Chances are that if you’re a foreigner and you live in Tokyo, I either know you or I know someone who does. At least, that’s the way it seems sometimes. There are 350,000 foreigners living in Tokyo but somehow I still manage to randomly and repeatedly run into the same people. Even if you don’t… Read More The Six Degrees of a Tokyo Gaijin

I love riding the trains and subways in Japanland, because there’s never a shortage of entertainment. Especially during the last train home on the weekend. It’s a little like that Disneyland ride “The Pirate’s of the Caribbean,” in that everywhere you look, there are loud, disheveled, drunk men singing, stumbling around and in the case… Read More Last Train Home

5. I get off every day at 2:30 4. I don’t have to work Saturdays…ever. 3. My co-workers are all super chill. Last Friday we went out to Karaoke together and next weekend I’m going with a few of them to a ski/techno festival in the mountains 2 . The school is located on the… Read More Top 5 Reasons Why I Love My New Job

Sooo…as those of you who’ve been following this blog for a while know, I’d had some problems in the past with encouraging my shy Japanese students to participate in class. Most of the time, the routine involved a lot of one-sided conversations (me) and silent, stone-faced stares (them). I’d theorized that this was due to… Read More Korean Children Aren’t Shy! And Other Observations…

Today I was strolling through Ueno Park when I came came across 200 or so people waiting patiently in a long line that stretched around the edge of a lake. At first I thought they were waiting in line for some sort of free theater show and I almost joined them, but then I noticed… Read More Living in a Tent Down by the River; What It’s Like for the Homeless in Japan

Shopping in Korea was a little like being in shop-a-holic Hell. Everywhere I turned there was store after store selling ridiculously inexpensive clothing ($10 US for a new coat)…but it was a little like that saying “Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink” in that there wasn’t a single, solitary under-priced piece of… Read More Shop-a-holic Hell

I went to South Korea last month and was super excited to find that like Japan (and yours truly), Korea is also ueber-obsessed with nonsensical English, (otherwise known as EngRish, or random computer generated gibberish). Judging from the sheer volume of shirts and signs sporting EngRish phrases, it would seem that Koreans have a real… Read More Engrish…Korean Style

Last Friday, I traded in THIS… Mavericks, a word famous surf spot down the road from where my mom lives in California Peaceful path along the beach a block from my mom’s house For this… http://i.pbase.com/g4/33/609133/2/52246018.DSC00728.jpg Tokyo, impressively cramped and crowded as ever A lot has happened since I last wrote. I’ve been frantically busy… Read More Japan, Part Two

Me and My Little Brother in Santa Cruz, California. Five days ago, at four in the morning, I said a sleepy goodbye to New York. As my dad’s car pulled away from the curb, headed to JFK Airport, I looked back at the tree-lined street outlined in white, chalk dust-like snow, at the Christmas lights… Read More Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

Last night I went to the Bowery Poetry Club for Monday Night Bingo. If you don’t know what that is, well, it’s a lot more fun than it sounds. It’s Bingo for Gen Yer’s, in that it includes a Happy Hour and the hosts are drag queens. I went with a friend from High School,… Read More My Life in Limbo Land