If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

June is the month for celebrations and today, June 25th is Isabelle’s birthday. Happy Birthday darling!

Today marks 3 years in Japan. And the third blogiversary of this blog. If you’ve stuck around a bit, thanks for reading this long!

I’m getting stick from Reiko for living in Japan for 3 years and still not being able to fully understand Japanese. According to her, I should be able to fully understand Japanese TV programs and read Japanese newspapers.

So we try to have Speak-in-Japanese-Times. These used to last about 10 minutes before we forgot we’re supposed to be speaking in Japanese or it gets too hard.

Recently we’re trying it for real. With a 1 yen penalty (Ooh!) for each time I speak English, I’m up to 13 yen (7.5 pence) after my first day.

There are times when I have to speak English. When I’m in a shop with a pushy saleswoman, I can mumble, “I’dratherpokemyeyesoutwitharustyspoonthanbuythat”, and then scarper out of there.

Speaking in Japanese is hard although I enjoy it a lot. We have a number of international marriage couple friends and most of them have lived in Japan longer than I have and speak just as good or worse Japanese as I do. With the cushion of a loving native to help you out in times of difficulty, it’s hard to find the impetus to try for yourself.

But like the mother bird who pushes her young out of the nest in an attempt to make them fly, there comes a time when it’s necessary to take the plunge. And I’m not falling.

Saw this on TV and just found it via TV in Japan. An almost sinisterly creepy performance for Johnny Depp promoting his third Pirates of the Caribbean movie by three very young and talented girls. Stick around for the second part.

Anyone know where I can get some Boric Acid in Japan. Or how to say Boric Acid in Japanese?

Boric Acid is the “secret ingredient” in so many commercial treatments for insect control.
This simple inexpensive, household chemical is deadly to all insects. It has been shown to attack their nervous systems, as well as being a drying agent to their bodies.

Boric acid is a wonderful tool for controlling cockroaches in homes, restaurants and other buildings. It is effective in extremely small amounts and retains its potency almost indefinitely provided the deposit remains dry.

Unlike many insecticides, boric acid has no repellency to insects and, consequently, roaches return to treated areas repeatedly until they die. Boric acid (100%) powder is odorless and nonstaining. Boric acid is deadly to cockroaches, but is low in toxicity to people, pets and other nontarget animals.

Boric Acid and Cockroaches via Lifehacker.com

Sometimes it’s necessary to play the dumb foreigner - when you’re walking down a private street or when the NHK man comes for the TV license fee.

I was told by a colleague today that if someone accosts you in Japan, you should respond with, “Nihongo tabemasen” which means I don’t eat Japanese. Your assaulter will think you are an idiot and leave you alone.

This is great advice but I don’t think I could say it with a straight face.

I teach Japanese kids as young as 3. Others in different schools teach as young as 1 or 2. Even when I teach children that are six years old, I have to constantly remind myself they are 6 and not 20.

It`s easy to teach concepts that are beyond their level of comprehension.

Simple Mathematics
Time
Fractions
English meanings of Kanji they are still to learn