Minimalism - Online Income - ESL - Japan
I’ve been teaching at Japanese kindergartens for years now, and I always have a lot of fun. The key to success in teaching these classes is to be fun and energetic. While some “proper” teachers complain that they came to Japan to “teach”, and not dance around like clowns, I believe that if your style of teaching is entertaining then your students are going to learn a whole lot more […]
With the impending release of Microsoft’s Windows Vista and Office 2007, I thought it was only appropriate to give you a tour of my new little home office for 2007. (Sorry if you came here looking for news on Vista and Office 2007!) So, having moved house, I now have a whole room for my stuff. Check it out: Starting with the room itself, you can see the floor is […]
Well for me at least. Apparently I’m a Tennoseijin (a kind of sun sign, I think) which is derived from my date and time of birth, and every 12 years you get one great year. Though I don’t follow astrology, or even read my horoscope, my wife does and she seems to know a lot. Most of Mami’s knowledge of astrology comes from reading Kazuko Hosoki’s books. The ‘queen’, as […]
I had intended to write about something completely different but I came across this video which I just had to post here. It’s a Japanese game show in which if you laugh, you get the cane. What do they laugh at? Well, although they try their best to keep quiet, it’s hard not to crack up when watching this guy try to speak English… If you can’t view the video, […]
As an update to my post The 15 year old toilet stains, I’m happy to tell you that I managed to get the toilet clean(ish). Believe it or not, sandpaper did the trick. Not just regular sandpaper, but some special stuff you can use on ceramic surfaces and in water (edit: Silicon Carbide waterproof paper to be exact). I still had to put my back into it, but it was […]
Having just bought a house, we’ve been busy putting things where they belong and fixing things up. One of those things was the doorbell, which I finally got working today after the $100 doorphone adapter arrived. Crazy, I know, but the intercom needed to be connected to the telephone which required a special adapter. Seems like an expensive way to tell if someone’s at the door, but at least all […]
While I got Mami a nice dressing table for Christmas, she bought me a toasted sandwich maker! We called them breville makers when I was a kid, and I used to love them so this was one of the best presents I could have asked for. Most of my Christmas meals were toasted sandwiches with loads of cheese, but I was gutted when on New Year’s Eve, we went to […]
Since I’m back to school tomorrow, I’ve been thinking again about my ESL lessons, and remembered an interesting moment from last term. I was getting frustrated with one of my kindergarten classes so right at the start of the lesson I told the children that if they crawl under the tables they will lose all their points. I usually give my kindy kids four points at the start of the […]