Blogs from Chiba, Japan, Asia - page 10

I think that my euphoria over arriving in Japan finally wore out sometime near the beginning of this week. I haven't quite hit that "depression period" that I'm told I will experience while abroad, and I hope I never get there, but this week really has tried my patience. There were problems with communication between the teachers, students, and director of the program, and the third year class was not being handled very well for the last several days. Several of the students (including me) wrote to notify the director, and hopefully things will be settled by the beginning of next week. One can only hope. Anyway, since last time, I have done quite a lot, and learned something new every day. On Monday, we had a free bus tour of Tokyo, with the stipulation that ... read more

Yesterday we had a guest speaker come to our program to tell us about his business in Japan. It was really interesting because, to start with, the man was American. He came from California, and ended up in Japan as the President/CEO of a small company called Japanime. The things we learned about from him were really interesting, and it consolidated an idea that had been forming in my mind since I arrived in Japan and first switched on the television. Manga University, a subsection of Japanime, is a small publishing branch concerned with the use of manga (cartoons, comics) as a means of education. His company published some of the famous "How to Draw Manga" series, as well as a series of Kana/Kanji de Manga, which uses comics to teach kids how to read and ... read more

*Rebekah says...* Greetings from Narita Duty Free, aka "Tokyo's 5th Avenue", Despite ominous tales and remembrances of land travel to JFK our ride was truely painless (although I can't yet speak for the rude back frin JFK, Thanks Brendan!). A 12 hour flight to Tokyo later we are killing time and contemplating Asian Bowl Bowl to supplement all the wonders American Airlines had to offer... Tonight Rachel and i will fly into Bangkok then to Cambodia tomorrow, well our tomorrow I suppose. We would both still love to hear from all of you. Yours in times of noodles and sleep deprivation, Rebekah PS Rachel thought it important to send out this tip to our fellow travels 'beware the serious fat foot action!' aka major foot swelling which comes as a result of 12 hours in the ... read more

Ohayo-gozaimasu, konichi-wa, konban-wa, etc., etc…It’s been a while - shashiburi. I guess time flies - no matter where you are…be it taking the trains in Tokyo or riding my big, red bicycle with a basket to school. Good times. Since returning to the land of extremities after from my latest adventure in April sailing down south in kiwi-land - my days have been filled with Suzuki-san’s Japanese lessons, the occasional no-mi-chai (drinking parties), moving into a giant house with a garden, venturing out to a few baseball games at Marines Stadium to support Bobby Valentine’s team, finishing up the latest textbook I co-authored, and talking to strangers - as I stumble through this language fearlessly. Oh yeah...and tokidoki shigoto-ga arimasu. Arwen’s arrival in April definitely turned things up a notch - to say the least ... read more

I have not yet been in Japan a full week, yet it feels like I've been here either forever, or just a few minutes. Excluding the last time I came to Japan, which was last summer for the Fifth International Conference for East Asian Calligraphy Education, held in Hiroshima, these last few days have included some of the most exciting and challenging experiences I can remember. Even living abroad in Ireland posed no challenge compared to the culture and language shock I went through here, these last few days. The first few days of the program, from Thursday to Saturday, all participants in the UNC Tokyo Summer program participated in an orientation, held at a traditional Japanese honten. The food was exquisite traditional Japanese fare (much of which I did not recognize) and we were housed ... read more