I found this sign outside a store in Kyoto. Ever wonder if you are using your chopsticks in the polite way? You need not wonder any longer!


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I went to Kyoto with other foreign English teachers who are part of the JET program. It was consciously planned as a fun, temple-free weekend. The most strenuous activity we were to partake in was bar hopping ( Read more... )

As a complementary service, the restaurant offered a birthday surprise for Terry. Boy, it was a surprise! A sweet loaf of bread with fruit and ice cream on top. Not the usual dessert.


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Sometimes there is nothing more than countryside in Mie Prefecture.


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I love the plants in Japan. They are so different from anything I have seen in Ohio!

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A limousine company has revealed its plan to create hybrid hearses using the Toyota Prius as a base:

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Apparently a bird dropped a seed into a junkyard 25 years ago and a Japanese hackberry tree began to grow there, eventually lifting an old car into the air. Branches of the tree grew through holes in old car doors, lifting those as well. Workers at the junkyard have built a small fence around the tree, and are protecting it as it continues to grow ( Read more... )

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When I went for contacts, I expected the experience to be different from America. For example, I am not the -1.00 prescription that I am in America, but a 0.3 prescription in Japan. The eye chart is not a series of random letters, but different C shapes with the hole facing in different directions. I expected different brand names. What I didn't ( Read more... )

Easter snuck up on us quickly! Just like I didn't let Mardi Gras pass with out a baby in a cake (okay, so it was more like a teddy graham in a pastry but I have to work with what I got in Japan) I wasn't going to let Easter pass without some serious egg decorating. Deysi was totally up for it. The rest of my American co-workers... not so much. That ( Read more... )