Day 1: Ellie & I depart Shimokita at approximately 7pm on Friday night, after work. We spend most of the evening winding our way down to the Tohoku Expressway which starts in Hachinohe. The first highway driving I’ve done since arriving in Japan. The road is new and relatively empty, and we are quickly out [...]
Archive for September, 2009
Silver Week & Iide-san Hike
Posted in Reckless and Daring Adventure, Scenery, tagged outdoors, travel on September 28, 2009 | 3 Comments »
1 little, 2 little, 3 little monsters
Posted in Lesson Plans, School/Work, tagged kids, school on September 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The nature of the consecutive holidays in Silver Week had me back home from backpacking in the Iide mountain range in Yamagata prefecture late Wednesday night, and while Thursday came early, a two-day work week is much more manageable than a five-day one after some time off. More on my Silver Week adventures later, I’d [...]
Osore-zan, or Mt. Doom
Posted in Reckless and Daring Adventure, Scenery, tagged Japan culture, travel on September 18, 2009 | 1 Comment »
In late August while my Mom was visiting, we had the chance to check out one of Shimokita Peninsula’s tourist attractions/claim to fame – Osore-zan, which can be more or less translated to Mt. Doom, Mt. Terror, or Mt. Fear. According to Wikipedia: “Osorezan marks the entrance to Hell, with a small brook running to [...]
Speech Contest, Sports Day & Enkai – OH MY!
Posted in Events, School/Work on September 15, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The past week has been a busy one, and working two Saturdays in a row (making for two 6-day work weeks) is not all it’s cracked up to be. Inevitably, I need at least two days per week to myself, to do with what I will. But in any case… Speech Contest was last Wednesday. [...]
Reading between the lines
Posted in Culture Shock!, Food, School/Work, Verbal Diarrhea on September 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
As a whole, the Japanese are not a forthright culture. This is not to say that they are not honest and trustworthy, but rather that they often say things they don’t mean, skirt around the elephant in the room, that reading “between the lines” is crucial in trying to operate amidst them, and that, as [...]
Take the tour
Posted in Le Quotidien on September 5, 2009 | 3 Comments »
A peek into my modest abode. Enjoy!
Elementary, my dear Watson
Posted in School/Work on September 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I now realize that Thursdays and Fridays will become a welcome respite for me. Schedule-wise, Monday thru Wednesday are my Junior High School days; Thursday and Friday I will rotate through my three elementary schools in the area. Yesterday was my first day. For starters, the kids are just absolutely adorable, seated so properly in [...]
Hello, my name is…
Posted in Lesson Plans, School/Work, Verbal Diarrhea on September 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Monday and Tuesday of this week found me standing in front of groups of young people, essentially trying to make myself seem as slightly strange but enticingly cool as possible. The jury is still out, but I had a lot of fun planning and executing. I created a power point of about twenty slides detailing [...]
Track Suit
Posted in Reckless and Daring Adventure, tagged fashion, Japan culture on September 1, 2009 | 4 Comments »
Let’s talk a bit about the infamous Japanese track suit. Nevermind all the other stuff I’ve been doing within the last week (orientation in the big city of Aomori, making new friends, traveling around the ken, first day of official class today), what I really want to discuss are track suits. For those of you [...]
"So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
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