Minimalism - Online Income - ESL - Japan
When I first started this blog back in September, I planned to write about Japanese news stories rarely seen abroad, and that’s exactly what I did. I wrote posts such as Woman hurls dog from sixth-floor apartment and Car ploughs into 33 nursery school children. However, as you would have seen from my recent posts, I rarely mention the news anymore, because quite frankly I found it all rather depressing. […]
When I first came to Japan in 1997, the big chain school I worked at recommended all its teachers to open a bank account at Tokai Bank because of its proximity to the head office and the fact that the ATMs had English guidance. Soon after though, Tokai merged with Sanwa Bank and all the ATMs were replaced with the later bank’s Japanese-only machines. This caused long queues and much […]
To the rest of the world he’s known as Prince Harry, but in Japan, they call him Henry. And silly me, I was quick to point out their mistake until I decided to write about it. Being British myself, you would expect me to know that Prince Harry’s real name is Prince Henry of Wales, and the Japanese were right all along. Thank you Wikipedia for correcting me. You have […]
When I was a kid, thirteen to be exact, Was (Not Was) released a song called ‘Walk the Dinosaur’, which was a huge hit in 1988. It’s one of those songs you don’t forget, and I tend to sing it to myself every time one of my elementary school students chooses the ‘dinosaur’ from a bunch of stamps I use for homework and rewarding the kids at the end of […]
Since I found out that I’m gonna be daddy, I’ve been posting pictures of the progress Peanut has been making. Today, Mami and I found out that Peanut is a boy! Neither of us minded either way, but I’m quite excited about the prospect of teaching him to ride a bike and play soccer. We got loads of baby clothes from friends of Mami’s mum, but they’re all pink! Oh […]
In the autumn of 2005 I launched the ESL Writing Wizard and the following spring I added the ability for teachers and parents to ‘publish’ the worksheets they made. While they have the option to make their worksheets public, many of them have. Today, I’m proud to announce that the site has reached a landmark figure of 5,000 published worksheets. I started the ESL Writing Wizard when I was working […]
But I do take a shower. Baths in Japan are quite different from what I was used to in the U.K. Instead of a place to wash, a Japanese bathtub is a place to relax. Famous for its hot springs, Japan also has many public baths, and people here aren’t too embarrassed to strip off and jump in a bath with a complete stranger. At home, the whole family will […]
When I was about nine, my parents bought me a Commodore 16 home computer, the little brother to the hugely successful Commodore 64. This was to be a turning point in my life as I started computer programming, which eventually led to me a degree in Computer Science. While I was never really mathematical, I loved problem solving, particularly when I could create the problems I would have to solve. […]