This past weekend I went down to Tsukuba to visit Beth, and as usual, on the way back we took the Tsukuba Express back to Tokyo so I could catch my bus back to Fukushima.
Now for the few people who don’t know, Japan tends to pride itself–and with good reason–on having reliable, always-on-time trains. If [...]

Popularity: 30% [?]

I’ve recently formulated a new goal for my stay here. I’m going to find out exactly where specific movies were shot in Japan then go there and take a photo at the same location used in the movie. In this way I can sort of let movies be my tour guide to the country, and [...]

Popularity: 28% [?]

Ahh, the Sapporo Snow Festival. There were something like 400 snow and ice statues and sculptures. Some of these were relatively small, about six feet or so tall, and others were immensely huge. Many of the huge ones put that space to good use and built a snow stage out in front for many different [...]

Popularity: 15% [?]

Tonight I had about two of the most confusing hours of my life. I shall relate, but first there’s lots of pre-story to get up to the interesting stuff.
It all started about halfway through the workday today. This particular school is about a 25 minute bus ride away from the city. The particular bus I [...]

Popularity: 23% [?]

To my dismay, today I found out that I failed 3-kyu of the JLPT. For those who don’t know, JLPT = Japanese Language Proficiency Test. There are four levels, from 4-kyu being the easiest to 1-kyu being virtually fluent.
With the amount of time I’ve been studying Japanese, there isn’t really a good reason for me [...]

Popularity: 33% [?]

Today (as in February 3rd, today) is Setsubun, which means it’s time to cleanse the evil spirits from my home. Unfortunately, I like my evil spirits, so instead I went around and cleansed some of the other JETs places.
Usually what happens today is that the father of a family puts on an oni (demon) mask [...]

Popularity: 15% [?]