I know I really shouldn’t have, but I just wanted to try it out. And then it turned out to be a pretty awesome ride-with lots of room for groceries and a really trusting skinny hipped friend with a weak neck, if I can find one of those. I found it on Tuesday and I […]
Category Archives: Working as an English Teacher, Japan
There’s a secretary at work who dresses like she’s about to play soccer, but she’s not. I like her. She shuffles everywhere. She moves slow. She doesn’t talk much. In an office of people who are yelling and gesturing and grabbing papers like they’re playing a stock broker in the movies during a collapse of […]
Yesterday one of my students said, “Maroniiii diet down please. Ten Kilos. Pig meat.” And then she patted my paunch and said something like “bububububu.” And everyone agreed I would be cuter if I lost ten kilos of pork meat off my stomach, so it didn’t move separately from my body when I ran.
This is a flag from Sports Day I just uploaded.
This week one of my “students” built a mace out of a ping pong ball, tape, and screws. I’ve noticed “Um no” is a surprisingly successful strategy when teachers demand you give something to them. Pair “Um, no,” up with shoulder hunching like you aren’t going to give the thing up without a fight and […]
The way I see it I owe four students apologies. First, I’d like to say a, “sorry’boutthat” to the student who saw me at an electronics store in Nagano last year when I happened to be trying out a full body reclining massage chair by myself. With my shoes off. There was no need to […]
http://easthouse.cyber-ninja.jp/guesthouse_e/nishifunabashiI_en.html
I moved into a new share house when I came back from S.E. Asia. On the spectrum of “I love the feeling of community that communal living provides!” and “I can’t afford my own toilet, shower or kitchen; leave me alone,” I think we fall closer to the “I can’t afford my own toilet, shower, or kitchen; leave me alone,” side of things.
One of the first people I met drives a semi truck. I do wish my first reaction wasn’t to ask questions about the cab while thinking, “I’m so going to try to ride with him somewhere.”
This morning I went into the kitchen before work where a middle aged man in thick glasses, high wasted gym shorts, and a deeply tucked in shirt was leaning over a charring piece of salmon. I said, “you should turn the heat down or flip it,” and he said, “No, no, the top isn’t done yet.” When I left for work the kitchen was filling up with black smoke, and he was still just standing there watching it.
So it’s kind of a house for the functionally retarded. I’m feeling pretty at home here.
Today out on the field in the sun they brought out ropes, and they chain ganged themselves together in boys’ and girls’ chain gangs. They were supposed to be practicing running in their chain gangs, but one of the boys’ chain gangs hiked up the rope around their upper thighs like they were all held […]
I’m back in Japan and I’m receiving the finest Island country welcome a girl could hope for at work: It was sports day practice today! Or maybe just one of the sports day practices today! Actual sports day is on Saturday the 15th (or the 16th if it rains) and we have just two weeks […]
The thing about junior high is that they’re the same ages, but they’re totally different sizes and at different stages of development. It’s rainy season and everyone’s sweaty, but lots of the boys walk around with their arms around each other’s necks and shoulders. Some of them look mismatched like a bull mastiff in love […]
