Posted by: Margie Banin (Kochi-ken, 2005–2007), a former CIR with a love of the written word. Currently she connects others to Japan through translating, writing, and editing texts on Japan. Margie also manages the JETwit Bluesky account, serves as the JETwit Volunteer Coordinator and a JETwit jobs-list welcomer, and engages in various other JETwit outreach activities.
A number of books over the years have been written about the JET (and non-JET) teaching experience in Japan. JET alum Marshall Hughes (Tochigi-ken, 1990–1991; Ibaraki-ken, 1992–1995) has recently added to this genre with Rural Reflections: What 11 Years in Provincial Japan Taught Me. After his four-year JET experience, Hughes taught from 1996 to 2001 in Mitsukaido-shi, Ibaraki-ken, and for 25 years in Japan overall before retiring to Chiba in 2024.
Hughes’ book differs from others in that his book spans eleven years in four cities. He writes familiar stories of the typical ups and downs that all JETs had, but also gets personal with stories of student tragedies and other less-than-glamorous aspects of the JET, and Japan, life. Overall, the book takes a real look at sometimes hard-to-believe experiences with humor and interesting cultural/historical points tossed in.
Hughes says that when he became a JET in the early 1990s, foreigners in his area were “something to gawk at, follow around town on bicycles, and at times to consider less than human.” Still, his love for Japan never faded. In 2013, he returned for a visit to his first city, Yaita-shi in Tochigi-ken, and as he was walking back to his car from the main school where he had taught, he started crying. “A flood of memories came back to me of just how pure-hearted the people were there. Before I went to Yaita, I didn’t know any place on earth where people had such pure hearts.”
For former JETS, especially those from the early years of the program or who lived in rural areas, the book is a nostalgic trip down memory lane.
Of Hughes’ book, author Evan Powell wrote, “In Rural Reflections, Hughes takes us with him on a journey into a rural Japanese culture with which most Americans are unfamiliar. Through his experiences as an English teacher in Japanese schools he encounters cultural differences that are at times charming, puzzling, and occasionally disturbing to typical American sensibilities. He provides us a unique window into a fascinating Japanese culture that we might not otherwise come to appreciate and experience. An utterly charming and engaging read!”
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