Today my current school held its fire drill. This isn’t the first fire drill I’ve participated in, but it still got to me how everything played out. To make it easier, I shall make bullet points comparing a typical American school fire drill and a Japanese school fire drill, both (obviously) from my […]

A few weeks back I was unicycling up northwest of Iizaka-Onsen, which is a city about a 25-minute train ride north of Fukushima. While heading down the narrow mountain highway I came across a little rest area, so I pulled in to give my legs some rest. I quickly realized that I had pulled into […]

This isn’t Japan-related in the slightest, but I came across a great picture of the Pueblo Dam in Colorado. I lived in Pueblo West, Colorado for four years, which ties it with West Lafayette, Indiana for being the longest I’ve lived in one place.
While looking through photos on Flickr I came across this shot–

It’s a […]

Today my sole class consisted of five disabled kids. I honestly didn’t see what was so disabled about them (except that one was incredibly shy), but sure, whatever.
Actually come to think of it, I know what’s disabled about them–it’s their perception of age. One student said I looked like a 19-year-old college student (understandable), but […]

As we’d be going through Tokyo to get to Chiba for the the brilliant green concert, Beth and I figured we might as well make a slight detour to go to the hamburger shop in Akihabara that I raved about. For the record, it’s a place called Seattle Burger that’s in a big building near […]

Taking a unicycle (or a bike if that’s what floats your boat) on the shinkansen was highly uneventful. The main requirement is that you make sure that it is contained in some sort of bag/box/etc. Once that’s out of the way, it’s generally smooth sailing. I carried my unicycle through the ticket gates, up to […]

Tomorrow I’m testing to see if people care if I take my 36er on the Shikansen. Bike bags are required to take bikes on any train in the country, so last night I went out to a hardware store to find something I could use. I didn’t want to spend the money on a real […]

I’ve been seeing a lot of signs for the Bandai-Azuma Skyline around the city, as it seems that most major roads here have a sign telling you how to get there. I looked into what it was, and apparently it’s quite a scenic highway that goes along the ridges of mountains, providing an very nice […]

Hey, I’ve finally gone live.
Lucky Isle is the place where I’ll write about whatever happens while I do the JET program in the Japan. So far I wrote up the process of actually getting into the program and getting here, but eventually I’ll catch up to the present. For now, have a look at the […]

Arrival, For Real This Time
The four or so hour bus ride was broken up by a rest stop or two. On one of these stops I got the first taste of restaurants that use vending machines instead of cashiers.
Food places at most rest stops, and some regular restaurants even, instead of telling the person at […]