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Yes, yes I know...I suck with the updating of the livejournal. My apologies to all of my nagging, idiot friends...uh, I mean "loyal readership". Ok so here we go! Lots to catch you up on ( Read more... )

So everyday during lunch they play music over the intercom, and usually it's Japanese stuff I don't recognize. Today's selection was also in Japanese, but oh! I knew what it was because the chorus was still in broken katakana-English! "Ruobinga yu isu izi cosu yuru biutefuru ra ra ra ra ra" roughly translates to Minnie Riperton's "looooooooovin ( Read more... )

Well damn, I had no idea I was so popular and that so many people were reading this thing until you all ganged up on me for not updating! My apologies. But no worries, I haven't yet succumbed to bird flu. What I have been is insanely busy with Halloween lessons at school for the past two weeks which has tapped all my energy and left me exhausted ( Read more... )

The Task: Choose a band/artist and answer ONLY IN SONG TITLES by that band ( Read more... )

Yesterday at elementary school I was invited to practice with the ping-pong team after school. That's right, there's a team AND they practice! Not only do they practice, but they stretch and warm-up before playing too. It's all very intense, as is everything in Japan evidently. So how'd I do? Well I'm the Forrest Gump of ping-pong! Only, not ( Read more... )

Today's topic of discussion at lunch: what type of men does Katie find attractive! And who wanted to know? The lunch ladies. I gave a generic "all types" answer just to shrug 'em off, but then they kept trying to set me up with teachers from school so I said "I like tall men" which put an end to that. Seriously, Yoshikawa will not rest until I ( Read more... )

Mmmmmm avian flu! What did I tell you before I left for Japan? That I'd contract some crazy bird flu and die before the year's out. Now the whole world is shitting its pants (maybe literally--I don't know what the symptoms are) over the imminent flu pandemic, and mark my words they'll trace the mutant strain for human-to-human contact back to my ( Read more... )

I've entered a parallel universe where I take naked communal baths after playing soccer all weekend in the mountains of Japan while monkeys cut across the fields. So you know...really just taking this whole "cultural immersion" thing and running with it ( Read more... )

Last night I gave a pronunciation lesson to the English conversation class and totally aced it! Whoo hoo! My obscure knowledge of articulatory phonetics is actually worth something! I spent all week planning the lesson during my breaks at school, so it was incredibly fulfilling to see that it was actually helpful for the students when it finally ( Read more... )