A week or so in Japan

Here’s a week or so in the life of me!   The week starts off with the water in the gutters all iced over. Coming from a country that is nice and warm always, stuff like this is exciting to me.   So at my middle school they were playing volleyball. At the end the winners played the teachers. OMG it was freezing inside that gym, I think I died. I didn’t have gym shoes...

Life, Priorities, Thoughts and Life… Recontracting?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about life and stuff. I know thinking is bad for your health, and I’ve concluded that the answer is 42, I’m still no closer to the ultimate question. What do I want to achieve in this life? There are many things that I want to do. I’m young but I know if you don’t set out clear plans and intentions, the days roll round quickly into...

SMAP in Pocari Sweat

That photo was seen on a vending machine. The stars and idols really are everywhere here. It’s great! I think in Australia at least, it’s the “average, everday” person who sells things on TV (hired actors but not famous). Where as in Japan it is the famous people who appear in advertisements. In particular, Kimura Takuya is the king of ads, I think he is in every second...

The Shampoo Robot

This was spotted in the window of a hairdresser’s in Nara. I’m not sure what the going rate is for shampoo robots is but 500円 sounds like a steal! Especially if there is a blow in itself… If you would like to check out this place, it was somewhere east of the Kintestsu Nara train station. Good luck… And I mean that on more than one...

My Mountain School

Today was a good day. Right now I work at three primary schools and one middle school as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT). All my schools are up in the mountains and are very small, but there is one in particular that I call my “Moutain School.” The reason for this is – at orientation in Brisbane for JET, one of the people talked about her “Mountain school”, a...

Wendy’s Closes in Japan – Wont Be Missed

At the end of 2009, fast food chain Wendy’s closed all it’s stores in Japan. So, before it closed I wanted to get some Wendy’s into me. In Australia Wendy’s is a different company that sells ice-cream. I may have had Wendy’s the fast food when I was in America but I don’t remember, so for me this was the first time having the food....

Waterboys – Movie Review

Movie: ウォーターボーイズ English: Waterboys Staring: Tsumabuki Satoshi, Tamaki Hiroshi, Miura Akifumi, Kondo Koen, Kaneko Takatoshi Released: 2001 Carlie’s Rating: Rate This Movie: (2 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)  Loading ... ...

Goals of 2010

I’ve been keeping a record of my Japanese progress since the end of October 2009. It’s been a very good motivator, and also good to see where I devote my time. Or where I don’t. I may be (am) weird, but I enjoy trying to reach my goals and beat them in this very visual way. With that said, I want to set some over all goals for the new year. So that I can kick them in the butt!...

Home Tour – My Japanese Apartment

Here’s the long waited for apartment tour. The only catch is… these photos are actually from when I first moved in back in August 2009! Most likely you will have to wait equally as long for me to post an updated and lived in version – first I will have to clean the place. The above photo is the thingy I made for my door. It’s made out of things from the daiso. Awesome...

Upcoming Drama: Code Blue Season Two

Coming up in the Winter season 2010 is season two of Code Blue. It starts on the 11th of January and will air Monday nights on Fuji TV. Looks like the important characters from Season one are returning, including Yamashita Tomohisa, Aragaki Yui and Toda Erika. ...