As some of you know, CLAIR is holding a video contest for JET Program participants about the communities in which we all live. The winners haven’t been decided yet, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy all the great videos of places throughout Japan. Plus, voting continues until March 31. Click through the links in…
As many fellow nerds may know, the Snow Troupe of the all-female theater troupe of Hyogo has been performing a musical version of the manga Rurouni Kenshin. The aforementioned is the story of a samurai with a bloody past, wandering during the first several years of the Meiji Era to atone for his many…
Hello fellow JETs, this is Gina reporting to you for duty. I’m a JET Alumnus who was stationed on beautiful Okinawa from 2012-2015. Some of you may believe I sold my soul for my awesome placement, but it was actually third on my list! Being based in Okinawa, I had an experience completely different from…
A bay city with a nearby volcano, Kagoshima is a beautiful and rather unique Japanese city. The volcano, Sakurajima, is still active and thus erupts rather frequently. 1914 was perhaps its largest recorded eruption and covered the city in ash, including a torii on the volcano’s island. Its remarkable landscapes make Kagoshima City a…
“I love you.” Colin didn’t blink or put down his cup; he took a sip of tea and continued staring at his computer screen. I got the distinct feeling this had happened to him before. He clicked on something and I saw his eyes start to move as he read. He was infuriatingly calm. It…
If you’re anything like me (34 years old, six feet two inches, 96kg, orange birthmark above right eyelid) and you live in Japan and have a postbox, at least one hand, a functioning eye and a smattering of curiosity, then you’ve probably received in the past, and subsequently read, one of the myriad of…
Since I came to Japan, I’ve had people back home ask me “How are you finding it?†and I reply “Amazing! I’m earning the most money I have in my life.†This is meant to be a slight bit of tongue-in-cheek bathos but there is some truth to it– part of the reason I like…
March is here and that means spring; which mean sakura are around the corner! While we savor our last moments of kotatsu comfiness, we can also enjoy our last rounds of nabe and warm winter favorites. Milk stew is a delectable creation I discovered while having kyushoku 給食 (school lunch) at a local preschool…
On January the 31st (or 31th, as many of my students would have it), the Hyogo Book Club met to discuss David Mitchell’s Slade House. It was published on October 27th, 2015, mere days after the 12th book club meeting (for which we read Natsuo Kirino’s Real World) and of some significance to the…