Autumn Widdoes landed a pretty good posting when the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme placed her on a remote island in southern Okinawa in 2013 to work there as an English instructor at a school.
Part of the job means going out with coworkers to welcome parties at which they will try to get you to try new food. This posed a problem for Widdoes, as she has a severe gluten intolerance. She didn¡¯t have the ability to explain her condition in Japanese but, even if she did, the local staff assigned to help her get settled didn¡¯t really understand what ¡°gluten-free¡± even meant.
¡°I was often at teacher events where everyone was eating amazing dishes and I was sitting there with a plate of rice, a salad without dressing and nothing else,¡± she recalls.
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