June 2025: Anne Hooghart
Hello, and welcome back to the JET Alumni Spotlight! Today we feature Anne Hooghart. Please read on to learn more about her time on staff trip to an onsen in Wakayama, and her valuable advice for future JETs.
Are you from the Great Lakes area? What is your experience in the Great Lakes Area?
Yes, I was born and raised in Michigan. I have worked in Adrian, Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, Flint, Detroit, Lansing, and Novi. I am currently based in Ypsilanti, MI, where I teach Japanese online and help support my favorite NPO, Hinoki Foundation, promoting Japanese-English bilingualism among preK-12 students.
Which do you prefer: the mountains or the sea?
Mountains! I miss seeing them when I come back from Japan to southeast Michigan. When I told this to a Japanese friend, she said, “Why don’t you just take home one of our mountains? We have plenty!”
What is the biggest difference you see between Japanese and American culture? What do you believe these two cultures could learn from each other?
Perhaps the most obvious difference is the tendency toward more group-orientation in Japanese culture and more individual-orientation in American culture. Through interaction and exchange, the two cultures could perhaps learn to strike a better balance between the skills of self-assertion, initiative, and quick response in times of crisis with the habits of concern for the greater good, public humility, and excellent customer service.
How did you become interested in applying for the JET program?
After earning a B.A. in Asian Studies, including 3 years of Japanese language, I wanted the chance to return to Japan (where I had been a summer exchange student during high school), and continue to strengthen my Japanese language and cultural skills. When I saw a poster on a wall at the University of Michigan, I decided to apply.
Were you an ALT, a CIR, or an SEA on the JET Program? How long were you on the program, and where was your placement?
ALT in Nagahama, Shiga, from 1989-90. (Just 1 year! What was I thinking?!?)
Would you please tell us more about your placement? For ALTs, what were your schools like? For CIRs and SEAs, what sort of work were you involved in?
I was a city-based ALT and taught in all 4 junior high schools in town. This gave me valuable exposure to students who came from white-collar families and were mostly headed for college to the less academic-focused children of farmers and blue-collar workers who could not see much use for English proficiency.
What is a memory you have from your time on JET that sticks out to you?
I will never forget the school staff trip to an onsen in Wakayama, just a week or two after I arrived at my placement. I had no money, and my first payday was weeks away. So I ended up borrowing the ￥30,000 fee from my assistant principal, and had an amazing time with my colleagues, experiencing a Japanese tour bus, traditional ryokan inn, seaside hot springs, and of course, enkai feasting and drinking–learning *lots* of non-standard, local dialect.
What has your career path been since leaving the JET Program? How has JET influenced your journey?
When I joined the JET Program, I expected to go into international business. I never expected to enter the business of teaching, find that I seem to be suited to it and truly enjoy it! I learned *so* much for my main co-teacher/JTE, who was a truly gifted educator, and to this day, I remain grateful to her and still use what she taught me. I am also active in the Michigan-Shiga sister-state exchange programs of which I was completely unaware when I first went to Shiga on JET.
I remain friends with many people in Shiga, and with former JETs in the USA, Canada, and even Australia, whom I met while on JET.
Do you have any advice or other support that you can give to current / future JET applicants? How about your fellow alumni?
To everyone, my advice is usually some version of “Follow your ikigai.” Find out what you love to do, what you would do whether or not you got paid for it, and pursue that, for as long as you enjoy it – and do it well!
Where can we reach you for networking?
I welcome networking contacts at and/or my LinkedIn site: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-m-hooghart-phd/.
Please do reach out if you have any questions for our alumni. Thank you, Anne, for sharing your own story.
Alumni Spotlight is an outreach activity through the Great Lakes JET Alumni Association seeking to build stronger connections between alumni and to provide bridges for networking. If you or an alumnus you know would like to be featured in an installment of Alumni Spotlight, please email us at .