お金もないし！

Still can’t write about leaving. Sorry. Recently traumatized by a quick google search of job opportunities around where I’ll be living.  Googling only lasted about 20 minutes, but I will now have to put on Billy Joel and hide, shivering, under the covers until the real world disappears again.  A BA in Liberal Arts and [...]

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IT’S MUKADE SEASON

Oh god.  The worst most terrifying part of the year.  I have terrible crawly-bug anxieties and cockroaches and mukade (Japanese centipedes) are the two most intolerable things on this earth as far as I’m concerned.  Japan has a long-ass rainy season, which is very romantic and sweet in movies like 「いま、会いにゆきます」but is, in reality, pretty [...]

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a tiny fail: brought to you by heke

The other day we had a staff meeting where we got a big sheet (top secret) of all the kids’ allergies and other ailments so everyone knows what’s up.  I was flipping through it while people were talking, because staff meetings are outrageously long and boring and though I really like hearing updates on how [...]

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things that are different about japan

I guess it’s around that time when the fresh blood has been notified that it will be replacing those of us who have checked out starting this July.  I have some words of wisdom and general observations about things that are different in Japan. Think of it as the holy trinity of inconvenience, and when [...]

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garlic + teacher = no.

Yesterday I learned a very important lesson.  If you are a teacher, do not eat garlic bread for breakfast.  Don’t do it. There are many reasons for this. The first is, who even eats garlic bread for breakfast?? That is insane.  Have you no sense of appropriate breakfast food items? The second is, you will [...]

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kabukiza, sayonara

I read this article today and thought it was appropriate to post here.  Check it out: Japan says ‘sayonara’ to Tokyo’s kabuki theatre Apparently Kabukiza is being bulldozed for another skyscraper in Tokyo.  Although they’ll rebuild a theatre in the ground floors of the new building, it’s really sad to see such an iconic structure [...]

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short rumination on tiny noobs

yep, the new school year is here.  Students are collecting textbooks, finding out their new homeroom assignments (like it was a matter of life and death) and the tiny tiny small people have arrived.  The new first years.  In elementary they look freakishly large – the boys are starting to get taller and the girls [...]

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car/bike accident

Before I start let me assure you that I am okay, my bike is okay, and the car is okay.  That kind of removes the dramatic tension from the story that follows, but I don’t want you to worry about me while reading. See below for the whole story. There is a T intersection right [...]

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how to look at your problems, according to me.

Someone posted this article on facebook and after reading it, I had a few things I wanted to say. Here’s the article:  http://kotaku.com/5484581/japan-its-not-funny-anymore Okay, so when I said “reading it” what I really meant was attempting to read most of it but being unable to stop my eyes from rolling long enough to finish most [...]

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typhoon follow-up: well that was pointless.

So typhoon melor has come and gone.  It began raining in the evening, and serious winds and heavy rain began around 9pm.  Basically all night it was loud and scary, banging windows and shaky doors.  I woke up about 100 times and completely freaked out.  But when I woke up in the morning it wasn’t [...]

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