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Who: Yuko-sensei
What: Art class!
When: every 2nd & 4th Sunday
Where: less than 1 minute away from Beppu Ekki
Every 2nd and 4th Sunday the art teacher at my school, , Yuko-sensei, is offering classes. She is really great and speaks English. From 13:30 - 15:30 is painting, and from 16:00 - 18:00 is drawing. […]
A man in a blue kimono checks the soup at the buffet line while I sit cautiously in my booth eating a chicken and tomato salad covered in fatty dressing. A few other patrons to the Ajimu Joyfull chat quietly nearby, but for the most part the family style restaurant is empty on this […]
How this idea hasn’t caught on yet in the rest of the civilized world I have no idea, but “Print Club”, (as it is less commonly known, since it is yet another example of Japanese trends being named after words they cannot possibly pronounce), is surely the greatest thing to come out of Japan since […]
Originally written for The Tombo Times, Feb, 2006. The current 2008 New Year is The Year of the Rat.
If you follow both the lunar and the solar calendar, then you’re lucky enough to celebrate two separate New Years. Mr. Mo was kind enough to share with us some of the traditions and customs […]
Sometimes, being a foreigner is all you need to get a laugh in Japan. It is as though your every word is golden, and your co-workers marvel at your slightest action. Then there is the rest of the time, which is probably most of the time. In these moments you may find […]
There are many mysteries in this world. Take for example Stonehenge. Who created it? And why? I mean a structure like that created so many years ago is a remarkable engineering feat and as such, it must of been for some great purpose because monuments of that kind are usually built […]
The New Year is here already. If you were one of the three-or-so JETs or other foreign residents that stayed in Oita as the globe invested in new calendars, perhaps you took a little time to celebrate shogatsu in style and play the traditional Japanese game of Karuta.
Karuta (typically written in katana as カルタ, […]
The Holy Trinity of Japanese culture in the eyes of outsiders may be sushi, sumo and samurai, but one unforgettable aspect of culture often unknown outside the country immediately springs to the minds of those who live here: Love Hotels, or as they are far too appropriately katakana-ized, Rub Hotels.
Any garish, neon-plated building entirely […]
Oita was called Bungo, if you didn’t know.
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The following essay was written by Kim Austin and won an honorable mention for the 2004 JET Program Essay Competition. It also appeared in the September 2004 edition of The Tombo Times.
Before I begin this essay I would like to make a brief disclaimer. The topic of my essay is ‘foreign language education,’ but […]