My friend, Missy, from back home in West Virginia has just come to visit me. We’re leaving this weekend for Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand (!!!), so I wanted to put one more blog entry in before our departure. We’re both really excited about our trip. I’m taking two weeks off for the spring break so that I can get out of the country for just a bit. Our plane flies into Singapore, then we will be making our way through Malaysia (by train and bus), and finally ending up in Thailand where we will be flying back to Japan from [View Full Entry]

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I know I’ve been lazy about the blog entries lately, but there’s really not much going on here…besides me being busy. Luckily spring is in the air and the plum blossoms and daffodils have already started blooming. The days are getting warmer, and I’m using my kotatsu less (so long old pal). Things will start to get exciting in a couple weeks though when my friend from West Virginia comes to visit me! We have a lot planned, so I’ll make sure to fill you in on all the details then. But as for events of the past month: I recently [View Full Entry]

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The big news this week is that I’m not only famous on Yuge Island anymore, now I’m famous in both Ehime and Hiroshima prefecture! My picture was in both the Ehime prefecture newspaper and the Hiroshima prefecture newspaper for teaching in the international school day (see previous blog). In the Ehime newspaper I was pictured playing my fiddle with several students singing “Soldier’s Joy.” And in the Hiroshima newspaper I was pictured dancing in a square dance with the students. I think I like the Hiroshima newspaper picture better, because it is larger and in colo [View Full Entry]

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Last weekend was the International School Day that I have been preparing for, for some time now. The International School Day was an event on Innoshima (a neighboring island) to make Japanese students realize how English isn’t just another boring subject, and how it can be used for actual communication and having fun. It was designed to be an event that could be similar to participating in a student exchange to a foreign country without having to spend all that money. Our goal was to have various fun classes where the students would learn something interesting in English, but not learn [View Full Entry]

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Well, all feelings of a relaxing, stress-free life have now passed with the winter break. I’m now back to my daily routine of lesson preparation mayhem. It’s been a good couple of weeks being back at school though. Actually, I think all the free time I had during the winter break was starting to drive me crazy. So, the big event of the season, the Yuge Ekiden, happened last weekend. An ekiden is a long-distance relay race. They are held all over Japan throughout the months of December, January, and February. A lot of the more famous ones (like from Tokyo) [View Full Entry]

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My winter vacation was absolutely wonderful thanks to my amazing host family in Kyoto that I stayed with. It was completely stress-free, which was exactly what I needed. I also felt incredibly nostalgic thinking about all the great times I had in that area while going to school there a few years ago. From the moment I stepped on the old Keihan railway, I felt that kind of feeling you feel when you return to a place you know and love- like returning home. I used to ride on the Keihan train everyday to school there, so I knew it very [View Full Entry]

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Happy Holidays everyone!!! No, I did not go back to the U.S. for the holidays. I guess Christmas was a little lonely without my family, but it actually turned out pretty nice. Christmas in Japan is similar to Halloween in Japan in that it is mostly a commercial holiday. Most of the same Christmas merchandise we buy in America can be found here too. Department stores start playing Christmas songs from the beginning of December and sell everything from Christmas chocolates to Christmas lights to Santa Clause costumes. The difference between Halloween in Japan and Christmas in Japan is tha [View Full Entry]

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Not too much has been happening recently. It's gotten pretty cold here lately, so I think most people are just trying to keep warm inside their houses. Even though this area doesn't get as cold as what I'm used to back in West Virginia, it feels just as cold because of the lack of heating. There's no such thing as central heating here (at least not on this island), so everyone uses these small gas stoves that are placed in the middle of the room. They have to be lit with a match, and seem a little out-dated in such a [View Full Entry]

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The end of the year is upon us. In America, this means it's time to get a Christmas tree and do last minute Christmas shopping. In Japan, it means that it is time for bounenkai, or end-of-the-year parties with coworkers. I've been invited to three so far, and have attended two of them already. Working at several different places means attending a separate bounenkai for each place. Last week was my board of education's bounenkai and the rotary club of a neighboring island's bounenkai. Since I will be teaching (along with some other English teachers in the area) at a special [View Full Entry]

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If you recall, one of my junior high school students won the regional (Ehime Prefecture) English speech competition a couple of months ago. This means that she was able to go to the national speech competition in Tokyo last week. Actually, the full name of the competition was, “His Imperial Highness Prince Takamado Trophy 58th All Japan Inter-Middle School English Oratorical Contest.” The title is a bit ridiculous, I know. Prince Takamado actually died this past summer, so the contest is now hosted by his wife, Princess Takamado (from Japan’s royal family), and is sponsored [View Full Entry]

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