Back when I was still living with my family in Canada, I made it a habit to regularly watch any new anime titles that I could get my hands on. When anime really started to become popular about 10-12 years ago, I was always on a quest to find a good video or DVD to [...]
I really enjoy reading the news in Japan and keeping up-to-date on all the amazing or wild and crazy inventions that are constantly popping up in the headlines. The Japanese people pride themselves on their technology and constant mission to make their lifestyle a lot more convenient. A lot of their ideas inspire many strange [...]
The popularity of manga – or comic books – in Japan really is phenomenal. It doesn’t seem to matter where you are, what you’re doing, or how many people you’re surrounded by. If you take a good look around you, you might be surprised to find someone (or several people) indulging themselves in either a [...]
There are a lot of unique customs in Japan that aren’t always easy to understand because their meanings don’t always translate perfectly into English. Sometimes there are misunderstandings and things aren’t interpreted in the way that they were meant to be. A prime example of this can be easily seen if you pick up any [...]
Every night after I finish my shift at Smith’s School of English, Kyobashi, I head on back to the station in a somewhat brisk walk. Usually, the little snacks that I carry with me to work disappear rather quickly, so by the time I’m ready to head home, I’m famished. The only two things on [...]
I’ve recently been on a nostalgic Star Trek kick and have had trouble finding someone to share my trekker feelings with. It’s very fortunate that Smith’s School of English Kyobashi has such a wide range of students with a vast number of interests. Unable to contain my excitement one day over the new Star Trek [...]
The weather forecast was predicting that it would rain this past Sunday, but thanks to some good luck and quite a good deal of sunshine, it turned into a beautiful day. The perfect day for a picnic! It was just a wonderful coincidence that the cherry blossoms were in full bloom at the time that [...]
There are a lot of times where a familiar sight or sound in Japan makes me feel just a little bit homesick. Although these sorts of feelings are only natural, it’s much more pleasant if they can be negated or avoided. Either that or quickly bribed with an interesting manga or a trip to one [...]
Last week, I did a bit of research for one of Smith’s School of English Kyobashi’s high level students. He had requested some information about comic book stores in Japan after a conversation that we had about comic books and superheroes. After hearing about how I had learned a good deal of kanji characters through [...]
I met an incredibly interesting student this afternoon. He’s brand new at Smith’s School of English Kyobashi so he voluntarily offered up quite a bit of information on his job/hobby. His job and hobby are actually one in the same – learning and teaching about Chinese history. For the past 30 odd years, he has [...]
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