TheManInJapan

My Parents in Tokyo (last month)

Mom and Dad came to see me for 9 days in Tokyo!

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My Birthday (last month)

So, May 28 was my 22nd birthday. The fact that I hadn’t posted about that yet shows you how far behind I am. At this point, I had been in Japan for less than two months. Yet somehow I still had made enough friends for all this: And there were other friends who asked later [...]

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Flea market!

(This was actually awhile ago…I’m behind on my posts again) One day, I went out to get some food, and right outside of campus I saw this: That seemed odd, apparently they had shut down the road, so I started biking on the sidewalk 20 feet later, I saw this: Woah! It was a bona [...]

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I ain’t hatin’

An exchange student from Europe recently told me that she found my blog, and she thinks I should stop making fun of Japanese accents, i.e. “it’s rerry complicated” from the cell phone post. So let’s be clear: Just because a Japanese person speaks less-than-fluent English does not mean that they’re an idiot or whatever. And [...]

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Save me from the cell phones!

I like cell phones. Cell phones are cool. You know what I don’t like? Buying cell phones. Lemme see if I can summarize this. First off, coming to Japan, I knew that I’d want a cell phone. Everyone has cell phones around here, with all sorts of cameras and whatnot, and it’s particularly important to [...]

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I Can’t Read (the hardest test I’ve ever taken)

So…. Japanese Placement Test…yeah… That was hard. Some background: Skill in Japanese is measured on a scale of 1 to 4, where 4 is the worst and 1 is the best. Try to remember that: they’re counting backwards. (There’s also, technically, a level 5. You don’t wanna be level 5.) I’ve been studying Japanese for [...]

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Bicycle!

Judging from my posts on Orientation, you might surmise that I’m having a bad time in Japan. I’m actually having a great time, which is why I added those little disclaimer notices to the top. Sometimes complaints are funny, ok? Anyway, here’s one thing I’m not complaining about: bicycles. You gotta have a bicycle in [...]

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Orientation part 2

(Standard Notice: Beware of humorous sarcasm. If it seems like I’m complaining, I’m actually not. Well, I am kindof, but the positives of Japan greatly outweigh the negatives.) (Ok, I’m a few days behind on posting, so bear with me) For Wednesday’s orient-ation (oh! see that pun? that’s a great pun.), we had to head [...]

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Orientation

(Note: If it sounds like I’m complaining, I’m actually not. I’m still very very glad to be here) This was last week, the day after I arrived in Japan: I’m sitting in a room with about 80 people, most of them Asian. Up at the front there’s some administrator-types setting up a powerpoint presentation; they’ll [...]

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The Trip

I don’t like planes. I don’t like rushing to the airport. I don’t like worrying about whether or not they’ll lose my luggage. I don’t like being confined for several hours on end. I don’t like the constant “plane sound” you hear from the inside. I especially don’t like motion sickness, to which I am [...]

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