Night Star flavored Pringles!!


( Read more... )

Oh noes. I'm sick. And before you panic (Mom, I'm talking to you), it is not, I repeat NOT, the dread flu. Just a cold, and the doctors will confirm this. I don't even have a fever. Would I ever in a million years go to a hospital or clinic over this if I were in America? Hell no. Unfortunately, in order to take sick leave rather than vacation days ( Read more... )

This Saturday was the chorus festival at my Junior High, and I somehow ended up being one of the judges! Well, it was mostly because the only place for me to sit was at the judges table, but justly judge I did!

And this is not like a choir concert in America. EVERYBODY sings, and the students also provide their own piano accompaniment and conduct ( Read more... )

One of my English teachers at the Junior High has decided that I will be in charge of 5-10 minutes of "culture time" every class wherein I talk about...something. Something American I guess. I have some ideas, of course, but since I need to do one of these every class, I need a lot of ideas, so, anybody out there have any good ones ( Read more... )

Friday was the health check for all of us Kawagoe AETs. Boy, was that an experience..

First, we went to the oldest and crappiest hospital in all Saitama (no joke. the other teachers at our schools confirm this). I think some good words to describe it would be bleak, institutional, and decrepit. The only piece of equipment that looked to be made ( Read more... )

Last year, I showed you some of the Junior High Sports festival. This time, some of the rehearsal from the Kasumigaseki Kita Elementary School sports festival! I think these pictures are far enough away that you can't clearly see their faces, and since the identity of the individual kids is not apparent, this should be okay to post.

The elementary ( Read more... )

One of the interesting things about living in Japan, or any foreign country I suppose, is that it makes you reconsider things about your own culture that you had taken for granted.

Plastic surgery is quite common in Japan, and even more-so in Korea. Practically every singer, model, and actor/actress has had some work done. Usually, we're just ( Read more... )

So, you might have heard that there's a typhoon hitting Japan right now. I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm perfectly okay. School (and therefore work) were canceled today, so I've just been chillin' at home. It's like a snow day, except no one is going out to play in the typhoon. It's pretty windy outside, and it rained a lot last night, ( Read more... )

I forgot to post a song last month! Oh no!

So for the months of September and October, a video featuring a sampling of songs from one of my absolute favorite Jpop groups: Morning Musume. In fact, I'm going to one of their concerts tomorrow, so it seems like a good time to write about them!

Morning Musume is a female idol group. If you recall, "idols ( Read more... )

Finishing up these photos...

We decided to do some nighttime explorations of the Renaissance  fortress thing. It's sort of dedicated to inventors like DaVinci. There's various towers and levels to look around.


( Read more... )