My wife’s friend Mayumi Naka was a guest at our wedding and she took some beautiful pictures during the ceremony and reception. We asked her for copies of the pictures and not only did she give us a CD the pictures but she also put up a really nice website. I will put up more pictures later, but for now please enjoy these.
As you already know, a week from today I am getting married. So yes, as it turns out even geeky gamers can find love. Of course that doesn’t stop me from continuing to be that geeky gamer. My wedding invitation proves this. Be warned that it is more than a bit silly and lame, but it’s also, I hope, kind of cute.
With my wedding coming soon I decided to try a new fitness program made for the Nintendo Wii. It’s called Wii Fit and it is basically a white balance bard that you stand on and do various exercises with.
Click here to see a video of Wii Fit in action
Anyway, I also decided to write my impressions on a daily basis. So far it is leading to weight loss and I am very pleased with it. You can read al about it by clicking on the link below.
Other than writing for 4cr I have a full time job as an English teacher. This year I switched to teaching elementary school. The kids are great but it is an exhausting job. Anyway, recently I decided to do a lesson about family structure. To teach English words like Father, Mother, Brother, Sister, etc.
As with a lot of lessons I do with first graders, I have to make it as interesting as possible or I can’t hold their attention for more than about 7 seconds. Kids this age love video games. Especially Mario games, so when teaching the word “brother” I decided to use a word they already know from the game “Super Mario brothers. However as it turned out, the one who got the lesson was me. Here’s what happened:
This is my first attempt at making a Japanese music video so I decided to stick to something I know. Green public phones! The song is in Japanese but I added subtitles to the video. It’s weird but I hope you find it funny.
Want to know what’s cool for little kids in Japan? Right now it’s a bug that likes biting people in the butt. This Oshiri Kajiri Mushi (Butt Biting Bug) is the star of a song that hit the top 10 in Japan and became an instant children’s classic (until the next one comes along). The song is crazy but insanely catchy.
Many of my students, both boys and girls, have pencils, notebooks, toys, erasers, etc. with this guy’s image on them. And if there is a class with students I just can’t seem to connect to, sometimes I will sing a few lines of this song and just watch their faces like up. “Teacher knows Oshiri Kajiri Mushi, he must be cool!” Because to a six year old, there really is nothing cooler than this.
The other day I was at a convenience store and I saw the Oshiri Kajiri Mushi on a package in the snack food aisle. The product was called “Oshiri Pie” in Japanese, which literally means “Butt Pie”! In what country other than Japan does that sound like something you would want to eat? Yeah, I bought some.
It’s long past Halloween, but I thought I would share a little anecdote with you. As usual when a Western holiday comes around, I plan an English lesson around it. For the last part of my Halloween lesson, I gave the kids the above handout and let then design their own Jack o’ Lantern face. Many students wanted to put their favorite characters on the pumpkin, like Spongebob or Doraemon, but by far the most popular choice was the face of Mario. In some classes more than half of the kids were making Mario. It’s cute and all but I wanted to see the students do some original designs. So in the next class, while explaining the activity I told them not to draw a picture of Mario but rather to draw a picture of their best friend. One little boy handed in this picture…
Halloween isn’t really celebrated in Japan. Recently some Japanese people will put up small decorations or buy Halloween candy at import shops, but it usually ends there. That’s where the Gaijin step in for a little internationalization. We are definitely up to this task as it takes advantage of our special skills of looking strange and throwing a party.
Today was my first day at my new elementary school. It was also my first time to interact with the students. It is summer vacation now but there were kids in school because today is the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. A perfect day, apparently, for the new American teacher to introduce himself.
It stated out good. I arrived early and played with the younger students who where thrilled to see a brand new face. One student showed his approval by punching me in the crotch. Then he smiled, obviously satisfied, and gave me a hug. I played with the kids for about 20 minutes before the high energy of the kids combined with the lack of air conditioning (or really any ventilation) made me retreat to the teachers room. The kids kept calling me to come back, wanting to spend more time with their new teacher. As I said it was a good start.
People who have been reading this site (despite the fact that it is never updated) have probably noticed a lovely lady named Misako makes frequent appearances. That is of course because for the last two and a half years she has been a huge part of my life. At the end of April I decided that since I never wanted that to end, it was time to take the next step. So I asked her to become my wife.
She said “Yes” and made me the happiest man in the world.
So it looks like I’ll be in Japan for a bit longer…