Here are a few gems, picked out from a meeting with the English teachers at the high school where I will be teaching. Ah, where to start… How about:
“The kids here don’t like English so much. They have a hard time paying attention in all of their subjects”
“I didn’t want to be an English teacher. It just sort of happened”
“We have problems with violent students at this school”
“You should be gentle with the students”
“The last TNET (Temporary Native English Teacher, basically the same as a JET ALT, except with generally more experience and less pay) was very strict, but we think she was a good teacher. We want you to be different. Last year, she started to cry in the middle of a lesson, and had to leave the classroom”
“The kids here have ended up in this school, not because they are interested in agriculture or gardening, but because they have nowhere else to go”
“The food at the school cafeteria is horrible. We never eat it. Don’t forget to bring a bento on Monday!
“There are many bad students at this school. Try to look at the faces of the students to find the good kids.”
I feel as if I am about to embark on a perilous adventure like a character in the movie “Battle Royale”, but I’m not worried. I’ll do my best, but I know that it’s going to be a challenge to reach through to these kids. Of course it would make me really happy if I could teach like the teachers in “Stand and Deliver”, “Dangerous Minds”, or “Renaissance Man”. I’m going to set my goals low to match my expectations, starting with “I will not let the students make me cry and then run out of class”. The hurdles are all lined up in front of me, and now it’s time to run full speed ahead. To be continued…

Taro and Megumi took me out to Digmeout Cafe in Osaka, where they were, up until yesterday, exhibiting up and coming artists in Japan. Its a pretty cool place to check out anyways, and the food they serve looks really cool. If you can get your hands on a copy, I highly recommend their books. Perhaps the GR store on Sawtelle stocks them. You can check out the artists and their works here.

Taking off at midnight, we arrived in time to soak in the rotemburo in Ecoland onsen and watch the sun rise.

So much powder, but it’s off limits! Sometimes rules are made to be broken. Riding on fresh powder doesn’t even feel like the same sport.

The lights at Miasa Onsen evoke the natural beauty of hemp.

Stinkbugs are funny. Some people start acting like cartoon characters when they come across one of these. In Japan, I always find the reactions of the students and teachers to insects trapped in the classroom, whether it be a huge butterfly, an angry bee, or a stinkbug, utterly amusing. Who would think that something so small and harmless could be so captivating and capable of such distractive powers?

These boots have been with me on many an adventure, traveling along to the various resorts I’ve visited over 10 years. Mika gave them to me, along with a badass Nitro 162 “lizard” longboard, as a birthday present in 1995 when I was a sophmore in high school.
At first, I had to wear two to three pairs of thick, woolen socks because they were a little too big for my then still-growing feet. Now they conform to my feet as if they were crafted from precisely crafted neoprene. They’ve been used so hard that the rubber is starting to separate from the aincent leather, and the heel backing has worn down to just a millimeter thick. Everytime I use the boots, the binding presses on a sensitive pressure point on my right foot, but it becomes less painful over time.
I had the pleasure to hang out and ride along with a cousin of a friend, who just so happened to be one of the top 10 boarders in Japan (a real kicked back guy named Takeshi), and he gave me some good pointers. As we were discussing the nuances of old and new equipment, he remarked that Kemper had gone bust and that he wanted a pair of boots like mine. The boots they have nowadays are much easier to rachet tight, take less time to get on and off, and are prettier. Despite this, there’s something special about durable equipment of any kind that has been lovingly taken care of and well used by its owner. What an awesome pair of boots, these Kempers of mine.

A common gripe among foreiners living in Japan is that Japanese people frequently say something along the lines of “Wow, you’re pretty good at using chopsticks”. While it can be annoying to hear the same thing over and over again, and even if these words are sometimes ring as a canned compliment, sometimes the words are just a simple observation spoken out loud.
The way that I was taught (with tiny training chopsticks when I was 5 years old) was to grasp both chopsticks between the middle and index fingers as one would hold a pencil, with the tip of the index and the knuckle of the middle finger manipulating movement. What people don’t understand is that not all Japanese ever learned how to use chopsticks properly.
It’s not as obvious because you don’t see them yielding them in two hands like a pair of daggers, and they tend not to spear their food. Sometimes you can see younger people holding a pair like a pre-schooler first learns to grasp a crayon. They make it work, but all the same they do not qualify as being “good at using chopsticks”.
I think that this widely spoken observation also stems from difficulties encountered by some Japanese while using western silverware. I can’t express how confused I was when I first heard a long-time Japanese friend look me straight in the eye and said “Wow, you’re good at using the knife and fork, huh?” with a straight expression on her face.

Sorry that the posts have been sparse lately. I am currently searching for suitable living accomodations in Osaka. The most interesting place so far was an apartment in Nippombashi where everyone in the building shared a shower on the roof, the floor felt as if it were about to give out from under me, and I would have gotten a “discount” because the Korean video store next door was “kind of loud at night”.
When I get my own place worked out, I will be writing on a regular basis again. In the meantime, I’ll try and find an apartment that comes with a shower.

This page is cool on so many levels. Not only is the culture of sneakers interesting to read about, but the song compilations for each cultural sphere is excellent. I will be looking for the film, by Femke Wolfing, on which this site is based.

I’ve visited many waterfalls and taken countless pictures of them, but this page is the definitive waterfall resource for Kyushu, as well as a wide swath of the rest of Japan. I never knew that there were over 110 (I know of some that are not listed) waterfalls in Kumamoto.

If you’re tired of teaching songs by the Beatles and Carpenters to kids who want to learn what 50’s really saying, then consult this dictionary. It’s about time that Japanese students understand the music that they are listening to, instead of music that they’re not interested in.