Greetings! I hope you all had a great winter break and that the return to school and cold weather (for those of you who traveled south) wasn’t too bad!  I have a few updates from AJET about things that have been happening over the past few months. It was great having the chance to speak…
Maximum travel and minimum leave, the upcoming spring holidays are the perfect time to visit Hong Kong and Macau. You can cover a lot within a few days using the MTR system that puts Japan’s train network to shame. Food, culture, architecture, shopping, and gambling make China’s two ‘Special Administrative Regions’ very exciting and international…
Imagine yourself in one of Japan’s great baseball domes, but you’re not here for a game. There are no bases, no diamond – instead the house lights are off and you’re surrounded by 30,000 twinkling blue lights. Shrieks and yells of excitement fill the air, anticipation rising by the second. Then, the stage turns red…
This story is about a small town girl—from Sumoto-shi on Awaji Island—who had a big dream of winning a speech contest and going to Tokyo with her ALT. After arriving to Japan in August, my JTE at Suhama Junior High School asked for my assistance to prepare a student for a speech contest. During our…
If you are anything like me, you have already thought about where you want to go for your next vacation, and the vacation after that, and the vacation after that. The next time you are planning a trip, don’t forget about the land down under and a small beach town in the city of Melbourne….
2012. A new year begins, and for me, an American in Japan, it looks like it’s going to be quite a ride. The yen is up, the dollar down. The Tohoku region is still picking up what the earthquake/tsunami left behind. The world scrambles against global warming and an uncertain economy. The ancient Mayans predicted…
Some foods are very seasonal in Japan, and now is the time to enjoy oysters!
Failure! Who likes failure? I don’t! Failed friendships, failed marriages, failed relationships, and the lists go on. But failure is a normal part of life. Where it becomes tricky is when we FAIL to let go. Human beings! We are a species that holds on to things until they are dead, eventually. We hold on…