Hilariously Beautiful

So I've been teaching for a full week, now. Well, that's not entirely true, since a good chunk of my lessons last week (actually, all of the ones in the junior high school) consisted simply of a self-introduction presentation, which itself is composed of over a hundred pictures that describe some aspect of my background: where I'm from, where I was born, where I went to school, what my college town looks like, what my hobbies are, what I like to eat; easy stuff. The difficult classes have been in the elementary schools; one class in particular is very unenthusiastic. I've been told that they're quite a smart class; I reckon it's their smarts that is creating this lack of motivation. Hopefully I'll come up with something to get them to be more 元気 "genki" (energetic).

I came across a HILARIOUS video today; actually, a friend of mine, who is also a JET ALT, posted it on her facebook wall. The video contains audio from a book series called 英語ノート　"Eigo Noto," which is the text book series that is used to teach English to elementary school students. Anyway, this video takes the audio from various lessons and remixes it a bit with the theme of male-female relationships (Read: How to pick up women). Really hilarious. Here it is:



Ah, so, before I watched that video, I actually had quite a bit of stuff in my head that I wanted to post about! But I laughed so hard that those thoughts fell out of my head. So! That means I'll treat you to another video. But this one is not funny at all. No. Instead, it is beautiful. I'll post it here, but I recommend going to the actual website to view it in HD and full screen.

Hayaku: A Time Lapse Journey Through Japan from Brad Kremer on Vimeo.

I don't recall if I mentioned this in a previous post, but here is another important difference between Japan and the US: in the US, there is a janitor (or team of them) to clean up the entire school grounds. In Japan, there are none. At best, there is a mechanic or handyman, but he is not expected to clean up the classrooms or hallways. Nope. Who then? The students! Haha!

Is it wrong of me to laugh? Well, I suppose it's not technically funny; at least, not until you see the looks on their faces when you tell them that in the US, students don't have to clean the classrooms. It's fascinating, really. Oh, and there is no cafeteria. The students all eat in their classrooms; and again, they are responsible for bringing the crates and boxes of food into the classrooms to serve to their classmates. I can see that Japan makes sure to teach the kids how to be active members in society at an early age. I think it's great for them! If only the brats in the US were made to serve and clean, too, maybe we wouldn't have so many problems with laziness. Or obesity! Anyway, I digress...

I was shown how to fill up my gas tank today. And not just going to the Full Serve and saying "Regular Mantan Onegaishimasu" (which has them fill up your tank with "regular" octane gasoline). I'm talkin', goin' to the Self Serve gas station, hitting buttons with kanji on the screen, paying by cash, and pumping the gas myself. I'm happy to have been able to learn that. Now, the reason I learned to fill up my tank today wasn't just because my tank is only 1/4th full, but also because I was doing some Dimensional Analysis today (it must have been all the Breaking Bad that I've been watching that made me want to do it, haha).

What, may you ask, is Dimensional Analysis? Well, it is the branch (or merely, aspect) of science and math that is used for unit conversion. It's one of the simplest, and yet one of the most important, basic lessons of science. Failure to properly convert units can lead to disastrous results.

Anyway, the Dimensional Analysis I did today was about trying to figure out the cost of gasoline here in Japan (which is in Yen per Liter) and converting it into the units we use in the US (Dollars per Gallon). I knew the gas here was more expensive; I just wanted to know how much.

So, using my recently acquired iPhone, unit conversion apps, and exchange rates, I quickly wrote down this formula:

(Current price in the US in $/G) divided by (volume conversion factor in liters per gallon) times (exchange rate in Y/$)

The formula leads to a conversion of US prices into Yen per Liter. Substituting the current price (at the time) of $2.57/gallon in Pennslyvania, I got 57.16 Yen/L.

Hmm, 57.16...WOW. That's CHEAP. At least, compared to the price I saw at the pump today! The price at the pump was 125 Yen/L!!! That's more than double the cost!!! In fact, using the conversion factor I calculated (22.24203522 ¥gal/$L), it comes out to $5.62/gallon! DAMN THAT'S EXPENSIVE!!! Gas is 2.2 times more expensive in Japan than the US!!! Blows my mind.

Also, seeing that I filled up about 3/4th of my tank today, and seeing that the price was only about 2000 Yen, I can guesstimate that my tank is only about 21 liters, or five and a half gallons. Crazy small! My dinky little sedan back in the US was only 13 gallons, and it was a compact (or sub-compact) car. Well, I guess with an engine size of less than 600 cc's, I don't need to worry about using too much gasoline in the first place.

Lastly, I'd like to say that I've been keeping an eye on the US-Japan exchange rate pretty closely for the past few months. And just now, I saw it finally plummet to below 84 yen/dollar. It's currently 83.89262, according to the MSN Money desktop gadget. That's soooooooo baaaaaaaaaaad! Just three years ago it was around 123. That means Americans could go to Japan and feel slightly wealthier. Currently, the opposite is true. That's great news for me because I'm making money over here! But terrible news for people just arriving (girlfriend, other friends) or people who want to visit me (family, friends). Check out this 10-year chart on XE.com for more numbers. (In 2002 it was 134!!! I wish I went to Japan back then!!!)

Word of the day: 満タン　[まんたん」　"mantan," or "full tank." Literally.

Activities

Japan is interesting. I don't know if it's just small towns like this one, if larger cities are included, or if it's just this town in particular; but damn, do people love events! I've been living in Japan for about a month now, and already, I've attended two town-wide events with hundreds of attendees! The first was the Kappa Festival, which I mentioned in a blog entry last month. Today's even was the Field Day.

Yeah, Field Day. Remember Field Day? Way back in elementary school, when the school district would all come together to old a massive athletics event with relay races and whatnot? Well, this one is TOWN WIDE, with participants not limited to just students! In fact, some events are designed specifically for adults, and many events (all, maybe?) are separated by age group. At one point, I saw 6 groups of a dozen senior citizens all throwing colored rubber balls into a reed basket 15 feet in the air. Not an easy task. And seeing this made me realize something: how physical activity is such an important aspect of Japanese culture. It's not just "important;" rather, it's "normal." It's just a regular, everyday thing. There are many farmers in town; they're always outside working, laboring, on their land. In offices, there are morning exercises; people warm up in sync to elevator music. It's amazing, really.


Anyway, it was neat to see the whole town participating in competitive activities. Everyone was split up into neighborhoods. When I first arrived, the Field Day event was already half-way through (I overslept; oops). And of course, I ran into my students on the way there (I walked) and was greeted by more upon my arrival. I didn't know where to go at first, so I hung out at the judges tent, where I saw two guys from the Board of Education (my superiors). [Side note: one of the guys is known simply as "Kachou," which basically means "section chief."] I grabbed a grape Fanta (remember, it's called "juice" here) and a "caramel milk crepe" and ate it at the judges tent. After a while, I met a friend of my JET predecessor who is learning English. She talked to me about some sort of "English club" that was established in a neighboring city by my pred; I'll attend this week's meeting. :-) After that brief conversation, she had to leave, and I went off to join my neighborhood. Again, I ran into some students; but they actually live in my neighborhood! It was fun cheering with them (or for them, in some cases) and cheering with their families. The Field Day ended with a big relay race.

Everyone was leaving, so I decided to grab some food before the stands were closed; I managed to get a box of tako yaki (octopus balls) and some okonomiyaki wrapped around some chop sticks. Okonomiyaki is like...well, like a crepe, but with a bunch of things thrown into it while it's cooked; kind of like an omelette would be made. Anyway, I just hung out at home afterward, watching some Breaking Bad (good series, by the way; I recommend it). As I went outside to the vending machine to grab some oolong tea, some elementary (or nursery?) school students said hello to me. Then the kuchou (president of the neighborhood...or something)　showed up and told me that our neighborhood won! Yay!


So yeah, this weekend was both eventful (literally) and uneventful (figuratively) at the same time. Saturday was especially boring. Such that I learned the phrase to exclaim my boredom and text it to two friends. Unfortunately, both people I texted were busy. :-( Oh well, I spent the time watching Breaking Bad (actually started it yesterday) and cooking some awesome udon. I made the soup myself this time, too! Just some soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and seasoned salt that I brought from the U.S. Seasoned salt makes everything taste better. Even victory.


Oh! I almost forgot to mention! I finally got my iPhone! Yay! I was thinking about making a "Cell phones in Japan Part 3," but I'm not really sure it's necessary. There isn't much more I can say about Japanese cell phones. Except that the majority of them use infrared to transmit the owner's account info (name, number, e-mail, picture) to someone else. It's so much more convenient than having to type it in! Unfortunately, iPhones don't have infrared; I'd have to buy a special dongle for that. But they do have bluetooth! And WiFi! Which means that I can download an app called "Bump" that'll let me "bump" my phone with another iPhone user (who also has the app) and exchange info that way. Yay apps.

Oh, another cool thing about Japanese phones is that they have a QR Code reader that can read these black and white square codes. These codes usually have websites, but I found an app that allows one to create a QR Code that contains phone info. Here is an example of a QR Code that happens to contain a link for this blog:



Cool, huh? So yeah, cell phones read those. I got an app to read them, as well. Lastly, I'll say that I finally worked out a little (weight lifting, calisthenics) in a loooooooooong time. It must have been all that exercise I saw today. And this epic video.



Phrase of the day: 退屈だな。 「たいくつだな。」　"Taikutsu da na." "I'm bored."

A gift for those of you who got to the end of this post:

Harold's Japan Picture Gallery

Cell phones in Japan, Part 2

This is Part 2, the continuation of Japanese cell phone discussion/monologue from earlier. Also keep in mind that I posted a blog earlier today, as well, about the end of the Obon celebrations.

I have a cell phone! Yay! Now I can text people and make emergency phone calls!

Okay, so, after a whole lot of thinking; more thinking than I really wanted to do with cell phones, I decided to get an iPhone. Yeah, yeah, I know, I know, "jumping on the bandwagon." Whatever. But actually, no, I'm not quite jumping on the bandwagon. My opinion of Apple is still the same: I don't approve of some of their business practices, and Apple as a whole I don't really like. But just because I don't like the company doesn't mean that I automatically have to hate all of their products; no, that's just cynicism. And that's also unfair. That said, I think Apple's hardware is fantastic; and their software works very well for their hardware. But once you start throwing Apple software on Windows PCs or non-Apple software on Apple hardware, the results are often less than desirable. Oh yeah, and iTunes sucks. :-P

But anyway, back to the iPhone. I actually was highly considering going with the HTC Desire, also offered by SoftBank. Unfortunately, the wait is super long, and I also don't get the sweet discount on the Packet Plan. The phone itself is also a lot more expensive than the iPhone (either 16GB or 32GB). So, given that the SoftBank store I went to just got an order of 32GB phones, I chose this one because I'll be able to get it sooner! It's only about $5 more a month than the 16GB, so it sounds like a good deal to me. And I can unlock the phone and use it in the US, too (Bwa ha ha! Screw you AT&T!).

Because I won't get my iPhone for another few weeks, I decided to get a Pre-Paid plan and cheapee phone from SoftBank, as well. The phone was normally about 7000 yen, but I got it discounted to just 2000-something yen. Nice! The Pre-Paid plan is actually really good for those planning on being in Japan but only needing to text people and not make phone calls. Basically, the way the plan works is that you can buy a 3000 yen or 5000 yen card, which is about $34 and $57, respectively. With this card, you can make phone calls at the super expensive rate of 9 yen/6 seconds. That's a dollar a minute! It's a terrible price, but you just need to save it for emergencies. For only 300 yen, you can also buy unlimited texting for 30 days (called e-mail in Japan) to any provider: SoftBank, AU, Docomo, even to PC e-mail! Pretty sweet. And really super inexpensive. Apparently, if you also have more money on your card by the end of 30 days, it automatically renews. I'm not sure if it continually renews every month, though. So if you're interested in a full year's worth of Pre-Paid, you'd have to ask the store directly. More info here:

http://mb.softbank.jp/en/prepaid_service/
http://mb.softbank.jp/en/prepaid_service/unlimited_mail.html
http://mb.softbank.jp/en/prepaid_service/prepaid_plan.html

So why an iPhone? The screen is gorgeous. The pixel resolution is 326 ppi (pixels per inch). What does this mean? The pixel resolution is SHARPER THAN A MAGAZINE (300 dpi). Apple advertised that the resolution is so good that the human eye can't distinguish individual pixels, hence the naming of the display to "Retina display." Of course this is just the usual PRing that any company would do, but that doesn't change the fact that this is an amazing piece of hardware. The 640 x 960 resolution is like having two standard definition televisions (like the one in my apartment) stacked on top of one another! This phone has twice the resolution of my TV!

Also, the apps are amazing as well; nearly anything I would need an app for is available. And that's the kicker. I need to get some sort of electronic kanji dictionary. I will buy a real denshi jisho at some point, and I will also buy the Nintendo DS version (Kanji sono mama). But I won't always be carrying around a denshi jisho or a DS. So it would be extremely convenient to have it on my phone, because I would always be walking around with it. So the iPhone 4 kind of solves that problem as well. Additionally, because it's so easy to jailbreak and unlock the phone now, I can easily take it to the States!

Now, I really don't like iTunes. And I never liked QuickTime. Which is why I use QuickTime Alternative or QuickTime Lite anytime I need to play .mov files. And luckily, I've been using Winamp for over a decade now, and it has support for iPod/iPhone management! But there are also other iTunes alternatives. I will probably still need iTunes to download updates to my phone though. :-/ There are apparently ways to update the phone without it, but I haven't had enough time or experience with iPods/iPhones to have enough confidence to really mess with a device that I just bought.

If there are any questions that anyone has, feel free to leave it in the comments and I'll try to address it in my own comment or in a later post! You can also e-mail it to me if you don't want it published/publicized.

Second word of the day: アプリケーション "apurikeeshon", or "application." You know, like for phones. :-P

Cell phones in Japan, Part 1

I FINALLY GOT MY GAIKOKUJIN TOUROKUSHO! That means I can buy a phone! :-D

Here is a post about phones. I have included an except from an e-mail that I sent to my lovely girlfriend. I do not have the time right now to really get into detail. But here's a basic gist of things.

Refer to these links for more details:
http://mb.softbank.jp/en/
http://www.au.kddi.com/english
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/ (I don't really mention Docomo, as I am not really interested in their plans. Their phones are amazing, though.)

This is Part 1, and I will definitely make a Part 2 later.

E-mail:

Okay, so the phone thing. Get ready, this is going to be a little complicated. I will post this stuff on my blog as well, but the detail may be a little different.

So you know there are three major cell phone companies in Japan (Willcom is actually another one, a 4th one, but I haven't looked into them at all). And when you get a phone, you get two ways to get in touch with people: a phone number, and an e-mail address. The phone number can be used with making phone calls. The e-mail address is used for sending e-mails. Okay, that makes sense; but what is strange is what the e-mails *really* are.

There are two types of messaging; SMS (Short Message Service) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service). SMS is what we use in the US and refer to as "texting". As soon as you try to send anything besides text, like a picture or music, it becomes an MMS file.

In Japan, SMS is rarely used, and is actually not compatible across providers. So everyone in Japan uses "e-mail", which is actually a form of MMS. The difference is that in the US, you use the cell phone number for everything, from phone calls to SMS to MMS. But in Japan, you have to use an e-mail address for MMS. To use SMS, it appears that you can use either a phone number (if you're with SoftBank) or an e-mail address.

You are going to get a simple, free, Japanese phone, right? In which case, you will use the phone number you get for only phone calls. And you will use the e-mail address you get (which you can decide the name of) to make text/e-mail messages.

If I get an iPhone, you can send messages to my whatevernameIpick@softbank.ne.jp or name@i.softbank.jp addresses. I believe the first one is SMS and the second one is MMS.

When you buy a phone, you will have many kinds of plans available. I will try to explain the plans from SoftBank that I recommend.

White Plan, ￥９８０: In the white plan, you can make a phonecall to SoftBank phones for free, between 1 AM and 9 PM. But at night, from 9 PM to 1 AM, there is a ￥２１ for every 30 seconds you call someone. This is UBER expensive. $.45/minute is ridiculous. And if you call other brands like AU or Docomo, at any time of the day, it costs that same price. I would also mention video calls, but it's expensive and we won't really be doing it, so I'll skip that.

If you like making phone calls after 9 PM, then you can go with Double White, which is twice as expensive per month, but twice as cheap per minute.

S! Basic Pack, ￥３１５: The S! Basic Pack is the MMS E-mail service that SoftBank provides.

And if you have the money, Unlimited Packet Discount, ￥１，０２９－￥４，４１０: The charge is dependent on the amount of packets (internet/mail) you use. If you do not have this plan, then you will be charged for each e-mail you send to a non-SoftBank customer. Kinda sucks. But with the S! Basic Pack, you can send e-mails for free to SoftBank customers. So You will need some sort of Unlimited Packet Discount plan if you intend to be sending lots of mail to non-SoftBank friends.

Lastly, there is a Basic Option Package, ￥４９８: While not necessary, it has fun little things like Lost Phone Search if you lose your phone, or Secure Remote Lock, which can also lock your phone. There is also an addressbook backup, more voice mail, and Call Waiting (yeah, normally there is no call waiting in Japan). But no one really calls anyway, haha.

Total: ￥１，２９５, without being able to e-mail people for free or having call waiting. This price includes a very basic stuff; mainly just being able to call SoftBank during the day and early evening, and being able to mail using MMS.

Let's look at AU now. AU has an excellent mail plan.

Plan E Simple, ￥７８０ or ￥１，５６０: You have to apply for the Everybody Discount to get the cheaper price. But that's a very nice price. In this Plan E Simple, there are no Free Calls, but you can call anyone for ￥２１ per 30 seconds. It's like the White Plan from SoftBank, but actually not as good. The only reason you would choose Plan E Simple is because you HAVE to pick a plan, and it is the cheapest.

Mail/EZ Web, ￥３１５: EZ Win E-mail is FREE to send and receive e-mails. But they mentioned C-mail, which costs ￥３．１５/mail. Not really sure what c-mail is.

GUN-GUN Mail (ガンガンメール) and GUN-GUN Talk (ガンガントーク), http://www.au.kddi.com/english/ryokin_waribiki/ryokin/gangan_mail/index.html Gun-gun mail, which we would normally romanize as Gan-gan, is the combination of the two above plans. BUT! It's awesome because you can add three AU phone numbers that you "call often". You can call these three numbers at any time of the day, 24 hours, for only ￥３９０/month! And C-Mail is also free to anyone (whatever that is)! Haha

Total: 1,485, which includes the Everybody Discount. This is the ガンガン Mail and Talk plans, with Plan E Simple. It's nice 'cause you can e-mail anyone you want from any phone company. And you can also call those three numbers at any time of the day.

/endEmail

So there you have it, folks. Two courses of action that I'm trying to decide upon. The current situation is that I have a temporary number and e-mail for a prepaid plan. I got this for the sake of waiting for an iPhone ('cause for some reason it takes FOREVER to get an iPhone). But after looking at AU's awesome GUN-GUN plan, I'm highly considering it.

Til next time!

Word of the day: 携帯電話　「けいたいでんわ」 "keitai denwa", or "cell phone".

Two weeks too late

Hah! When I said "tomorrow," what I really meant was "in two weeks." Musta been a typo. :-P But remember what I said about not being good at updating blogs? Yeah. Exactly.

SO! Today is July 15. Today marks the official "holy crap it's halfway through the month of July which means I'll be in Japan in about two weeks" day. Today is also the release of the Motorola Droid X; fitting, since I've spent a lot of time yesterday and today trying to decipher the various cell phone plans in Japan. None of the three companies seem to agree on how phone plans are laid out. That, or I just don't understand them (quite likely). In the beginning, I was leaning towards Docomo. For two reasons: 1) my girlfriend and I each got a $50 off coupon for them from Kinokuniya Bookstore in NYC, and 2) they have this phone called the docomo PRIME series F-06B. And hoooooooollllllyyyyyyy crap this phone is sexy. LOOK! THE SCREEN TURNS SIDEWAYS AFTER IT SLIDES OPEN! But Docomo's plans are all really expensive, and they don't seem to have an affordable "free/unlimited texting" plan. To make things more difficult, texting in Japan is apparently called e-mail. At least, SMS messaging with SoftBank is called e-mail. Or S! Mail. Or something. Anyway, I'll try to work it all out tomorrow. While I finish unpacking. Ugh.

I've been so busy over the past two weeks. I've had to pack up my stuff from my old apartment and move back into my parent's place temporarily until Japan. But this means packing, unpacking, and packing again! Ugh, and packing is my #1 least favorite activity. At least for activities that seemingly have to be done at least once a year.

One of the very important things I've had to take care of was purchasing Japanese money. Yes, I said purchasing. BECAUSE IT'S NOT FREE. I was under the impression that my bank would never charge me a fee, and therefore, converting money into foreign currency doesn't cost any more than the current exchange rate. And right, they don't charge a fee. Instead, they mess with the exchange rate that's used. Those punks! I checked the exchange rate on www.xe.com 20 minutes before I got to the bank. According to XE, I should have been given 88 JPY for every 1 USD. But with the exchange rate the bank gave me, I only got 81 JPY for 1 USD! That's 8% less!!! What a ripoff! Ugh, but 仕方がない as they say in Japan. Apparently, getting ripped off by your local bank is still cheaper than getting ripped off at the airport. That said, I'll try to make a note of what the exchange rate is at both the departing and arrival airport.

These past two weeks have been really hectic. I have been busy packing and moving, yes. But most of all, I've been trying to meet up with old friends to say our last goodbyes. Well not really; I'm sure I'll see them again. :-) Still, I'm finally spending more than three months away from Pittsburgh in over seven years. It's heartwrenching. And I'm glad I was able to see some of my friends before I left. I should try and make a trip out to my dojo and see my martial arts master.

While I've been at home, I've spent some time with my family. We've also done a lot of pre-flight shopping. You know, like new pieces of luggage, travel goodies, and whatnot. I even got bright neon-green tags so that I can easily differentiate my luggage from the thousands of others traveling with me to Japan! Fantastic idea. I hope. And I must say, there have been some really annoying restrictions for carryon luggage. I have been limited to a size that most luggage brands (like Samsonite) don't make! What a hassle. But anyway, I should be grateful that I found any bag about that size at all.

Now on to games. There have been some new Marvel VS Capcom 3 exhibition match videos from this year's EVO. Here they are, 'cause they're awesomely, fantastically amazing:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_O6xkbLr0A
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fcag-p4Nuqs
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwtJeA2zrdQ
I also finally beat MGS: Peace Walker! Wonderful game! Absolutely great! Highly recommended for any PSP owner, and a good reason to get one. What's amusing is that new missions are unlocked after beating the game, and certain things (items, weapons, and epilogue) are unavailable until you "beat" the game. Though really, maybe I never beat the game at all, and there's another, better ending? We'll find out. And I look forward to playing the missions in co-op mode with my brother and best friend.

I was thinking about making a vlog (video log), and maybe doing it not unlike sxephil. (Watch him, he's hilarious!) What do you guys think? All two of you? Just kidding, I know I have more readers than that. All five of you. :-)

Phrase of the day: 仕方がない 「しかたがない」 "shikata ga nai." It means, basically, "it can't be helped."

Ohisashiburi!

It's been a while! Well, a week or so since I last wrote anything, and even longer than that since I've written anything really meaty. This week, I've been spending my time seeing a lot of old friends and spending time with my girlfriend. I've also been studying/practicing Japanese, and putting quite a bit of time into Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. My best friend was right: "Let me warn you. Once you start, you can't put it down." IT'S SO TRUE! What a fantastic game. And I can even envision a potential sequal to this game, which would tie it into the rest of the MGS games that star Solid Snake; it would basically be a remake of Metal Gear (the very first game, on the MSX2 and NES).

Last weekend I saw Toy Story 3 with my girlfriend. AMAZING! Well, perhaps not "amazing," but definitely a good movie! It certainly belongs in the "good sequels" category. Speaking of movies, though..."The Last Airbender" comes out next week. Everything about the movie seems really cool...EXCEPT THE CASTING CALL! But anyway, I won't rant about that today. I just request that you don't support the movie.

I realized recently that I never made a post about *why* I'm going to Japan. So I'll say that now, while it's still June. Going to Japan was something I've always wanted to do, since I was a teenager. I never knew that study-abroad was possible as a high school student. Then, again, my high school wasn't really fortunate enough to have big exchange programs (we've had a few exchange students here and there, though), so I never really knew about the opportunities. Anyway, I went to college, and I studied Japanese. Quite a few; rather...a bunch of friends of mine studied abroad there during our junior year. I really wanted to. I did. But I knew it would set me back academically, so I was thinking that maybe I would just limit it to one semester. But in the end, I never went through with it because I didn't want to push med school back. Well...I pushed med school back anyway because I wasn't (and still am not) 100% sure that that's what's right for me. So anyway! I worked at a hospital for a couple years and was trying to figure out what I should do next. After having met my girlfriend, and talking to other friends about it, I decided that I should try to go to Japan again! I had heard about various ways to get there, but teaching English seemed like the best thing. Plus, it would give me teaching experience and allow me to decide if being a professor and teaching classes is something I wanted to do. Long story short, I applied to the JET Programme, and here I am! Keep in mind that I also looked into other private companies, such as Altia Central or AEONet, but luckily, I got accepted as a JET ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) and didn't have to continue with other application processes.

I got a package in the mail today; it's a copy of a documentary I helped my friend make! It's a documentary about me as a martial artist. It was her class project, and she ended up submitting it to a local film festival! I hear the audience responded positively. :-) I'll do what I can to convert it into a video file and post it on Youtube or something.

I've also been trying to decide which phone service to get while I'm over there. Docomo, AU, or SoftBank? SoftBank is apparently pretty popular with the foreigners because they are the only ones with the iPhone. While I like the iPhone's capabilities, I would rather have a Japanese phone 'cause I'm in Japan. I can always get an iPhone when I come back to the states.

Lastly, should I be called ハロルド先生 or バギノン先生? (first name, or last name?) The last name garners more respect, but the first name garners "coolness points".

Word of the day: 先生　「せんせい」　"sensei." It is the suffix for "teacher". The word for a teacher is a different word: 教師 「きょうし」　"kyoushi", though one can still refer to one's teacher as his or her "sensei."