Five Days In Japan.

Pictures at this link.

If you've ever taught English in Japan, this will feel more than a little true.

The perfect summation of the JET Programme - David Namisato's "Life After the B.O.E." Finale.

Some days, when I sit and think, I miss Japan a whole helluva lot.  Via.

"Please work hard in Africa as the wife."

Exchanged emails with a former student in Japan telling them I'm in Africa now with my wife, and while I think she's running her responses through the 'net translator due to some construction and word choice, part of her response included the phrase - "Please work hard in Africa as the wife."

And that's just too funny/on the nose to not laugh.

A man less secure in his manly masculinity might have issues, you know...

So now I'm off to go kill an elephant armed with only a butter knife and chopsticks.  Then drink a beer while shaving with a straight razor and smoking a cigar.  Yes.

Nippon Natsukashii - 10 days in Japan.

Having realized that there are only a few folks who might be reading this who don't have access to either 1) all my pics on Picasa Web Albums, or 2) is a Facebook friend - combined with the prospect of blogging the hundreds of pics I took while in Japan for 10 days while still fighting both a cold/sinus thing and my own tendency to procrastinate...  I've decided to post up a link to the Facebook photo album I made of my trip.  It's abbreviated, but hits the high points and gives you more than enough of the flavor of what I've actually been doing the past couple weeks.

So here's the link, which should be accessible to anybody, even if you don't have a Facebook account - Nippon Natsukashii - 10 days in Japan - Facebook Photo Album

Plus a couple other of my fave pics from the trip, not in the FB album [or collaged really small] or just because they're awesome...

Tonkatsu ramen = maybe my favorite Japanese dish.

Kids dig me, cause we share the same emotional maturity level.

Chocolate beer and Asahi Super Dry.  C'mon, you know that's cool.

Jr High Graduates.  Made of Awesome.  Filled with win.

Graduation Uber Bento.

Miyajidake Shrine.

Bachan rocking her Liberian country cloth.

Good people I'm lucky to know.

New family TV.  Watching kickboxing from Holland, with Japanese commentary, natch.

Genki Bachan still taking stairs like a champ.

When you start showing signs of sickness, it's easier to just go along with the strange Japanese customs rather than trying to fight it.

Obligatory winter uniform for women in Fukuoka - jacket, unreasonably short skirt, boots.  Other acceptable and frequently observed substitutions include - short shorts, short skirt with tights and jeans so tight as to not be believed.  It's only a small exaggeration to say you can see more skin on the streets of Fukuoka during the winter than on the beach in the summer.  Because they avoid the sun, and a tan, like it's the plague.  Crazysexycool.

Japan is just too delicious sometimes.

How could I not love this job?  Seriously?

I mean, seriously!?!?

"You like me.  You really like me!"

Kaitenzushi aftermath.  

Ah, Japan - "62 percent responded that they feel teaching English is burdensome."

While I worked with some truly excellent elementary school home room teachers in Japan, I'm not at all surprised by this. The reaction of the majority of them, even with me after 5 years, to teaching English was more commmonly one of trepidation, apprehension, avoidance or withdrawal. OTOH, those that did choose to engage were phenomenal. Probably true of all good teachers everywhere, I'd imagine. More at the link, of course.

Most public elementary school educators feel specialists should teach English - The Mainichi Daily News:

"...Of homeroom teachers who are already teaching English as non-compulsory subjects at elementary schools, 62 percent responded that they feel teaching English is burdensome."

This is awesome - "The Real Voice of Japanese Students."

Via California English: How some Japanese students feel about English in the Public School 

After the JET Programme - "Use Your Skills."

For truth.  [Still miss Japan tho']

Via Use Your Skills

Nixing a common female/gaijin/Japan complaint, via Gaijin Chronicles.

Pretty damn funny.  Gaijin Chronicles btw, the new and improved update of the old Gaijin Smash blog, which was probably the most popular JET/Gaijin/Expat blog 3-4 years ago, at least the one I devoured when I started JET.

This was, in my experience, a fairly common complaint amongst gaijin ladyfolk on JET. As the man writes, "Welcome to our world, ladies."

No Sex in The City - Gaijin Chronicles

:"...girls – yes, you too can have sex in Japan.

...It should be common knowledge that women can get laid almost anytime they want. I know that here, some of the female members of the audience are shaking their heads and saying out loud “that’s not true!” If you happen to be a female who isn’t getting laid as much as you like, just know that its not because you can’t, but simply because of a lack of effort.

Yes ladies, you can get laid anytime you want. Go to a bar or a club, or any sort of social setting like that. Or hell, just go to Starbucks or a Barnes and Noble by yourself and loiter around for a bit. If that method is unappealing to you, simply turn to one of your numerous male friends (I know you have them) and say “I need to have sex, could you help me out?” Most of them will say yes...

...For the most part, women don’t even have to make any effort. Just go outside regularly, and you will have guys hitting on you at some point in time. I know women who have made it their life’s creed to never ever ever approach a guy – this is the man’s job, and if he can’t do that then she isn’t interested. So in these cases, its not even that the woman has no choices – she simply doesn’t like what’s available to her. And here as well, I know there are going to be women who will say “I go outside and hit on guys all the time and get nowhere! Guys have deemed me unattractive” – I will say that I can sympathize, because I’ve been turned down solely on looks before, it sucks. I know your pain. However, at the same time, go look up BBW porn, or any sort random fetish porn. Realize that not only did these women get laid, but the guy doing it allowed himself to be caught on camera, and the fact that this is even a video means that there are guys out there who are going to jack off to this. Almost every day in Japan I see couples where the girl is way below average but the guy is decent looking. Ladies, unless you are actually the monster from Aliens, there is a guy out there somewhere willing to pork you. And I would bet money that there are guys out there willing to pork the Aliens monster too. You are not looking hard enough.

...Not all, but most women in America at least are accustomed to letting guys come to them. So when they say they can’t get laid, its just a matter of not liking the selection.

And then we have Japan, which kind of turns the system on its head.

Foreign women don’t get approached so much in Japan. Japanese guys don’t do it – they get scared and convince themselves of failure before they even start. Other foreign guys don’t do it – a fair portion of the foreign male population has Japanese blinders on, and wouldn’t approach a Gaijin girl, even if she were, say, Jessica Alba, because she’s “not quite as attractive” as your average Japanese girl. Yes, Yellow Fever is a frightening thing. Then you have other foreign guys, who would be receptive to dating a fellow Gaijin, but we usually never get the chance because the J-girls have taken the initiative.

J-Girl: Um, hello Mr. Gaijin.
Gaijin Guy: Hello! How are you?
J-Girl: Fine, thank you. And you? Er…I was wondering if you could teach me English sometime.
Gaijin Guy: Well, I don’t know, that is MORE English teaching on top of the English teaching I already get paid for…
J-Girl: Well, perhaps we could just talk English while having dinner together.
Gaijin Guy: That sounds a little bit more appealing.
J-Girl: And I would also like to experience sex with a foreigner.
Gaijin Guy: …Aaaaaaaand now we’re talking!

Literally not an exaggeration.

So while this goes on, Gaijin girls stick by their old system of…not doing anything. And while this worked back home, here in Japan, it does not. I knew foreign women here who were hornier than Hugh Hefner in his prime, who complained about never getting any YET never did anything about it!

Gaijin Girl: Man, I’m so horny! Why can’t I get laid here?
Me: Well, what have you done to solve the problem?
Gaijin Girl: I’ve been going to bars every weekend.
Me: And?
Gaijin Girl: I get dressed up real nice, put on the going-out makeup and everything.
Me: And?
Gaijin Girl: Nothing happens! Nobody comes to talk to me!
Me: Right. And what happened when you tried to go talk to guys?
Gaijin Girl: Oh no, I couldn’t do that.
Me: But, can you really say that you tried to get laid if you just went out… and did nothing?
Gaijin Girl: Back home when I went out guys would hit on me all the time. But it doesn’t happen in Japan. And now I don’t know what to do.
Me: *facepalm*

...So yeah, the “do nothing” approach doesn’t work so well here.

If the Gaijin girl is willing to be more proactive – actively approach guys, talk to them, get their attention, then she can do well here. Girls who do this get boyfriends and even get laid. I’ve seen girls in bars pick out a guy, and within 10 minutes make it clear that she wanted to have sex with him. And you know what she did that night? It wasn’t crocheting, that’s for sure. Although this is purely my personal observation, it seems as though American girls are the ones who have the most problems with this. Non-Americans have no problems pulling guys, but the American ones are the ones who sit back and wonder why nothing happens when they do nothing.

So the message is clear: do something. Be more proactive. Go out and hit on guys. Be downright aggressive. And if that doesn’t sound appealing to you – what happens if I get rejected? – it’s embarrasing – too shy to do that – what will my friends think? – all I can really say to you is – Welcome to our world, ladies. We men have had to do this ever since our hormones kicked in. I have no sympathy for you..."

Lotta truth, some exaggeration - "Don't blame JET for Japan's poor English | The Japan Times Online"

Don't blame JET for Japan's poor English | The Japan Times Online:

"The Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme, touted as the world's largest cultural exchange scheme, has brought thousands of non-Japanese into the country to teach at local boards of education. These days, with many government programs being told to justify their existence, a debate is raging over whether JET should be left as is, cut or abolished entirely.

...the two main camps argue: a) keep JET, because it gives outback schools more contact with "foreign culture" (moreover, it gives Japan a means of projecting "soft power" abroad); versus b) cut or abolish JET — it's wasteful, bringing over generally untrained and sometimes unprofessional kids, and offers no measurable benefit (see Japan's bottom-feeding TOEFL test scores in Asia).

The debate, however, needs to consider: 1) JET's misconstrued mandate, and 2) Japan's psychotic — yes, psychotic — system of language teaching."

This is genius/hilarious/I used this textbook in Japan.

Remix Win.  [And considering the 'net in Liberia took 45m to load an 8m video...  well, we'll just say it was still worth my time.]

Via Weird English Conversation | Japan Probe

Last pic from Japan.

Sent to me from my old supervisor, from the local monthly newsmag...  Japan rocked.

I know cool kids.

Last day; even more gifts, last meal, airport farewells.

Last grocery store run.  If you're gonna go, go big.

More omiyage.  Nice, nice folks.

Pretty kick-ass shirt from the BOE.

"Juvenile Delinquent" indeed.

[Mostly] empty apartment.

Living off three bags for the foreseeable future.

Last meal in Japan.

Great bosses.

Airport sendoff.

Students = best thing about 5 years in Japan.

Final, final, final omiyage.  Put in my hands on the way to the plane...

Short hiatus, clearly; jackin' unsecured wireless signal in the apt bldg for my last day in Japan.

You gotta love those less security conscious.  Praise be to their laziness/optimism.

Hiatus/Offline/Moving Continents/Etc. See ya.

Random Coolness

"I shall return." - quoting MacArthur.
Japan, you've been warned.

Next
Best Job Ever. Japan, bitches.

Farewell Letters; my students were awesome.

Far too many great notes to try and post them all up.  So here's the album.

You're leaving Japan, but we have some wonderful parting gifts for you.

Just breaking my heart.










One of my old students gave me some Rocawear - which is cool - but I hope he didn't blow a lot of his money on it.  That stuff's expensive.  Maybe it's secondhand/handmedown.  Me and this kid used to exchange hiphop CDs all the time...And then, this might be my favorite gift.  From one of my students who'd graduated.  Super nice kid, though English was never her strong point.  Ran into her a couple times since graduation, as she's big on taiko and gave performances at different school festivals.  She never fails to ask, as do a buncha my kids, "Oboiteru?" [Do you remember me?]  Never sure if it's an esteem thing or not... but my answer is always "Of course I remember you."  I'm gonna be 60 years old and still remember these kids.
But I really like this because I don't think she planned on giving me anything.  But we chatted and engaged and interacted, and then all of sudden she felt connected and wanted me to have something to remember her by.  That's pretty damn special.