The best Saga!

A mini heatwave hit the UK while placements began to be released. While I was at work, my phone suddenly erupted into vibration. It was exciting at first to see everyone announcing their placements. People were both happy or sad depending on the result. After all, these placements could make or break someone's next chapter in Japan. I saw some people withdraw within the first day.

I took a lunch break, convinced that my turn would be next. I have never eagerly checked my emails as much as I did while waiting for placement. My spam folder was the cleanest it had ever been. I couldn’t focus on work, but at 5 pm, silence fell. The Embassy closed for the day and no placement. Feeling disheartened, people convinced me that tomorrow would be my day! The next day Edinburgh placements dropped. Once more, my phone erupted with vibrations.

I highly recommend joining your country's Discord server as a helpful tip. I found mine late, but it was a blessing. I was surrounded by people going through the same emotions and worries. There were current UK JETS in Japan happy to answer any questions. It is a blessing until you and 5 others are the only ones waiting on placements that is…

Most placements drop on the same day. It is a handful of cases where our friend ESID kicks in. And this is where my first ESID encounter occurred. By the end of that week, 5 of us were still placement-less. We formed a separate discord chat as everyone else was excitedly sharing placements and communication with BOES/COs started to occur.

The separate chat spared me from feeling too frantic, I made some good friends united by the trauma of waiting. But it was tough. I kept wondering if no one wanted to take me. Or maybe an issue had cropped up. It is to be noted that there have been many cases of delayed placements. It was just unfortunate we had two bank holidays in a row to wait out.

I think it was a good week later when one person received a placement. It was a private school. So we started theorising maybe we would be the same. Was it just paperwork being slow or a prefecture being slow? But the next bank holiday hit. I still use my placement-less group as a chat among friends even now.

Two weeks went by. It was a Monday, I was due to head to work around midday. The furry beast had been fed, peace had fallen. The heatwave had started to fade and was replaced by the usual overcast drizzle that the UK is known for.

Half asleep I tapped my phone screen … my heart stopped. During those two weeks, anyone emailing my Gmail caused my heart to stop. But this time it was different.

I opened mail expecting it to be another email from Linked In or the usual torrent of spam. But this was it…

My placement arrived! Opening that email… I saw the words… Saga Prefecture.