's a staff member at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU) here. But on some days, the 28-year-old American takes on the role of tour guide around one of Beppu's renowned hot spring resorts.
Dechant was working as an English-speaking tour guide one Sunday last month, tutoring a group of about 40 Japanese and foreigners from Beppu and neighboring areas on the finer points of the Kannawa district in Beppu, one of eight hot spring resorts in the city. It was his fifth English-language tour.
The highlight of the 2-1/2-hour long tour came when he invited the participants to look at scenery he described as "the heart of Kannawa"--narrow roads that thread their way through closely packed houses, amid clouds of hot spring steam emanating from tanks and pipes that draw up and deliver hot spring water to the buildings. Dechant calls the spot his "favorite part of the tour."
"There're many hot spring areas in Japan, but I think maybe Kannawa is the only one where you'll see hot spring tanks and hot spring steam so close to the houses," the guide said to the participants, some of whom were foreigners working or studying at APU, which is known for its large percentage of overseas students. "As you can see, there's laundry hanging out here today. This just goes to prove that hot springs are not just for a resort, but are a way of life in Kannawa. So this is really part of their everyday life."
Dechant led the tour as a member of a local nonprofit organization named Kannawa Yukemuri Kurabu (Kannawa Hot Spring Steam Club), which has been holding monthly walking tours since 2000. The organization's tours focus on the historical and cultural aspects of the area by visiting, for example, monuments inscribed with hot spring-related haiku and places related to a monk said to have established Kannawa as a hot spring destination. Participants also can get a chance to taste a local specialty--food cooked using hot spring steam.
"I realized that there's a lot [about Kannawa] I didn't know," said Yumiko Eto, 42, a first-time participant from Oita. "I want to create a Web site to introduce Oita Prefecture in English. So this is a good chance for me to find out more about my hometown while at the same time listening to the language."
Dechant held his first English-language guided tour in November 2005. He thought there was a need for such a tour not just for tourists but also for exchange students at APU.
"I think a guided tour is also a chance for them to learn more about Beppu," Dechant said, explaining that he wanted foreign students to get more from their encounter with Japan. "They're only here for four years, so I would like them to also find something interesting in Beppu [and] Kannawa."
For the Pennsylvania native, his own encounter with Japan came quite by chance. When he went to university, Dechant wanted to take French, but found a French major was not on offer at the time. Therefore, he said, "I decided to try something different," and took Japanese instead. "That's the only reason I studied Japanese."
After graduation, Dechant worked at a language school in Osaka before moving to Makizonocho, Kagoshima Prefecture--a town of about 9,000 that is now part of a merged city named Kirishima. There, he became a coordinator for international relations (CIR) for three years starting in July 2001.
During the three years at Makizonocho, Dechant organized various events--among them a flea market that was first held in the summer of 2003 to make better use of the area around a local station. He added an international taste to the market by inviting other JETs in the area to join in and play music in celebration of the event's first anniversary.
The monthly flea market, still in operation today, got him interested in community development.
"The flea market got me more involved in the local community where I lived, and it brought out a lot of people to a common meeting place," Dechant recalled. "I think it was import!ant because it was something the community needed, but it just happened to be started by a foreigner. That is much more meaningful than any one-time event [I organized]."
Looking back on his years as a JET--an eventful time during which he got married to a local woman--Dechant says he finds it "interesting" that one of the program's goals is to promote internationalization of Japanese, when "it really ends up producing Japanese-speaking foreigners."
He also has advice for prospective JETs: "The program is not a career, so it is not for everyone. Participants should be aware of this before joining the program."
With his interest in community development growing, Dechant started a new life in Beppu. He was lucky to come across Kenichi Kai, 50, a local hotel owner who has also been promoting various community-development projects, such as Kannawa Yukemuri Kurabu.
After watching how Dechant helped regular tours, Kai agreed to give him training to become a guide in English.
"He wants to serve others in town," Kai said. "While keeping respect for others, he's willing to work together with them--I've found it wonderful that he has a kind of mindset that the Japanese used to have."
Dechant said he found becoming a guide "very rewarding" as it allows him to meet new people through the tours. At the same time, such events provide "an opportunity for people to mingle and meet other people," he pointed out, saying, "It's not just listening to me...You can taste Kannawa and meet all kinds of people."
Dechant revels in the possibilities of networking. "That's what I really enjoyed about being a CIR," he said.
Dechant and Kai are aiming at expanding the foreign-language tours. The two have been training some APU staff members and students so there will be more than one English-speaking guide. Two of them, both Americans, are scheduled to debut in May. They also want to have guides speaking languages other than English.
"There are eight hot spring areas in Beppu," Dechant said, "I want to see at least an English guided tour running in all of those areas."
(Apr. 19, 2007)