Taken with my new camera as I searched for another used bike this week: Wait a sec … I’d recognize that goatee anywhere …! Busted!! Et tu, Colonel? Et tu …?
Month: November 2007
Gobble Gobble
Despite having moved around a lot during my 27 years, I can count the times I have been homesick on 2 fingers; once, at age 9, when I went to sleep-away camp in Lake Tsala Apopka, Florida and again at age 24, when car wreck injuries kept me in Guatemala for 3 months. Both times, […]
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Selections from a Recent Survey With Subtext
A survey I posted on myspace a couple of angry, chilly nights ago: 1. Do you wear a name tag at work? I’m supposed to but I’ve been lazy. It never helps, anyway – with or without it, the standard bug-eyed response to telling students “My name is Liv” is: “Ehhhhh?” 2. What’s your favorite […]
Perfection
I am consistently mystified by the fact that my local tei shoku place always manages to include the perfect ratio of raw tuna to steamed white rice in my 480 yen bowl of maguro don. I never find myself longing for more of either ingredient; each chopstick full contains every luscious flavor the dish ought […]
Classroom Hoe-Down
Attention, English teachers in Japan! Are your young students suddenly disrupting your classes by doing something that looks like this? [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpr6vTGfbqo&rel=1] If so, blame this man: His name is Kojima Yoshio and, apparently, he’s a “comedian”. His shtick involves appearing in public clad only in a Speedo bathing suit. His act […]
Time Machines
Some pretty pictures from yesterday’s visit to The Open Air Museum of Old Japanese Farm Houses in Osaka …. On the way in – Paradise of Kids! All the world’s a stage …. A lovely afternoon of solitary wandering amid the pretty leaves … I’m one of those people who feels slightly bummed when summer […]
Things No Teacher Should Ever Have to Say
1. “I saw one of my students’ penises- AGAIN.” 2. “Today, a student ran up to me, grabbed my breast and shouted, “chichi*!”; adding “kirei**!” with a grin.” *titty! **beautiful! And yet … Needless to say, I refer to my 6 year olds, who delight in yanking down their underwear and now, apparently, complimenting my […]
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The Seventy-Some-Odd Days of Christmas
Japan is not a Christian nation but the Japanese do enjoy celebrating a Christmas season. Theirs is a cheerful Christmas of Santa, candy canes and reindeer, wiped clean of any religious figure (“Who is this Jesus you speak of?”) – and, apparently, any timely connection to the actual holiday. Starting the day after Halloween, here […]
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Hip/Unhip
Hip Trudging to the video rental store each evening after work to reclaim my bike inspires a sigh of relief and satisfaction each time I arrive and my bike is still there, parked where I left it some 8 hours before. Sometimes, I find trash inside the basket – dumped inside by some thoughtless jerk. […]