EPIC Japanese High School Girl Ninja Chase Commercial.

Japanese commercials usually sway between WTF and RANDOM, but this one managed to infuse a healthy dose of EPIC into the mix. Props to the agency that Suntory hired. It's really clever, really funny, well put together and pretty damn effective. Almost makes me wanna buy a CC Lemon... Almost. Sadly no amount of amazing advertising can change the taste :p

Remembering 3/11/2011

March 11 2011 has been etched in the minds of the world. This year I wanted to share a little story from my experiences on that unforgettable day.

Shots #93 High-school Love

CAKE! And it's not a lie!

Up day the 2 special needs groups at my school for some culinary chaos. They made Christmas cakes. Some students cut paper stencils to decorate their cakes. One student who loves the Touhou Project wanted her drawing of Rumia to be on hers.

Incidentally. the blogger app for iOS works... just not very well.

Shots #84 Ambrosia

Booze, Fish and Hot Springs.

The end of the school year is a big deal. Another year complete. For better or worse, we we got the job done and (hopefully) gave our students enough XP to level up. To congratulate ourselves on a job well done, we go up to Ikaho for our big overnight enkai (drinking party).

Visitations

A close friend of mine came on her (annual?) pilgrimage to Japan and after many attempts I finally convinced her to come to Gunma. Being the end of winter (the idiot weathermen in Tokyo insist on calling it spring… screw them) things were a bit frigid. Regardless we had a fun time.

charming ~5 hit combo~

Portraits #9

Shots #72 Point

The Great A’Tuin returns!

Due to the great success of this lesson with my 3rd graders last year, I decided to to it again.

I set out to describe a picture of A’Tuin to my students using phrases like “There is a big sea turtle. There are 4 elephant’s on it’s back.” etc… The students then used their imaginations and artistic skills to bring what they heard to life.

Once again the drawings were rather spectacular!  check the slideshow to see all 100.

More JHS Students ~5 hit combo~

教えている生徒たち個人個人が判定できないという理由から、これらの写真を選びましたが、いずれも削除の要望があれば、メールにて受け付け、迅速な対応を取らせていただきます。よろしくお願いいたします。

Shots #63 The Sounds of Summer

I love the sound of the bugs in summer. I don’t really love the bugs though.

Recruitment Posters (slideshow)

Every year the clubs at school need to recruit new members from the new 1st years. These are the best ones:

Walking Home

Spring is the perfect time of the year for walks. you don’t freeze or sweat you balls off. The Sakura are out (for a short time at least). You have winter blue skies and summer long sunsets. Basically. Its a great way to wind down after long day at work (Ok so I just have fun all day… but they pay me to do it so I don’t complain)

If I time my walk well, I get the sunset to last most almost my entire walk home from the school field, right till I reach my road. As the walk progresses, the sunset gets quite a bit more spectacular.

In winter every little thing becomes a massive obstacle that you need to gaijin smash through. The little curiosities of the Japanese way of life becomes backward stubborn stupidity and the system that keeps the country running looks like an oppressive brainwashing factory that dumbs the masses into obedient bleeting sheep.

While in truth All those things don’t actually change. It does not matter as much when the weather is fine and the skies are aflame. Spring is a new beginning. A chance to repair your frayed nerves and warm your frozen bones.

And there is just somethng about sunsets in General that are just so powerful. Yes, You will say that this has nothing on back home. It is true. African sunsets are mindblowing. But any sunset. Is such an awe inspiring thing. Regardless of where we see it.

Think about it. We are on  a rock hurtling through space at breakneck speeds around a nuclear chain reaction. All the things that have happened on an atomic scale for billions of years to give us the chance to just enjoy the view.

Yet how many of these magnificent sunsets do we actually see? How often do we ignore these little yet spectacular events because our lives demand it. People forget to take in the fact that our lives mean nothing if we don’t truly live them.

We are told that fun is something to be done after work. Slaving away so the fatcats can have our pay. They don’t own the skies. and they can’t tax our eyes. The next time the skies go red. LOOK UP!

Initial D Tourism

A friend of mine from SA (Currently living in Tokyo) came to Gunma for the first time. I took him to school and let the Kids grill him for a day. They were well pleased with the distraction.

JHS Students ~5 hit combo~ No.5

教えている生徒たち個人個人が判定できないという理由から、これらの写真を選びましたが、いずれも削除の要望があれば、メールにて受け付け、迅速な対応を取らせていただきます。よろしくお願いいたします。

Fudebako (pencil cases) ~5 hit combo~ No.4

 

The Great A’tuin

As promised.

I had to do a listening exercise with my 3rd year Junior High schoolers so I decided to get their creative juices flowing. I describe an image that I have and they draw it. Just so happens that the picture I chose to describe was one of the more bizarre concepts on this earth. and they did a pretty damn good Job of it!

Shots #46 Energy