Started my new job today. Despite my joy in having gotten out of the English circuit a few years ago, here I am back in it again. Like dealing crack, teaching English is just so easy and profitable compared to other jobs I could do for the same amount of time.
This round is me using software to teach lessons from home. I sign into a virtual ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

 
( Read more... )

I ride my motorcycle to work now. As a driver in a new city, I try to watch others and figure out the rules and etiquette of the road as I go. These seem to be the main points to observe when navigating Tokyo ( Read more... )

I've decided to keep worlds from colliding and create a separate blog for work, which I hope will eventually turn into something semi-professional. For now it's just about the everyday life a a foreigner working at a Japanese counter restaurant in Tokyo.

http://japanchef.blogspot.com/

Summer in Japan means festivals, picnics, and fireworks. Even the sticks hold firework festivals, and I started my new job just in time to be invited to the company fireworks party out in Chiba, right beside Disneyland where my boss lives. Leave it to a chef to cook up some awesome food. We got a spot right on the bay and watched the show.
Full ( Read more... )

 Today I:
Failed miserably at understanding Japanese.
Scaled, helped clean, and skewered 20 鰈 (flatfish). Got scales all over myself.
Did so many dishes it makes my head hurt to remember. At least it wasn't all by hand.
Sliced practice tuna (ie, the leftover stuff we eat ourselves).
Met a famous person and had a toast. 
Split a bottle of 日本酒 with the ( Read more... )

Got a job.
Ahh, coming home after a day's work that stretched into the night and feeling the familiar stiffness settle into your bones as if you were 72 instead of 27. Back in the kitchens.

The first thing to know about cuisine in Japan is that there is an intense rivalry between the southern Kansai area (including Kyoto and Osaka) and the northern Kanto area (including Tokyo). Ever since the capital was moved to Tokyo from Kyoto, there has been a cultural war between the areas. Kanto/Tokyo represents modernity and metropolis, and ( Read more... )

Here's a bit of what I've been doing recently ( Read more... )