English Teachers=Jerks %65 of the time?

There are some people who would say that I am a "hater" for what I am about to talk about. There are others who would pay little to no attention to this post.
Then there are those who would call me a hero. This post is for all three of them, with an emphasis on the last group.

Everything I am about to say is strictly from my experience and while that may make it an opinion, it doesn't change the fact that this is my honest true experiences. I've come to realize that most male English Teachers teaching in Japan (and I don't see why any other Asian country would be different) are basically jerks. The truth is a painful pill to swallow. It seems male foreigners biggest reason to live in another country is so that they can date as many girls as they want, and teaching English was their key to doing this. I imagine most English teachers make a check list of things they want to accomplish while abroad and it looks something like this.

Things to do while in Japan/China/Korea/Taiwan/ect
1. Get super drunk every weekend
2. Get with as many girls as possible


I have met many guys who have more than one girlfriend or while in a relationship still flirting and getting close with other girls. The worst of it is, there seems to be a fair amount of guys who are married to Japanese women and they still go out on the weekends trying to flirt with girls to get into some kind of sexual situation. What really sucks about this is that the women seem to have no clue. They are too hung up on the idea of love or too enthralled with the fact that they have a foreign boyfriend who says all the right things. We'll of course they say all the right things, and to be honest the women make it pretty easy to say all the right things. I also have too many female Japanese friends who have been cheated on by their foreign boyfriends, but while I am placing blame on the guys I must say that if you know the guy is a cheater and you still insist you love him, then I can't do anything for you but listen to your complaints.

Personally I am pretty good at looking at a westerner and knowing if they are good guys are not. I understand being an Asian women that it may be quite hard for you to know if he's a genuine guy or not. Its hard for me sometimes to know if an Asian woman is a sweet respectable person or for lack of a better word a whore, but these woman need to be more careful when choosing their mates.

For all you jerk guys out there (you know who you are) please stop ruining the image of all of us foreign guys/teachers. Some of us wouldn't mind finding a girl to actually start a meaningful relationship and possibly getting married while staying faithful to that one women. Why do you guys insist on being jerks? You wouldn't get away with half of that crap in your own country. Show these women some respect, they have a weakness for falling love and you are taking advantage of it. So call me a hater or accuse me of ruining everything you worked for, but its time people know the truth.

Many foreign male (particularly native English speakers)English teachers are jerks. Women do your research on a guy before you give your heart to him. Him being foreign doesn't make him awesome, and just because he knows how to make up some sweet things to say to you doesn't mean you should marry him.

God bless and good luck.

Creepy factor at %85. DANGER! DANGER!

I usually don't attend Japanese class on Wednesday nights anymore because I started going to Korean class during that time but yesterday's Korean class was on a holiday and plans to meet and study with a friend fell through. Given I was already in the area due to inquiring on airplane prices to Seoul and Taipei for a trip I'd like to take this weekend at the nearby travel agency I decided to attend my old Japanese class. After class I saw a girl from China that I had met once before and her friend from China who I was meeting for the first time. While I was talking to one of them the other was talking to a guy from Dubai who she had just met.

He was new to Okayama (6 months which is actually longer than I've been here) and apparently didn't know where one of the cities biggest claims to fame was. Korakuen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Draku-en
The park was closed due to it being late but apparently he wanted someone to show him where it was located so he could go later. Apparently he asked one of the girls if she could show him where it was so she asked if we all could go. Frankly I didn't wanna stay out late and had to catch a train to go home, but I figured it would be a good time to get to know the girls better and possibly become friends since they seem like cool people. I also began to sense slightly that there was another reason why she wanted us all to go so I gave in and decided to join. The guy had a car so we all got in and began our short little trip.

The first thing I noticed about him is that he seemed to like to join in the conversations a lot while driving which for him meant frequently looking at the people sitting in the back and kind of driving a bit reckless. I've seen worse so it didn't really bother me but the girls seem to be really stressed out by his driving. They would constantly stop a conversation short and tell him "never mind" in hopes he would just focus on driving. The park isn't all that far or difficult to get to so we arrived soon. He pulled in along side the parking lot which was dimly lit due to the park being closed and stopped the car. One of the girls immediately asked if we were gonna return back now and he asked her to wait and wanted to smoke a cigarette and get a drink from the vending machine. At this point I wasn't so much scared as I was just a little creep ed out and I could see that both of the girls were scared. I wanted to comfort them with words but didn't want to seem like I thought he was creepy as well in front of him. He asked if we all wanted drinks and we declined and then to my surprise on of the girls just came out and said that she wanted to know why they weren't able to return now. In my opinion a Japanese girl and possibly a Korean would have kept a little more silent in showing how scared they were as to "appear" more polite. The Chinese on the other hand I have always felt are a bit more like Americans (which can be both good and bad) in that they usually will just straight up tell you what they think or feel. It can be refreshing at times. I was actually proud of her that she said what she said. So the guy was just telling them not to worry and not to think any weird things about the situation which I can understand his wanting to calm them but it really just made it more creepy. I personally wasn't really afraid as physically I was sure I could take him so he would need a gun or something which isn't the easiest to get a hold of in Japan, but nonetheless I was ready to go back too yet at the same time trying to spare his feelings.

So the girl's words got to him and he agreed to return us back to where we began. After getting back we said goodbye to him and the girls walked with me back to the station. Turns out they were indeed scared of him and the situation and had even called friends to let them know where they were at.There were a lot of talk in Chinese during the situation that I am sure were calls letting people know where they were in case they came up missing or something.So I gave them a little advice in handling those situations and we parted for the night. It was creepy indeed but I never personally felt like any real danger and I made two friends out of the situation that I will probably hang out with during my time here so thank you creepy guy, but if you wanna make friends here you might wanna turn down the creepy factor.

I don't know anything for sure but if I was to guess I would say he knew where the park was to begin with (6 months living here, I just feel you would at least know general area as its in the populated area downtown.) and was pretending to not know so he could get the girl to take him just the two of them and spend sometime with her. (She IS pretty) I'm not saying he wanted to do anything strange with her but probably was interested in her and wasn't expecting her to invite the rest of us.

Zombie Squad Go!

Oh my gosh! What a great way to start my morning and cheer me up!
This is a Japanese program. On the show they have set up an elaborate event to fool these 3 kids into thinking they are really being attacked by zombies. It feels incredibly cruel at first due to the fact the kids are terrified but after the initial scare and the kids. It's cruel yes but I can't get over how funny it becomes. The
Japanese are known for going all out/possibly too far with a prank. Enjoy!

Woes of a native English speaker

There are a lot of benefits to being born an English speaker. First of all its a fact that English is a very widely used language all around the world. You can go pretty much to any country and find someone you can communicate with. This is quite conveniently when traveling to places in which I have no grasp of the language.

Secondly because its such a widely used language it has become an important one and thus people from all over the world want to learn it. The best thing about this is and especially in Asia a native English speaker can go to a large variety of countries and find work as an English teacher like I did in Japan. This is a great way to live in various countries while making money. I can even see my self in at least 2 other countries teaching in my life time.

So then you may wonder how could being a Native English speaker possible be hindering in any way? I'm glad I asked for you.

The only real problem comes to those of us who are really interested in learning another language ourselves. For a lot of people like myself a big reason for going to another country is because we want to be immersed in the culture and language so that we may be able to more efficiently learn that countries language. In my case I am currently studying both Japanese and Korean and living in Japan in hopes my speaking level becomes quite good. The problem I and others may run into is our ability to speak English well.

It seems everyone in Asia in particular wants to learn English. What this means is that while I want to immerse myself in Japanese and use it as often as possible, the Japanese want to learn English from me and use as much time with me as possible to get some practice in. This leads to way too much English speaking on my side. Obviously English is easier for me as well so it becomes too easy to go along with it when someone starts speaking English to me but the fact is in most circumstances I would like to be forced to use Japanese so that I can improve it. It's a big reason for me being here, and while its nice to have the option for English when I desperately need it, it honestly becomes annoying. When I was in the states I always tried to use English as much as possible for the International students at my school so that they could improve theirs even though there were Japanese students as well that I would have loved to practice Japanese with given the few chances to do so in my city. Now that I am in their country it would be nice for someone to think the same way towards me. This isn't to say that I haven't met any people who aren't considerate of my struggle. There are a few that despite being quite well at English still use a lot of Japanese when speaking with me and I really really appreciate that. I only hope to meet more.

I know some native English speakers have decided to only make friends with the natives of the country they are living in and not to associate with so many other English speaking people. I'm not to the type to turn down a possible friend despite what language they speak so that doesn't work so much for me but I can understand why others may decided to live this way. It can often be seen as an elitist idea, but perhaps it has legitimate reasons. I don't suggest rejecting people because they speak English, but I'm not intently seeking them out either. Perhaps I need to be a little more strict. I love to meet new people and make all kinds of friends but I'd be lying if I didn't say that I quite enjoy making friends with people who's English isn't very good. The fact is I want to learn Japanese and it's a big factor in why I'm here. Now somehow managing to learn Korean as well, that's gonna be a challenge.

Hiroshima: A time for joy and a time for sadness

This last Monday was a national holiday which meant no work and a lot of free time so I decided to hop on the Shinkansen for the 2nd time in 2 weeks and this time take my first trip to the the city Hiroshima one of the two cities (Nagasaki being the other) that had an Atomic bomb dropped on it near the end of World War 2. Hiroshima is the capital city on the Hiroshima prefecture. I have two friends who live there so they were kind enough to spend a day showing me around.



A Time For Joy
About 45-50 minutes from downtown lies the island of Miyajima. A short trip on a ferry gets you there quite easily.

The island is one of Hiroshima's biggest tourist attractions as made evident when I visited. I haven't seen so many foreigners in one place in a long time. One thing Miyajima is known for is the abundance of wild deer casually living their lives amongst all the people. It was also one of the most excited things for me. I can't recall if I have ever been up close to a deer at a petting zoo or something but this sure felt like the first time. It was cool to see them and touch them and I love watching them as they harass other people. They are pretty docile but if they see that you have food they WILL attempt to get it.

The island is also known for Torii a large gate also sometimes called "Floating gate" because of they way it appears to be floating on the water when the tide is high. It was my top reason for wanting to go to the island and it's kind of like Cloud Gate in Chicago in that pretty much everyone who visits takes a picture with it and then uses it as their Facebook/Myspace profile pic.

Another popular attraction is Mt.Misen. Two rope way carts and about 50 mins of walking will get you to the top with some interesting spots on the way up.

(View while climbing)


There are tons of shops on the island perfect for tourists including some famous Miyajima snacks and Hiroshima Okonomiyaki, one of my most favorite Japanese foods.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okonomiyaki
It can be a bit tiring but the trip is worth it.

Downtown Hiroshima is also quite lively with lots of shopping and restaurants and a lively night life. It's definitely got a big city feel.

A Time For Sadness
As I mentioned before Hiroshima was one of the cities (the first one) to be hit by the Atomic bomb. This happened August 6th 1945 at 8:15am. Visiting Hiroshima means visiting an important part of history and essentially visiting a tomb. The city is not considered a peace city and helps to remind people everyday of those tragic events with museums and monuments. Seeing it all effects everyone differently and for me it was a time of sadness mixed with a little depression. That may make it sound like something to avoid, but the exact opposite is true. These sights should be as the bomb itself was to so many helpless victims, unavoidable.
One of the biggest monuments is actually a building that manage to keep standing during the blast. There were a few others that stood in shambles as well but the Atomic Bomb Dome is the only one that still stands till today . The others were demolished after the bombing my the cities choice and the Atomic Bomb Dome was planned to share the same fate but was saved through petition. It is now a striking visual reminder of that dreadful day.

There is a large park nearby known as the "Peace Park" which houses many monuments dedicated to victims such as the one to the children who died as well as 2 museums that are bound to set a mood.
Inside the museum there are stories from survivors, objects that survived the blast, pictures of victims, and horror stories.

(A tricycle after the blast)

(A wall of video screens displaying the names and pictures of all the victims in the blast. A computer nearby can be used for typing in names and finding people.)

One of the horror stories is about victims who's skin was literally melting off of them after the blast as they walked through the streets their hair being pulled off of their scalps.


The museum had a lot of information and all of it available in English. It was solemn experience in which I could literally feel my heart being affected by what I was hearing and seeing and only for the price of about 50 cents. I highly recommend visiting the museum as well as the other monuments dedicated to that event.

I have no position when it comes to the war. Honestly I believe people seem to be inherently evil and thus things like this have and always will happen. I lay blame on both Japan and America. Hiroshima is now a huge promoter of a world without nuclear weapons and I totally agree, but I know mankind, so without closing out on too depressing of a note I think it will remain a dream for all of us. What we can do as individuals with power over ourselves is try and learn to live in peace with each other. The world isn't all that big and if we can't get along we will all lose. On a positive note, God is there even during times like an atomic bomb so in that case it's worth holding on to a dream.


In general the trip was fantastic. I got to see and do so much and had some great guides/friends to enjoy it with me. I am now a fan of Hiroshima. I'll definitely be back to see what else the city has in store for me. God bless Hiroshima, God bless Japan.


*Interesting fact: Hiroshima and Pearl Harbor are sister cities.