I’m staring at my little collection of New Years cards from the kiddies, written to me during their Christmas Day Winter Seminar (inhumane), and I just noticed that every one features the phrase “A Happy New Year!” rather than “Happy New Year!” Obviously drilled into them as part of the lesson, but kind of an odd error. Maybe the teacher learned this from the “We … Continue reading The Shadow Puppets
Well it’s been a hugely long hiatus this time since my previous post… Maybe something encroaching on 5 months. I guess I have a combination of excuses to defend myself this time, but primarily the fact that my 7 year old laptop finally broke on me back in August, putting me out of commission on blogging for a few months until I acquired this shiny … Continue reading Ordinary Chronicles
As we enter into the final days of July, we’re finally hitting those excruciatingly hot Tokyo summer days that I remember from three years ago when I studied Japanese for a summer at ICU. The thick, choking humidity immediately engulfs you when you step outside like the steam of a sauna. I think yesterday it just barely pushed over 100º F (37.8º C) for a … Continue reading The White Wonderland of Wakkanai
This is probably a theme that I’ll often return to, hopefully not to an excess. Ah how do I begin on this particular story? It’s certainly not helping my distracted focus that a pair of foreigners are sitting at the table next to me, engrossed in an interview-style conversation, the subject of which I would name “language and sexuality,” though I can’t be sure seeing … Continue reading Ruby Tuesdays
Well it’s been a bit of a hiatus since my last blog post, but for good reason. For the past few weeks I left the wonders of Tokyo to gallivant around Europe with my sister for a bit. My cousin had a beautiful wedding in the south of France, and we met in Europe for that occasion. So I’m going to diverge a bit from … Continue reading Lavender Monasteries
Since I’m starting this blog a bit late in my Tokyo life I have to wash over the last ten months of anecdotes and try to sift out the ones most worthy of and translateable into a story. So as I continue this endless sifting process, and until I come up with a better strategy for selection, I’m going to take a somewhat pragmatic, almost … Continue reading Ogasawara Islands
At long last the much-anticipated Japan blog! Even as I sit here poised on the brink of my first entry I’m struck with the strange self-involvement and almost purposelessness of this. The only thing that drives me forward is the idea that if I myself came across a blog chronicling someone’s random eclectic adventures in Tokyo, I would probably be interested enough to take a … Continue reading An Introduction
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