You might recall the smash hit evening that was Himeji Prom-stravaganza 2011. My point of pride for the night was that my entire outfit cost me about 1200 yen. Thrifting was an essential part of my young unprofessional life. Being broke as hell does not cultivate in a person a taste for expensive fineries, but…
Summer is Here!! Hazzah! So time to get organised and check out some of the beaches on offer in Japan. Get some peeps together and hire a car for the weekend! Most of Japan’s best beaches lie along the Japan Sea. It’s camping time! Wadahama Beach, Fukui Prefecture Take the Maizuru expressway and exit at…
A great credit to all Assistant Language Teachers I know, we ‘man’ed up. Many of us also found avenues to donate toiletries, stationary, second-hand clothes and the like. Now, there is another way we can all help, and it’s all in the name of fun. Self restraint (or jishuku) is underway in a big way. As…
In my first year, in mid-May, I was standing at a checkout counter in fluorescent-lit Jusco. “It’s hot isn’t it,†the lady remarked as she rang up my items. “Yeah, it’s like it’s already summer!†I replied. She considered this. “Well, yeah, except, first comes the rain, then summer,†she informed me. Oh, right, of…
The scratchy yodeling of a rooster stirs me from my slumber on the tatami. Reluctantly I roll over to look at my watch. 3:15 am. Nowhere close to sunrise. My idyllic visions of humble farm life are slowly being whisked away by the winds that sculpt the land of northern Japan…
Pushing the noren curtain aside and sliding the wooden doors, you step into a whole new world that you cannot imagine from the indiscernible entrance…
PEPY stands for “Protect the earth, protect yourself.†In 2005, former JET Daniela Papi and Greta Arnquist began their long-term contribution to education in Cambodia, and their initiative has been growing ever since.
The Japanese deem the twentieth year of an individual’s life as the one which signifies the official “coming of age.” In all aspects of Japanese society, the twentieth year marks the age where teenagers are thrust into the world of adulthood, whereby they become morally, and often, economically responsible for their future. Every January, scores of teenagers experience a sudden revolution in their physical and social being, one which is marked by joyous celebrations – and in this case, long, beautifully carved wooden bows and exquisitely designed kimonos.
About 65 years ago, a soldier coming home from the war returned to a Japan very different from the place he’d left in 1931. He had been in China during its occupation and had seen the Soviet invasion of Manchuria before making it home. He had witnessed the very worst of human nature.