Thanks to everyone for your responses! They're really helpful, and I appreciate the new information to chew on. (Though note to KalAl: my overall GPA was a 2.99, but my GPA in my major-history-was a 3.6. The humanities just didn't quite outbalance the abysmal math and science grades.)

If anyone is interested in Japanese learning, I have been messing around with some online tools that are really great: 1) www.iknow.co.jp (also great for studying GRE vocab), 2) www.japanesepod101.com. The Japanese Podcast is a little like what you were talking about, InCog... it's a great tool, I highly recommend it. What I'm running into is something they warned about at the Orientation... that if you're an intermediate learner, you'll eventually run into a wall, a plateau phase of your learning. I hit it a few months into my time here, and I'm still hoping to overcome it, though I'm running out of ideas.

Also, I'll say that though I've been lonely and miserable, I don't regret this year... The small nuances of culture and isolated living make for some interesting stories and things to reflect on. I'm happy to have had this experience. (If ya like that Starbucks reference, just wait til I tell you where the nearest store with sour cream is!) I'm just trying to decide if a 2nd year is really going to yield that much benefit, with all these other things stacked against it.

And for the record, the only requirements for joining the program are a bachelor's degree, and (hopefully) a desire to work with children, though I know enough JETs that come here just to prolong getting into the real world and have no wish to actually teach. It's been remarked on before that it seems the best way to survive in this job is not to give a f*ck about it, and to drink a lot.