There are strange local music scenes, and then there are strange local music scenes.
Read more
Fresh Marshmallows and a Naked Boy
Safe as houses?
Usually, I scoff at students who complain about rising crime rates in Japan.
“Sure,” I say. “But Kabukicho is hardly Detroit. Or the South Bronx. It’s not even Cleveland,” at which point I kill a good 20 to 40 minutes of the class explaining the South Bronx, Detroit, and why neither are particularly desirable places.
They tend to know about Cleveland. I guess it’s infamy precedes it.
Read more
Window Dancing
An unexpected creative forum for aspiring hip-hop dancers in Tokyo are the glass-fronted first floors of skyscrapers, darkened at night and highly reflective.
Read more
Hammers and nails
Today’s Japanese word of the day is: taifuun, or typhoon, which is what we’re dealing with right now.
It’s kind of a strange thing here, that when the weather is remarkable acquaintances dispose of the formalities and greet each other not with a variation of “Hello” but with “Hot, isn’t it?” or “Cold, isn’t it?” or “What a typhoon!”
Gettin’ retro wit’ it
izakaya was a new one on me.
Wine and a glass of MJ
MJ, from tonight’s Tokyo blogger’s meet-up at the Pink Cow. I took more photos, but just didn’t feel like the others were worth putting up. Drinking and shooting almost never mix well, anyway – at least I got one good shot.
The facts of English
Here are some impressive facts on my employer, and the current English teaching employment situation in Tokyo, courtesy by this article in the Japan Times.
Read more