Paul and Joy at hanami at Wakayama Castle.
Two JET alumni (Wakayama 09-12), Paul Champaloux and Joy Young, have entered their JET love story in a Facebook contest. They are asking the JET community for help to reach their goal of 1,000 votes by April 10th. JETwit realizes their story is one of many, so we’d like to take this chance to support them in their endeavor and hear from other JET couples about their own stories!
HELP VOTE for Paul and Joy’s story, then SHARE your own JET love story in the comments below!
1. Vote here: A JET Love Story
2. “Like” the Ko’olau Ballroom Facebook page (top right) to see the story.
3. VOTE for “Serendipity in Japan” by clicking the black ‘VOTE’ button. One vote per person.
“Expect the unexpected.” As I prepared to leave for Japan, that phrase kept popping up whenever I asked for advice on the JET experience. “Sure,” I thought, “the food will be different. The culture and language too, but I did my research and I’m ready for anything!” Well, almost anything. Little did I know that I would sit in front of my future fiancée on Day One of Tokyo Orientation!
Tokyo Orientation 2009, Group B JETs
The pair of us certainly make a unique couple: I’m from the East Coast with French and Spanish roots and never expected to meet someone as beautiful and cute as Joy from Hawaii. By some extreme luck (or was it destiny?), we ended up both being placed in the same prefecture: Wakayama, whose JET inhabitants affectionately called the “LOVE ken” thanks to a fairly catchy song “WAKAYAMA LOVE SONG.” Ironic, right?
No experience bonded us more than the JET experience did. Wakayama is very inaka and with each JET located far apart, everyone would try to stay connected in other ways typically through Facebook and Skype. As soon as we connected to the internet, most of us immediately “friended” all the ALTs around us, Joy and I being no exception. I still recall our extensive Facebook messages sharing everything from favorite Japanese pastries to great local places to try out (note: we like food). Even when a huge typhoon struck two months into our first year, I still remember Skyping Joy well into the night while we huddled under our respective kotatsus and the buildings groaned under the shrieking wind outside.
At Kishi with Station Master Tama the cat
Those types of unique experiences really solidified not only the relationship between Joy and I, but our friendship with other JETs as well. While the exact situations each JET has lived through are different, there still exists an underlying ability to relate to one another. When Joy and I eventually returned to the U.S., we, like many others, felt lost and struck by culture shock. We reached out to our networks and quickly realized the value of the JET alumni in Washington, D.C. for they not only understood our situation, but they also could offer professional advice and priceless friendship.
Our wedding day would not be complete without our JET friends who will be invited to this joyous celebration and also moments that defined our JET experience. Ours is not only a personal love story, it’s a JET love story too.
5 comments so far...
If the above link for voting (http://tiny.cc/ajetlovestory) doesn’t work and you’re getting a “403 Forbidden” message, try copying and pasting the link instead! If it still doesn’t work, let us know :)
Awww, what a charming and sweet story! Just goes to show that love can show up at anytime, anywhere, and when you least expect it :) And how awesome is it that the JET experience not only gave you wonderful memories of Japan, but also gifted you with your other half.
I voted and am crossing my fingers for you guys to win the wedding contest!! <3
I voted and have my fingers crossed that you guys win!
Going with the theme of finding love on the JET Program, here’s my story:
I’ve always understood the value of studying, but I didn’t think my Japanese study sessions would lead me to meeting my future wife! While on the JET Program in Kumamoto Prefecture, I often went to my town’s Starbucks to study Japanese and prepare for the JLPT. There were several nice places to study in town (unlimited coffee at Mister Donut, anyone?), but after meeting Sachiko, a cute and friendly barrista at Starbucks, I ended up studying there several times a week. Through conversations about Japanese grammar, vocab, and random things, I got to know her better – I also had that extra motivation to go to “Sutaba” to study in the hopes that Sachiko was working! We eventually starting dating and had a 3 year long-distance relationship after I finished JET and returned to the United States. About a year ago I went back to her hometown and proposed to her while we were at a cafe in Mt. Aso. We’re now happily married and living in Washington, DC, still enjoying our chats over a cup of coffee.
By the way, Jodie, I just clicked the link you posted and got the same error message. I was able to fix that by adding a “www” to the front of the link.
Good luck with the contest Joy and Paul! I really hope you end up winning! I cast my vote in for you guys as well :-).
I also meeting my wife while on JET, so I thought I would share my story:
When I became a JET, I knew that I would get to experience many new things. However, I never thought that I would end up meeting my future wife there and certainly not at school. Considering the fact that I had serious qualms about re-contracting for a 4th year and that I ended up meeting her then, I like to think that it was fate which brought us together, although even at the time that I met her, I still could never have imagined how much of an important part of my life she would become.
Throughout my 4 years on JET, I went to 12 middle schools in 2 different cities and Yui’s school was one of the last ones I taught at. When I first met her, she had a lot of spunk and was very passionate about teaching and about her duties as a home room teacher. Having been to many schools, I always looked forward to working with energetic teachers and students. It was probably this positive energy and mutual interest for teaching which turned our work relationship into a close friendship and later evolved into a little more than that.
Since then, we’ve gone through a 2 year long-distance relationship while I was doing my grad studies back in the US, traveled a little bit around the globe together, run marathon races and settled down in Washington DC where we continue to get involved in many Japan-related organizations with the same passion which brought us together.