… for a moment be a tad less cynical: from Reisuke, Kazuyuki and Ren. Adorable Reisuke was my most zealous 4-year old depantser, the one who so uncannily reminded me of my brother at that age that I often had to keep myself from patting his bowl-cut. As the year has gone on he […]
Month: March 2008
Like Ships Passing Through the Night
It’s the last week of classes for this school year, which means we are in the midst of a company-wide schedule shuffle. In many cases, this means we will no longer be teaching at certain schools, which, in turn, means that farewells are in order for both staff and students. Teaching three days a week […]
Grand
There are a proliferation of train track-side noodle stands – guarded by a ticket machine, shrouded by thin curtains and peopled by frantically slurping customers planted at rows of counters without any kind of chair for an extra quick dining experience. Suddenly, like bento, they are extremely appealing to me and I lately make it […]
Pillow Fight
Sumo matches, defined by spastic bouts of extremely girly slapping and shoving, are usually over as soon as they start. If you’re with friends, distracted by questions about where to find the nearest conbini for a beer and bento run, you might miss one all together. This happened continually to Bob, who arrived at Thursday’s […]
Changes
The train doors always open to intense blasts of yaki nikku-perfumed air in Kankokumura Station; the rich, spicy aroma of charred Korean barbecue that used to delight and taunt me as I rode my bike through Kankokumura on the way to work is now the delicious smell of home. If my pocketbook is on the […]
- Japan
- ...
This Month’s Cover …
… of The Kansai Scene is freaking brilliant: Not that it bothers me at all, really – the standing out. I didn’t come to Japan expecting to blend in and don’t care about the stares I get, as long as they’re of the curious variety. Besides, being part of a foreigner gang only makes […]
On the Train, from Osaka to Wakayama
I like the houses I see in the patches of countryside, between concrete shopping center strips, convenience stores, stark plots of razed dirt, and jumbled, dingy Post-War housing developments. They are the old homes, compact and white, dotted along perfectly combed fields of rice, the rows parted like hair, with mushroom-capped bonsai out front, their […]