Minimalism - Online Income - ESL - Japan
A few months ago, I posted about buying a house and getting a mortgage in Japan. There were times when I didn’t think it would be possible without a permanent residency visa, but eventually we managed it… and we move next week! If you’re thinking of buying a house in Japan, you might want to consider getting a mortgage through Mitsubishi Tokyo UFJ bank. They were the only bank that […]
This last week has been pretty hectic. The weekend was dominated by Christmas parties with my school’s children’s party on Saturday, another school’s party on Sunday morning, and a party for my adult students on Sunday night. The first party was a bit crazy. There were about 45 kids and we played all kinds of games including pass the parcel, cake walk, Christmas fruit basket and bingo, and managed to […]
Before I came to Japan, I had never really seen a cockroach. Those first three months in Japan quickly changed that though as rainy season set in and the humid summer brought them out in droves. I was staying with my homestay family at the time, and while the whole family slept together in the air conditioned living room, I had my own room right above them. With just a […]
This is the question I was pondering over while driving home from work tonight. With a population of 128 million, more than double that of the U.K, I find it surprising that you can go for days on end without seeing a disabled person. There’s no doubt that Japan is equipped for disabled people; there’s wheelchair access all over the place, tactile paving for the visually impaired, and designated parking […]
I don’t ever expect to be rich, but I do intend to be financially free, and by that I mean having enough money not to worry about it. It’s not a pipe dream, but something I expect to happen in the not too distant future. I’ve been reading up on ‘intention manifestation’, and I intend to manifest enough wealth to do the things I really want to. I’m not talking […]
When I first came to Japan, I was told that Kentucky Fried Chicken, or simply ‘Kentucky’ as it’s known in Japan, is a Christmas tradition. I was told that people flock to KFC for their annual Christmas Eve dinner. I didn’t really take it seriously until I saw people lining up for three blocks one Christmas Eve, just to get their dose of chicken! Although it exists, turkey isn’t common […]
I was just looking around at the Japanese videos on youtube.com, and came across the following ‘English lesson’. I know we talk about using role-play to teach English, and how chants are a good way to remember phrases, but come on! This is just silly! I must confess that I’ve never seen anything quite like this on Japanese TV, but I guess it must exist. Maybe I’m not up early […]
For the month of November, 88% of visitors to my Writing Wizard website use Internet Explorer, while only 7% use Mozilla Firefox. How does this affect my approach to web design? Well, although I check my sites in Firefox, if they don’t work correctly, I honestly don’t care! Tech-heads and Firefox fanboys will rave about tabbed browsing, rss web feeds, security and extensions. And yes, Firefox offers loads of extensions […]