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Japanese Snowstorm (Snowpocalypse 2014) Update

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Japanese Snowstorm (Snowpocalypse 2014) Update

A quick one before I go to bed. It’s been snowing all day with Tokyo reporting its heaviest snowfall since the early 1990s. Up here in Ibaraki prefecture, we’ve been getting a good amount of the white stuff as well as rain, wind, and temperature causing any melted snow to instantly turn into ice puddles (thanks Obama!).

Anyways, it looks like things are going to quiet down on Sunday, though rain is being forecast alongside freezing temperatures so that should be tons of fun. I personally enjoy nothing more than walking twenty minutes to work in adverse weather conditions.

Stay safe. Stay warm, Stay dry.

If anything crazy happens with the snow, I’ll let y’all know. (It won’t)

Before the oncoming Japanese snow storm. (Kairakuen)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z64AwQzXows

There’s supposed to be the biggest snowstorm in at least ten years heading into the region tomorrow. (Or maybe I misheard that… I probably did). Anyways, I decided to enjoy the last day of no snow for a couple of days (and the last day of my weekend) and took the forty-something minute trek out to Kairakuen in Ibaraki Prefecture.

One of the three “Great Gardens” of Japan (the others being Kenrokuen in Kanazawa Prefecture and Korakuen in Okayama Prefecture), Kairakuen（偕楽園） was established in 1841 by a member of the extended Tokugawa Shogunate family, who, in a completely unprecedented move, actually opened his park to the public, thus helping to establish the concept of public parks in Japan. Though it was dead when I visited it today in the dead of winter, the garden is renowned for the beauty of its plum blossoms in the spring and a temporary train station is actually opened nearby to accommodate the onslaught of people making the two hour trek from Tokyo to frolic amongst the flower petals and drunk people (drinking and enjoying the beauty of nature go together here).

In other words, I’ll have to make a repeat visit in a month or two when the trees and grass aren’t a frozen mess. Until then, there’s a bunch of dead grass and leafless trees.

Time to put weird things in my mouth!

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2olSTFBp5o

Today, poorly seasoned convenience store “jambalaya goop.” Tomorrow, who the hell knows?

All I know is that it was not good.

Day 4

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxjhuL7nomA

Vegetables!

I’m actually keeping up this video thing.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMh1gfC5quw

Color me surprised. Day three of the challenge is complete. I”m not burning through the cash as fast as I thought I would. SUCCESS!!!

10000 Yen Challenge Day 2

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Watch me talk about frugality and eating cheap food in Japan and stuff. Yay!.

10,000 Yen Challenge- Introduction (This Japanese Life)

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Let’s see how long I can survive on 10,000 yen! (Still too lazy to write a blog entry, sorry.) Going to try daily video entries.

Sooooooo I kinda made a vlog

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Yeah.  Can’t say I’m exactly photogenic or good at talking but I was too lazy to write down stuff so I recorded myself saying it instead (and now here I am writing something to tell you about it… IRONY…).  The video’s terrible I know.  And I pretty much regretted doing it the second I posted it.  I’m pretty sure this is how 25% of the people who make porn feel after their first day on the job (the other 75%, of course, is too proud of their impressive assets to notice).

 

Anyways, I’ve decided to share this abomination with you all.  Who knows.  Maybe I’ll do another one or two.  I’d much rather just write things out and put them on this blog but sometimes things just ain’t that easy and Big Daddy isn’t feeling up to it.

Either way, here’s the blog entry.  Enjoy.  Or throw your computer in disgust.  Either one is acceptable.  Even both.

 

I was actually more nervous making that dumb thing than I should have been.  I mean, it’s not like anyone’s going to be watching that.  Hell, no one reads this blog for Pete’s sake. 

 

Anyways, I think I’m going to start writing more.  

See ya around,

Stephen Tetsu

Two of these dangerous jobs are not like the others.

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Two of these dangerous jobs are not like the other.

Asked my students to brainstorm dangerous jobs for an activity in class. Needless to say, I did not expect a coupe of their answers.

So I kinda dropped the ball.

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First off,merry Christmas!

Second off, I guess I kinda sorta dropped the ball a bit didn’t I?  To be fair, I didn’t really have internet access for a good couple of weeks there but I guess I haven’t really been up to the task of the whole writing down your thoughts thing. Setting up life in a new country is hard but now comes a new year and I promise to write with at least some sort of regularity. Unless I forget. All the best for the new year.

Third and finally, this Shinkansen is very crowded. I guess that’s what I get for travelling on New Year’s Eve.