![\"IMG_1870](\"http:\/\/www.jrem.net\/life-in-japan\/journal\/archives\/IMG_1870.jpg\")
\n{{popup IMG_1870.jpg IMG_1870 480×640}}Best Valentine’s Card Ever <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n{{popup IMG_1870.jpg IMG_1870 480×640}}Best Valentine’s Card Ever <\/p>\n
God bless Valentine’s Day in Japan. It’s a country built entirely up on girls giving candy to boys. I happen to be a male teacher with about 300 students, 60-70% are female. This just works out so awesomely for me. Where it fails miserably is when March rolls around, and we have ‘White Day’, March 11th, where men must give something to women. Typically at about 3x the cost.<\/p>\n
Not fun. Not fun at all. But for those of us who can live in the short term (and are currently on a sugar high), it’s just the most awesome thing ever! Above you will see an absolutely adorable Valentine’s Day note (though I don’t imagine she’d be terribly thrilled to know it’s online, but hey.. no one will know).<\/p>\n
The odd thing is that I don’t even really know the girl that well (she’s a first year high school student, and I don’t teach her, though I’ve seen her in the hall and give her candy when she comes to the office). Gonna have to say ‘no’ on the giving out my e-mail address thing, though. But I did do pretty well so far on candies, cookies, and cakes. My record for last year was 23, though.. we’re working on beating that record.<\/p>\n
In other news: one of the unique parts of my job is constantly meeting people who know me for some reason or another, but I have absolutely no clue who they are. Not exactly ‘unique’, per-se, but definitely an odd quirk of my job. By virtue of being American, people sometimes feel that I’m ready and available to talk at any time, even if we’ve never met (frankly, I am, so it’s not a problem). But sometimes there are moments where a student who goes to a school I work at, or WENT to a school I work at, or has met me for some reason or another, approaches me out of the blue. They know me. They know details about me. I have no clue<\/em> who they are. But I pretend. Gotta be friendly, y’know?<\/p>\n That happened today! While I was buying candy for my high school students (as I’ve mentioned, I leave candy on my desk to bribe students to come to the office more and actually use English), a woman walks up to me. When someone I don’t know approaches me and seems to know me, I’ll greet them in English. Why? It’s not that Japanese is hard, but rather that I need to know how I know them. Everyone in Japan speaks Japanese. Not so many speak decent English. If they can carry a conversation in English, that limits who they are.<\/p>\n The girl today passed the English test, but only so-so. Then we need to find out how she knows me. She doesn’t know my name (maybe she saw me on TV?), but she knows I was planning on moving (I didn’t tell many people that; we must’ve talked). She’s early-mid 20s (not a HS student, nor a recent graduate of high school), and working (definitely not a student). She suggests going out for coffee, then takes me phone and inputs her number (must feel pretty comfortable to give someone her phone number). Asks how my studying’s going (knows I study every week).<\/p>\n After 3 or so hours puzzling who<\/strong> she is (I usually remember faces, especially of someone I obviously spoke to) before finally figuring out that she’s.. dear god.. the girl from the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Suddenly it all makes sense. I met them last summer and barely managed to get out of their clique with my life (feigned being insanely busy and swore I didn’t know my phone number). I suddenly remember that when she took my phone to put the number in, she clicked ‘send’ to dial her phone.. thereby getting my cell number.<\/p>\n …. Dear. God.<\/strong><\/em> What have I done?<\/p>\n Ah well. What can ya do, huh?<\/p>\n Anyway.. just felt like writing a bit of random stuff today. Tired of being so emo and depressing. Though I’m not too satisfied with the plan, I’ve made a new plan for my life, got a direction to set myself on, and like it or not, I’m gonna give it hell.<\/p>\n I’ll update in the next day or so with more youtube videos of my awesome tv appearances!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" <\/p>\n {{popup IMG_1870.jpg IMG_1870 480×640}}Best Valentine’s Card Ever <\/p>\n God bless Valentine’s Day in Japan. It’s a country built entirely up on girls giving candy to boys. I happen to be a male teacher with about 300 students, 60-70% are female. This just works out so awesomely for me. Where it fails miserably is when March rolls around, and we have ‘White Day’, March 11th, where men must give something to women. Typically at about 3x the cost.<\/p>\n