How to Teach a Speech- Going to the Ibaraki Prefecture English Speech Competition!

Ibaraki English Speech Contest!
Ibaraki English Speech Contest!

Every year in Kasama City, Jr. High students from all over Ibaraki come together with their teachers and their ALT’s to present their own unique 5-minute speech. This year 78 students participated, split into 2 groups. Continue reading

School Life in Japan: Sports Day!

The whole school marches out behind their flags!
The whole school marches out behind their flags!

Summer break is over, the homework is turned in and 2nd term has started. You know what this means?

You got it! Sports Day!

The late summer air filled with students cheering and laughing, teachers screaming encouragement (because no one here is competitive at all, no, absolutely not!) and parents scrambling to get the best photo spot to practice their action shots (it’s a nation of photographers after all). Continue reading

Hokota-shi, Interac, Japan, Teaching EnglishALT, , Japan school life, Sports Day, teaching in japan

A SoCal Girl’s Guide to Surviving the Seasons- Part 2: Fall and Winter!

Mt. Tsukuba
Mt. Tsukuba

Here we go! The year is moving fast and it’s time for a new survival guide! Hope it helps and let me know if you have any more questions!

Fall

Ah, the fall. My #1 most favorite season, especially in Japan! Summers humidity is gone, it’s not too cold yet and the colours! My gosh the colours! I’ve never seen trees so vibrant and reds, golds and oranges so breathtakingly vivid. I love summer but the fall totally wins as my favorite season. Continue reading

Japanautumn, fall, fall in Japan, , living in japan, seasons in Japan, survinving the seasons, winter, winter in Japan

Bored in Japan: What To Do When You’re Stuck in the Teachers Room

中学校の 職員室
中学校の 職員室 (JHS Staff Room)

It’s happened. You’re in Japan. You finished all the training. You have all your materials and your Survival Kit is ready for anything. You’re ready to teach up a storm!

Ready, Set….

Sit in the Teachers Room.

Continue reading

About Me, Japan, Teaching EnglishALT, bored at school, bored in the teachers room, how to look busy, , teaching English in Japan

Surviving Typhoons in Japan!

Image Source
Image Source

It’s that time of year again! Typhoon season! We’ve already had one come through the area and I recently found this post I had written back in October 2014 and forgotten about! Woops! So without further ado, the new and improved Typhoons in Japan!

We’re nearing the end of the official typhoon season here in Japan and I’m here to relate my experiences with them, as well as offer some advice from a sunny southern Californian on how to safely weather them if you’ve never seen anything more than an inch of rain falling throughout a whole day (or as a refresher for those who’ve seen them before and just want some reminding). Continue reading

Japanemergency preparedness, , living in japan, typhoons, typhoons in Japan

Ryujin Bungee Jump: Taking the Plunge!

Ryujin Suspension Bridge
Ryujin Suspension Bridge

Few things scare me as much as needles. The very idea of a shot makes me woozy! My mom literally had to pull me out of the car screaming and tear away the seat belt I had in a death grip to get me into a doctors office when I was younger. Nurses pinned me down as they poked me with that horrible thing of my nightmares until they could find a vein. No joke.

The only thing that may compare is the idea of falling from a high, well… height! I’m all fine and dandy when my feet are on solid ground but put me on a rope or swaying bridge and I’m down for the count! How then, did I find myself in a metal cage underneath the longest suspension bridge in Japan, hobbled with a long rubber rope and about to jump off into oblivion? Continue reading

About Me, Ibaraki-ken, Japan, Places in Japan, Travel in Japan, With Videobungee japan, challenge, facing fears, Ibaraki, Ibaraki bungee, , living in japan, ryujin bungee jump

Experience Hiroshima: Past and Present

Hiroshima Peace Park and the Atomic Bomb Dome
Hiroshima Peace Park and the Atomic Bomb Dome

*NOTE: I found this blog post and a few others I’d written awhile ago and never published. So I’ve gone through and updated them a bit and they’ll be coming in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

Living in Japan has many perks, and hopping on a shinkansen to travel for a holiday weekend is one of them. So for a 3-day weekend in the fall, I planned a trip to Hiroshima and Miyajima (planned being a strong word, I booked a hostel and left it at that). This is what I learned: Continue reading

Japan, Places in Japan, Travel in JapanHiroshima, , living in japan, travel Hiroshima, travel in Japan