Yesterday, I braved the crowds at Asakusa’s Senso-ji temple to witness a time honored Japanese tradition – shaking babies. No, I don’t mean the sort of behavior that results in Shaken Baby Syndrome, but the infinitely more entertaining one type that involves young sumo wrestlers. Every year on the 4th Sunday of April, Senso-ji Temple [...]
Archive for April, 2010
Nakizumo Crying Sumo Festival, April 2010
Posted in Japan, Japanese Culture, Travel, tagged Asakusa, constantine in tokyo, constantineintokyo, Japan, Japanese, life in Japan, nakizumo, Senso-ji, sumo on April 26, 2010 | 4 Comments »
A New School Year…
Posted in Japan, JET Program on April 22, 2010 | 10 Comments »
I’m not going to lie to you, readers, and say that I didn’t have certain reservations about the new school year. I was utterly blindsided when I saw the amount of changes that occurred at my schools over haru yasumi (spring vacation). We’re talking new vice principals at BOTH schools, two new English teachers at [...]
Assistant Japanese Teacher?
Posted in Japan, JET Program, tagged constantine in tokyo, constantineintokyo, Japanese, JET Program on April 21, 2010 | 7 Comments »
Every person why applies to the JET Program knows that they are going to be assisting in teaching English in some way during their time in Japan. The title ALT can mean anything from BigDaikon‘s infamous ‘glorified tape recorder’ to being given the responsibility of designing and teaching all of your classes (which is my [...]
JET Program Application Process: How Does JET Select Candidates?
Posted in JET Program, tagged ALT, application, interview, Japan, Japanese, JET Program, slection process, teaching English in Japan on April 15, 2010 | 49 Comments »
Last Updated: Sept. 4th, 2010 A Note: Please keep in mind the information in this post is based on the content found in Importing Diversity: Inside Japan’s JET Program by David L. McConnell – one of the few published academic studies of the JET Program. Throughout this post, I continuously note when the data was [...]
HBO’s THE PACIFIC: Introduction
Posted in Book Reviews, Film Reviews, HBO's The Pacific, Japan, Japanese History on April 9, 2010 | 7 Comments »
The Second World War is a massive subject, so I will endeavor to stick closely to the subject of The Pacific – the land war fought by the marines in the South Pacific and on the islands surrounding Japan. This will be very difficult for me…those who have had the misfortune of experiencing one of [...]
Book Review: Michel Houellebecq’s THE POSSIBILTY OF AN ISLAND
Posted in Book Reviews on April 7, 2010 | 5 Comments »
I was initially going to post an entry complaining about my job, but I think I’ll sit on the draft for a little while longer to see if I still feel the same way tomorrow. Let’s not be rash when it comes to posting on the public domain… So instead you get a post about [...]
Back to the Volcano Island
Posted in Ramblings, tagged constantine in tokyo, nonstoptotokyo on April 6, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Still trying to get rid of the last remnants of the cold that I caught while traveling with my father these last few weeks, I had a funny moment where I emerged from my apartment and was completely shocked to discover that not only is it sunny today but it is also freaking WARM. Granted, [...]
Oh really?
Posted in Ramblings on April 5, 2010 | 7 Comments »
On the WordPress Stats page you can look at the search engine terms that people used to find your site. Here is a partial screenshot of mine: Hmmm, I had no idea! Seriously, internet, you never cease to amuse me. Thanks for the laugh and a new running joke for me to throw around when [...]
川崎の金まら祭り AKA The Kawasaki Iron Penis Festival
Posted in Japan, Japanese Culture, Travel, tagged constantine in tokyo, fertility shrine, Japan, Japanese, kanamara matsuri, kawasaki, kawasaki penis festival, shinto on April 5, 2010 | 1 Comment »
About a 30 minute train ride outside of Tokyo is the city of Kawasaki, a typical Japanese suburb that sports a large train station/depaato and many neon-clad pachinko parlors. Every year on the first Sunday of April, Kawasaki is invaded by a flood of gaijin, Tokyo’s LGBT community, and curious onlookers to participate in (or [...]
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