Alex Quinn's Japan Journal

Introduction
Journal
About JET
Apartment
School
Town
Ice Cream
Ice Cream Expo
Akemi
Minato-ya
About me
Links
Weather
Contact me

Hi. Welcome to my Japan journal. I'm currently in Aioi, Japan on the JET Programme. Aioi is in Hyogo Prefecture on the main island of Honshuu, 20 minutes from Himeji, an hour from Kobe, 90 minutes from Osaka, and 2 hours from Kyoto. I arrived in July 2004. I'm making this web site just so I can keep track of any interesting things I notice during my stay in Japan. I could have just put it in a notebook or something, but this takes less paper and maybe somebody back home will find something of interest among my babbling. I'm not the first American to stay in Japan for a while (or so I've been told), so this is probably all rehash of somebody else's journal somewhere, but I haven't the patience to go read somebody else's journal. I'd prefer to write my own. So, if you haven't the patience to read mine, I'll think nothing of it. But, since you've read ≈162 words already, you might as well read a few more.

If you want to see lots of pictures and read a story or two, then pop over to the journal section of my site. The journal is basically a blog (web log, whatever you want to call it). That's where all the good pictures are.

Last 10 Journal Entries

4/21/2006, MARRIED!!!   (Friday, 14 pics, 322 words)
4/16/2006, Engaged!   (Sunday, 16 pics, 630 words)
4/1/2006, Visiting grad schools trip: New York   (Saturday, 22 pics, 177 words)
3/31/2006, Visiting grad schools trip: departure   (Friday, 0 pics, 190 words)
3/11/2006, Bairin Park, ume blossoms, all about ume   (Saturday, 26 pics, 452 words)
3/7/2006, Mr. Minato's new car   (Tuesday, 2 pics, 155 words)
3/5/2006, Daisan Park, pretty ume (plum) blossoms   (Sunday, 99 pics, 1202 words)
3/4/2006, Trip to Mt. Kongo (Kongozan) in Osaka prefecture   (Saturday, 47 pics, 518 words)
3/2/2006, Toothache (Warning: a little disgusting)   (Thursday, 1 pics, 282 words)
2/28/2006, Graduation ceremony at school   (Tuesday, 4 pics, 634 words)
More....

Short Version (133 words):

But if you don't want to hear about my babbling about the guy next door and Japan's gun control philosophies, I'll give you the short version of what I'm doing here.

I work in a good, academic high school, teaching English, linguistics (syntax), cultural understanding, and elective english. I've got a comfy apartment. Taking private Japanese lessons. Practicing piano regularly. Making martinis and manhattens at home. Singing Frank Sinatra karaoke in bars. Volunteering in community events once in a while. Eating lots of ice cream. Generally pretty cold as buildings here have no insulation. Teaching fairly regularly, but still plenty of free time at work. Good, smart, motivated kids. Fairly new, science oriented alternative school. Traveling around Japan (e.g. Kyoto, Osaka, Kumamoto, etc.). Eating okonomiyaki every Wednesday with a steady group of friends. Studying for the GRE. Reading computer science and math articles to stay sharp. Learning to cook Japanese cuisine. Enjoying Japanese ice cream, shochuu, lychee liquor, and Japanese apricot wine (ume shuu).

Okay, that was the 133 word version.