This is the first of a series of articles by faculty teaching at one of Temple’s international campuses. Brad Windhauser, Professor of Instruction in First-Year Writing & Gender, Sexuality, &Women’s Studies, describes the months leading up to his semester-long appointment at TUJ in Tokyo.

___________________

Like many professors, I receive a lot of email. Most of these are student-related, though a handful come from TAUP or CLA. Some come from vendors wanting to know which books I use for my courses, and couldn’t they come talk to me about maybe making changes? When I happened upon an email about an offer to teach in Japan, I was both intrigued and cautious—this was from Temple, right?

Oh yeah, we do have a campus there. Hmm. TUJ was looking to bring a little main campus culture to their growing student body by inviting up to four professors to teach there—for either a semester or a full year. There were a number of pertinent details in that November email, including the application process and a timeline. I only had a month to prepare.

What would a semester teaching abroad be like? My husband and I do a bit of traveling (which you can do when you’re middle-aged, gay, and opt against having kids), and we had been to Japan for a couple weeks in 2018. I had a sense of what Tokyo was like—at least from a tourist’s perspective. 

On that trip, we took in the majestic temples, shrines, and large parks with amazing landscaping, as well as the array of wonderful Japanese cuisine, from Sushi to hot pot to Tonkatsu (for me), and everything else (for my husband, who eats everything). Getting from point A to point B is incredibly efficient on their subway and high-speed lines (though can be confusing when changing lines, as most have different owners and different ticketing). We took breaks from sight-seeing at various cat, hedgehog, otter, and dog cafés. It was brilliant. And there’s seemingly no end to the lovely woodblock prints and carefully crafted souvenirs one can buy. 

But how much of that falls away when one lives in a place?

I moved on to more email and let the idea simmer. Seemed like a large, rather involved undertaking, but maybe applying would be fun. A few days later, I re-read the email, then I explored TUJ in more depth—I knew little about the campus. I was curious what I could bring to these students—and were they all study abroad students or were some United States residents? Classes were taught in English, right? I don’t speak Japanese, so they would have to be.

The class selections looked interesting, though for a relatively small campus (under 3000 students) it only offers so much. My teaching/instructional contract is split between English/First Year Writing and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. I check a lot of academic boxes, but would this campus care about those boxes, especially since my research foci tend not to involve much Japanese content? 

As it turns out, TUJ offers several sections of English 802, a course I’ve been teaching at Temple for 20 years. Check. They did not offer any queer studies courses, however, which is my primary area of expertise of GSWS—maybe they would want to. Maybe study abroad students might crave this content. I started thinking that I might be a good fit for this opportunity. I also wondered whether my status as an NTT would lower my chances. But I do play the lottery for kicks occasionally, so why not take the chance? 

It started to feel like a romantic notion: living abroad for a few months, being able to explore Japan more than before, make a few out of the country trips, to China or Taiwan, and get experience teaching in another country. I crafted my letter, developed my thoughts on the courses I could offer, why they would be good for TUJ, then played up my love for Japanese culture, including art (Hokusai and Hiroshige, for example), film (Kurosawa and Studio Ghibli), and fascination with Samurai culture from history. When I hit send, I didn’t really think about the realities of what this would do to my life.

A week or so later, a funny feeling struck me as I knew materials from the candidates were being evaluated: I might get this. The more I thought about it, the idea of bringing main campus culture to TUJ, was a good fit for me, especially since I teach a core Gen Ed in English 802 and have been part of the campus culture in Philadelphia for two decades.

Now my husband and I had to have a more in-depth chat about what this would look like for us? It was all theoretical, because it felt like a dream rather than something that might happen. He was supportive—although he couldn’t come for the whole time, he would come multiple times to visit. That was crucial, but did I really want to be away from him and our two French Bulldogs for four months? Did I really want to do this? 

Sure, the thought of being in Japan for an extended time sounded awesome, but would I get bored there, once the shine of it wore off after a few weeks (if indeed it would)? Wasn’t Japan expensive? Yes, housing was taken care of by TUJ, but what about meals? What would it be like shopping for groceries there? What if I needed to go to the doctor? What about my medicine—I have Crohn’s disease, so my medicine is a hassle to get in the States—what would that be like abroad? On a day-to-day basis, what would my life be like? Would I also find the time to be a tourist? And perhaps most importantly, what about being gay in a foreign culture like Japan?Until I found out, these were not things I had to really worry about.

Right before the New Year, I got the email: “TUJ would love to have you for the Fall semester.” 

Now the work truly began. I had to address all the lingering issues of making this happen. First, I needed to tailor my courses for TUJ students. I’d be teaching two sections of English 802, which meant aligning my essay prompts with TUJ standards—they are not much different from Main campus. For my Queer Lives course, this meant doing research on queer sexuality in Japan, in which I did have some background, and adding in readings about Japan for the eras I cover. The process was fun and altered my approaches to these two courses. 

I also had to jump through a number of hoops, including securing my work visa. TUJ helped me, but I still needed to work with the Japanese consulate in New York, as well as with the Japanese government to secure permission to bring my meds into the country. They are strict about what crosses into the country, requiring formal medical documentation to receive their seal of approval. It’s stressful, knowing that they could conceivably say no, though will likely say yes, to medication you need to keep your disease in check. 

Once receiving my housing assignment in June, I knew I would want to peruse the area around my new apartment, with the help of an online map, as well as see what’s around TUJ—what restaurants might I try? Where would I buy groceries? How close was I to the train station? How easy would it be getting from the airport with multiple bags upon arrival? I would also need a feel for the language: I tried a few apps before settling on Lingo Deer, which walked me through a daily lesson on content most suited to beginners.

Now I just needed to figure out how to pack for four months.