Into the Land of the Rising Sun

This week marked Thanksgiving, and eager to celebrate any occasion centering around food, some friends and I decided to organize a large fea...

" What  are you wearing?!" asks Amanda.  We've just connected via Skype, she sitting in a t-shirt in her centrally heated hous...

A weekly routine is emerging.  By day, I'm the teacher who is often mistaken for her students (another teacher almost stopped me one mo...

The Japanese welcome any excuse to dress up in costumes, which makes Halloween perhaps the greatest cultural import since baseball.  Thi...

I admit, I was a little wary as an American to visit Hiroshima.  In a world where people from foreign nations still hold George W. Bush aga...

Of its many attractions, Nara is perhaps most renowned for its sacred deer (population 1200).  With no predators in sight, the deer run thi...

In an attempt to broaden my Japanese education, one of my JTEs left this charming saying on my desk. Believe it or not, I don't t...