Everyone’s always told that when my time came to leave Japan, I’d intuitively know. As if I’d wake up one morning and start to make myself a breakfast of curry and rice and the realization would just hit me that I’ve had enough. And that I’d realize that I want to go back to the land… Read More I’m Leaving Japan
I spent all of last week shuttling back and forth between my old job teaching (mostly North American) pre-schoolers at an International school, and my new job, teaching ESL at a Japanese after school preschool program. The whole experience was exhausting (imagine working for nine hours straight, all of your students under the age of… Read More Are Japanese and American Children Really all that Different?
The apartment was typical by Tokyo standards; A one roomed studio, sparsely furnished and only big enough to hold a max of 10 people. It was located in trendy Koenji, (a neighborhood known for it’s used clothing and record shops) and sandwiched between a Lawsons and 1,000 yen barber shop. “Make yourself at home,” our… Read More The ‘Cafe Apartment’ in Koenji is not Worth Writing Home About
Single? Boyfriend or husband far away? Buy a Boyfriend Pillow and you’ll never have to spend another sleepless night alone again. What Customers are Saying about The Boyfriend Pillow (Available in Japan, US $80): “It keeps holding me all the way through. I think this is great because this does not betray me.” “It makes… Read More Meet My ‘Main Squeeze’
I’ve been afraid of monkeys ever since I was attacked by a monkey in India last year. So I was more than a little apprehensive to learn that these ‘snow monkeys’ I was going to visit in Nagano wouldn’t be domesticated and caged, but wild and free and numbering in the hundreds. I guess I… Read More Adventure in Monkeyland
Someone emailed me recently asking for advice on how to live on a budget in Tokyo. Perfect timing! I’ve actually been brain-storming ways to cut back costs in the last few weeks, being that I’m perpetually broke and soon to be unemployed. In general, I’m not one to give advice on anything, let alone saving… Read More Five Ways to Save Money in Tokyo
512. That’s the number of people who responded to an ad for an ESL teaching position on the job-hunting site gaijinpot.com (the craigslist of Japan). I know this because minutes after I optimistically forwarded the company my newly updated resume, gaijinpot (very considerately) sent me an email to inform me of this little fact. 63.… Read More Must Love Kids: What It’s Like to Teach English in Japan
Last Sunday found me gingerly tiptoeing across an icy bridge barefoot and naked. It was one of those surreal Japan moments; an Alice in Wonderland trippy ‘Wow, what am I doing walking around in the snow at three in the afternoon with nothing but a thin towel I bought at the 100 yen shop?” type… Read More EmBAREassing Moment at the Onsen
I went in for a trial lesson at a language school in Ebisu last week and I was really impressed. And I’m not very easily impressed. Working as a foreign language teacher is both a blessing and a curse when it comes to taking a language course, in that I’m able to pick out the… Read More Inexpensive Japanese Language School in Tokyo
Small cup of coffee from Doutor Coffee shop…. US$2.80 Studio Apartment with a dorm-style, shared bathroom and shower down the hallway… US$751.00 Picture of my apartment, taken from the doorway. Taxi ride home from the karaoke bar last Friday… US$73.00 Believing that I can somehow still save money in Tokyo, despite all of the evidence… Read More Some Things in Life are Free…