Minimalism - Online Income - ESL - Japan
In my last post, Double without you, I talked about how the Japanese may need to go back to basics and re-learn English from simple ABCs. What they lack in English skills however, you would think they’d make up for in mathematics, right? Well, I’m not so sure… When you walk around the backstreets of Japan’s sprawling cities, you’ll see bars and restaurants with opening hours displayed in their windows […]
With Japan’s hanami season underway, Mami and I thought we would take a stroll down the river to see what this year’s “cherry blossom viewing” season had to offer. While we were walking under the sakura, I told Mami a story I had heard from one of my students a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, K-chan was walking her dog in Gifu park when she saw a large group of […]
Last month I got a new computer, a Windows Vista PC with enough power to run Google Earth! I’ve been playing with Google Maps a lot lately, particularly after I discovered you can manually alter the zoom level to go in further than you thought possible, like this section of Africa in which you can clearly see a man with his camel. Google Earth is even more fun than playing […]
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 always ask my students what they plan to do at the weekend and they often say they are going to go for a drive. I agree that if you can get out into the mountains you might enjoy the scenery, just as we do driving through the countryside in England, but that’s if you can get out into the mountains! When the weekend rolls around, everybody, and I mean everybody, […]
While most of my free time is spent sitting in front of the computer, watching movies or playing video games, I have tried to find some other hobbies to keep things interesting. I tried juggling, and succeeded in keeping four balls in the air for a good five seconds. I mastered the Rubik’s cube, being able to complete it within three minutes, and I even tried something a bit more Japanese – […]
After I graduated back in 1997, I boarded a JAL flight from London to Tokyo as I set out to experience a country which would later become my home. I was 21 years old and had no idea of what to expect, in fact I wasn’t even sure that the family I hoped to stay with for the summer even knew I was coming! These were the days before the internet and […]