The Japan Guy - Part 5

My Five Biggest Japan Gripes

February 16, 2012
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My Five Biggest Japan Gripes

Ah Japan…the Land of the Rising Sun, home of some of the most beautiful temples & shrines you will ever see, and a hot spot for all things tech. So, I’ll admit. I love living in Japan. I could probably write a mile-long list of the reasons I think it’s so wonderful, but today, I don’t want to focus on that. Let’s look at the flip-side of that. Here are three of my biggest gripes about living and teaching in Japan: 1. Japanese Apartments & Elementary School Doors are not Tall-People Friendly GADONG!! “Sh*t!” That’s the sound of me hitting my head against the fume hood of my stove for the umpteenth time, and...

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Things to Keep in Mind Before Choosing Your Japanese Apartment

February 10, 2012
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Things to Keep in Mind Before Choosing Your Japanese Apartment

This is my first full winter in my second Japanese apartment and I must say I am a little disappointed. Since moving in, I’ve noticed several things that make me believe that my previous apartment was the better place to live overall: insulation, heating and air-conditioning, circuitry, and repair response times. When I moved into my new apartment, winter was already well underway. I had a chance to do the walk-through but I didn’t notice any real issues. I went into the apartment with my jacket on so, things seemed to be okay. The things that struck me most, were the things I wanted: more space, and bigger windows. This apartment had just those...

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The Japan Guy Featured in the Hayabusa Movie (はやぶさ)

February 9, 2012
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The Japan Guy Featured in the Hayabusa Movie (はやぶさ)

Hey guys, this is just a quick post to let you know that I just saw myself on the silver screen for the first time. I got to see myself for a whopping 5 seconds (or somewhere thereabouts) . Last summer I was an extra in the latest Hayabusa movie, starring Ken Watanabe (playing the role of Junichiro Kawaguchi, Haybusa Project Manager). This film showed the struggles it took for JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agencey) to get the unmanned, Hayabusa spacecraft to launch and successfully retrieve asteroid samples. There were quite a few extras in the film, and I haven’t been very lucky when it comes to gigs like this. I did two promotion...

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High Speed, Total Recall and Japanese Fluency

February 8, 2012
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High Speed, Total Recall and Japanese Fluency

I apologize in advance to those who might have been thinking this article would show you how to get high speed, total recall, and Japanese fluency . This post is more on the hypothetical side of things . We cool? Okay, please read on… Did you ever see the movie Meteor Man? You’ve never heard of it? I don’t blame you, honestly it wasn’t one of the more popular superhero movies (it was entertaining, though). In this movie, the main character, Robert Townsend comes into contact with a meteor and develops super powers (surprise, surprise). He spends a great part of the movie trying to learn how his powers work and eventually he ends...

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Power Rangers My A**!

February 7, 2012
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Power Rangers My A**!

You know what I love about YouTube? It’s the fact that if you’re not careful with your browsing, you could end up on the site for hours at a time. One of the main reasons I think that can happen is because YouTube has that dag-blasted related videos feature, that shows you all types of videos that are similar to the ones that you just browsed. I fell victim to the YouTube trap the other day, when I took a minute to look at some clips of the original Power Rangers show. It was one of those guilty pleasures I had in very early high school (which was 8th grade and part of my...

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A Japanese, First Grade Janken Jungle

January 31, 2012
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A Japanese, First Grade Janken Jungle

Today was a really fun day with my first graders. In class today, we were doing the final lesson on animals, so I decided to make it fun for the kids. It’s not always easy coming up with new English activities to do in a Japanese classroom, but I thought of something interesting. We did a quick review of some of the different animals I introduced in the last couple weeks back: duck, goose, eagle, owl, tiger, lion, bear, giraffe, etc.. I made the review quick so we’d have time to complete the animal masks that we started working on last week. Kids had all kinds of crazy colored animals. There were blue lions,...

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Aonori, the Japanese Karaoke Song I Have to Learn!

January 26, 2012
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Aonori, the Japanese Karaoke Song I Have to Learn!

At the end of last year I had my first Bonenkai with the elementary school teachers and simply put it was a blast. It’s always nice to relax with cool people, have good food, and do a some karaoke. This was the first time I’ve been to karaoke where there were no other English speakers and I really had a good time practicing my Japanese at the same time. It was a win win situation. During karaoke two of the younger teachers sang a song that I REALLY want to learn. The name of this song is Aonori (青海苔) by Brief and Trunks (wait a second…brief and trunks, aren’t those expressions for underwear?!). The...

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What Happens if You’re Late Paying Your Taxes in Japan?

January 25, 2012
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What Happens if You’re Late Paying Your Taxes in Japan?

This is short post that I meant to put up last year, but since my taxes are broken into payments, I think it’s still relevant. When you live in Japan, so many of the things you see and do will be different from back home. However, some things don’t change. If you’re earning income here in Japan, you will have to pay taxes on it. Some companies are better than others at deducting it for you, which really makes things easier. But if you’re at a job that doesn’t you’ve got to handle the taxes on your own. Please check out the previous post I did on Japanese taxes. For me, coming from a...

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The Trouble With Teaching At a Shogakko

January 24, 2012
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The Trouble With Teaching At a Shogakko

Ah, teaching in Japan, one of the most fulfilling experiences you could ask for. The sun shines everyday, even on rainy days the sun shines just on my school. Birds chirps in English, the children are always 200% genki and merry, parents of your students greet you with fresh fruits in the morning, and you never have a difficult work day… RIININNNGGGGGGGGG!!! Hey, everybody, why are you guys in my apart…huh? Is this a article? Oh no, I must have been dream-blogging again. Please forgive me. Let me just read what I wrote…hmm…umm…ok. Quite a bit of that isn’t exactly true. No, teaching at a shogakko (Japanese public school isn’t perfect), but it’s one...

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Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream!?!?

January 18, 2012
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LIquid nitrogen, egg ice cream!!

We have club activities after school on Wednesdays at my shogakko . There is a cooking/home economics club, an outdoors club, and a science club…just to name some of the ones I’ve taken a glimpse at. Each of the clubs that I’ve seen has a really special appeal. If I were an Japanese elementary school student here, I’d have a hard time deciding which one to do. Last semester I watched the outdoors club more than any of the others. It was with this club that I watched students plant rice, grow sweet potatoes, and have some pretty tasty barbecues. Being out there digging in the soil with my students, eating with them, laughing...

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Japanese Electricity Bill Blues (JEBB)

January 13, 2012
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Japanese Electricity Bill Blues (JEBB)

Dum dee dum dum dum. Donald gets home from work, it was a standard, nothing too surprising, no major issues at school that he couldn’t handle. He opens the his mailbox to find a couple of bills inside. “No worries, just one of those costs to take care of I guess.” Crinkle, crinkle, rip. Donald opens the envelope from TEPCO. His eyes scan quickly to the right side of the bill to see the amount due. His glance comes to a dead stop, his eyes widen, his brow furrows, and sweat begins to bead on his brow. Being that it’s the thick of winter, the sweat probably isn’t coming from any heat source, but...

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Japanese Ekiden, The Ultimate Relay Race

January 12, 2012
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Japanese Ekiden, The Ultimate Relay Race

Have you heard of Ekiden before? If not, it’s a race that’s very much a part of Japanese popular culture. Ekiden is what I like to think of as a relay race with a twist. The twist is that each runner runs a half marathon. At the collegiate level (I think that’s the one that’s shown on TV) there are six members to a team. The entire team runs for a total of about people at 43 kilometrs or just under 27 miles. Running the Ekiden would be like a bad dream for me. I would get all suited to run the 4 by 400 relay, and then the coach would walk over to...

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Sweet Potatoes and Daigakuimo, A Tasty Vegetable Turned Tastier

January 11, 2012
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daigakuimosaucethumb2

One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to get as fit as I possibly can before Obon rolls around. I’d like to go to a nice beach in Japan and be super-ripped. Why? I don’t really have an answer. I know I enjoy exercise, and I figured getting as ripped as possible at least gives me a goal to shoot for (it might also be good for landing some cool modeling gig in the future). One of the big challenges with that is that I absolutely adore all things sweet*: chocolate, gummy bears, cakes of all kinds, caramel, ice cream, Jelly Belly jelly beans, and the list relentlessly goes on. So decided this week...

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Four Years in Japan…Still Here, Still Loving It

January 10, 2012
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Four Years in Japan…Still Here, Still Loving It

Today is January 10th, 2012, indeed a very special day for me. Exactly four years ago today I hopped on a one-way, nonstop, 12-hour flight to Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan. Although it doesn’t really feel like it, four years is quite a bit of time. Four years is as much time a many people spend in undergrad (I spent four-and-a-half). In four years, a child can go through a large part of his/her pubescent life. Geez! I’ve been in freakin’ Japan for FOUR YEARS!?! Where does the time go? In so many ways I feel that being here for four years is a wonderful thing, I happily celebrate it. In many respects I...

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Japan Fauna: No Squirrels in Japan?

January 9, 2012
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Japan Fauna: No Squirrels in Japan?

You know what animal I don’t see in Japan, that I saw everywhere in Georgia? SQUIRRELS! I hear they exist in some parts of Japan, but I have yet to see any. I’m sure have to exist somewhere around because I’ve seen several anime with squirrels or flying squirrels in them. But it must be a rare thing. I had an adult student once who said when he went to America and was taking pictures of squirrels, his American friends would ask him “Why are you doing that?” In America, seeing a squirrel doesn’t really strike you as anything special, but if I were to see one here, I would definitely stop and take...

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What are Your 2012 New Year’s Resolutions?

January 9, 2012
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What are Your 2012 New Year’s Resolutions?

It’s 2012! Everybody! It’s a brand new year, and a chance for a brand new start. It’s time to dust off all of those fitness machines that you never bothered to use It’s time to start thinking about how this year will be different from 2011. It’s time for New Year’s Resolutions. How do you plan on improving yourself this year? I often have the tendency to go overboard when it comes to New Year’s Resolutions. 2012 will be no different. I have personal goals, professional goals, fitness goals, Japan Guy goals, and the list goes on. I don’t remember if I mentioned it in the “What’s Your Story?” post (you can find it...

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OH MY GOSH! The Cutest Little Japanese First Graders!

January 9, 2012
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OH MY GOSH! The Cutest Little Japanese First Graders!

This is just a little side post, but I had the cutest thing happen to me today. I had just finished doing one of the animal lessons with one of my first grade classes, and all of my students seemed really upbeat after class was done. I could tell the students enjoyed class, because the as soon as I said “See you next time!,” about six of the boys darted for the door, blocking the exit. They stood with their little arms crossed, Macho Japanese First Grader Style. It was almost like they were saying “You ain’t going nowhere, Donaldo Sensei.” I thought it was really cute. It made me feel good. I really...

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I’m BAAAAACCCKKK!!!

January 6, 2012
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I’m BAAAAACCCKKK!!!

みんなさん久しぶりですね？ (Minnasan, Hisashi Buri Desu Ne?) It’s been a long time hasn’t it, everybody? Sorry for the delay everyone. I guess things took a little bit longer than I thought after having to shake off those chocolate-gorgin’, lazy-arse, couch-sittin’, oversleepin’, net-surfin’, rakkafrakkin’ cobwebs out of my system. But I think I’m okay now . Believe it or not, my winter break was pretty uneventful. Honestly it was the quietest New Year’s day that I’ve ever had. I thought about going to Tokyo for New Year’s but was feeling a little under the weather. I started watch the New Year’s Eve Gaki no Tsukai comedy that I like so much, but fell asleep during the...

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