Welcome you to Japan! - Julie

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Writing about Japan instantly invokes reflection on China. For those who don't know, we're working at an English school in Marugame, Japan. Marugame is where the ninjas...I mean samurai...well, ok nothing crazy happened here. But it's a pretty sweet town, and we have pretty sweet jobs, teaching youngsters how to cuss in English.

China .... even after I've been out of the that country for months, I'm still thinking about it. I'm reading about China, I'm talking about China and I'm writing about China. Never have I felt such a disconnect between my personal enjoyment and (intellectual? mental? )horror of a place. I just finished reading Oracle Bones, by Peter Hessler, which really helped clarify my thoughts. As our friend Jose said, Hessler describes China in a way I couldn't, and puts to paper my own feelings about the place in a far more articulate way. Read it!

I feel like I'm trying to make a China sandwich with some really great aged cheese and rancid mayonnaise. It's just not going to happen. You can't put the two together and expect it to taste great. I will always feel conflicted about China, I'll constantly debate myself ( and everyone else) about what's right and wrong with the place. I just can't reconcile my own enjoyment of teaching in China with the terror and oppression that is the Chinese government.

And perhaps that's the way it should be. Maybe I should feel uncomfortable, and uneasy. I could go on.....If you want to have a conversation about it, email me.

So we're in Japan now, settled in a lovely two bedroom fully furnished apartment . We had a fantastic "handing over" ceremony, when the two teachers who were leaving introduced us to their friends and gave us their various also-passed on membership cards. For the record, at the gym I am not Julie Adams. Just as Nick was before me, I am Joe Scarpelli.


As Therese pointed out, my favorite things to blog about are toilets and food. Since I haven't had enough Japanese food yet, I am left with toilets. Specifically, I want to tell the world about the toilet in my apartment. Not only does it have a bidet, it has a "lady spray" option, and even a terrible water butt massager. You practically get a jet of water in the back of your head so I avoid that last one. Plus, supposedly you can push a button and the toilet will play water sounds, to drown out your embarrassing noises. The toilet has about a million buttons and none are in English, so I don't know which one the water noise button is. Also, we have a seat warmer! Are you listening, potential visitors? A freaking seat warmer! Beat THAT!

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