JTE (Japanese English Teacher) told the class that I was an otaku (nerd). I don't think the students were surprised. They've known me for over a year. I think they already knew about my nerd status. However, it was weird when he made them repeat "Stephanie is a nerd" to practice the "Ner" sound. It brought back flashbacks from when I was younger. ( Read more... )

I'm so happy. My debate students bought me a cute pen and a pair of striped socks. I guess my love of socks is widely known throughout the city of Miyazaki. lol.

I should just use this intro when I meet people:
Hi, my name is Stephanie. I'm a BIG LOVER of soups, sandwiches, coffee, trains, planes, boats, traveling, TV & socks. Yes, socks are ( Read more... )

What a crazy 4 days I've had. It seemed like everything I was worried or worked hard for came together in one weekend.

First, let me start with the English Camp I went to.On Thursday and Friday, I went to an English Camp hosted by one of the top academic schools in Miyazaki. My friend works there as an ALT, so he invited me and 9 other ALTs/ CIRs ( Read more... )

This past weekend, I went to watch a sumo match in the biggest city in Kyushu, Fukuoka ( Read more... )

I watched the MNET Asiana Music Awards (MAMA) last night. I wasn't really able to understand it, since it was in Korean, but I mostly watched it for the performances ( Read more... )

Catching up on my life ( Read more... )

First, let me begin with the good news. My debate team won 2nd place in the All Miyazaki Prefecture English Debate Competition. My students were a year younger than all of the other teams, but they did well. I was so proud of them. They definitely made me really happy yesterday. The top 2 teams will go to Kumamoto for the Kyushu & Okinawa Debate ( Read more... )

For my birthday weekend, I went to South Korea with my friends Kim, Matt and Asha. We stayed in Seoul from Sunday night to Tuesday afternoon.

Seoul was amazing. We found great shopping areas everywhere. Insadong had great souvenir shops and an interesting mall with tons of cute things to see & buy.

When I was shopping in Dongdaemun, I felt like I ( Read more... )

I put a video up on Youtube that I took when I was in Tokyo Tower. If you are interested to see the view from the observation deck, you can check out the video here:

Click to view

Today I will be posting about my Tokyo/ Saitama trip that I took last week.

First, let me rewind a bit. On Friday (the 9th), my friends and I went out to dinner and then we went to a karaoke bar. It was me, Asha, Matt, Kim, Alex and Sarah. We had a great time. First, we ate super delicious food. Then, we sang our lungs out in a smokey karaoke bar. ( Read more... )