There is NOBODY my age in this town.
This makes it extremely difficult to make friends here. It's tough to find young people in Niikappu who aren't my students. I assume all the young adults are in college in Sapporo or otherwise, and all the college graduates have moved on from Niikappu to more bustling places. I guess I'm not sure what I expected from Niikappu. I just thought every age group would be represented, I suppose. But instead it seems to be a lot of kids, a lot of middle aged people, and tons of old people. Read more »

I've been so busy lately that I haven't really had time to update my blog.
I did a lot in the last month! There was a festival at the shrine in Shizunai, and I went to it with some of the teachers. The official reason was to keep any students from getting rowdy or staying out too late, but there weren't any of our students there so I just had fun. Read more »

I've been pretty busy with classes lately, but I'm doing well here in Niikappu! This week, I had Monday off and I have Friday off as well. It's a nice short week!

I started riding my bike further than I usually do, and I found a few interesting places around here. One one long bike ride, I went out on the road near my house and went in a big circle around town. It was actually a lot longer than I thought it would be, but it was really fun! I didn't take any pictures during that ride because the light wasn't very good. There's always next time! Read more »

I've successfully made it through my first two days of class! On my first day, I had five classes out of a possible six. It was a lot of work!
It was really entertaining though. The kids are extremely energetic, and most of them are willing to learn. My lessons were all self-introduction lessons. I would introduce myself and give various facts about me, and the students were quizzed on it.

A typical classroom in the junior high school.

Hi everyone! I finally got around to getting my pictures off my camera and uploading them. I also updated the website; there's a new share button as well as improved commenting.

This is my side of the duplex. As you can see, I have all the modern conveniences of a door, mail slot, windows, and garbage can. You can also see "rusty" out in front! This was taken before I got my new bike.

I got back from Sapporo safely. The bus ride was long and mostly uncomfortable. The guy next to me kept falling asleep and leaning on me, and my backpack wouldn't fit in the space overhead so I had to hold it. Thankfully, some people finally got off and I was able to switch seats. I switched while the bus driver was out of the bus, and when he came back he gave me a really funny look. Read more »

Well, I successfully made it through half of Sapporo orientation! Tonight I'm just taking it easy. There was a lot of talk about parties today, but I wasn't really interested. I'd much rather be researching the separating axis theorem or debugging some code! I really wish I could, but I don't have my computer with me.Instead, I've been using my spare time to catch up on the hilarious parody show "Dragon Ball Z Abridged." It's a must-watch for any DBZ fan! Read more »

Following Tuesday, of course. It's so close to the weekend, but not quite close enough to relax.

I was finally able to deposit money into my bank account here, and I'm really enjoying my new docomo phone. Especially because it has unlimited internet access!

Last night I went out with some new friends to a local bar, which is conveniently located across the street from the kindergarten. It was pretty fun, and I rickrolled everyone there during karaoke. It was really fun! I hope we can hang out again soon. Read more »

Today I overslept and was a few minutes late for work! It turned out okay though. Read more »

Today at work they gave me a new notebook. Previously, I had been using post-it notes to take Japanese notes on. It looks like a kid's notebook, and on the front is written "A Good Kid's Notebook" (よい子のノート). Even so, I'm happy to get something to take notes with! It's a lot better than post-its, which clutter up the place. In my opinion, it's better than the computer as well, because it's sometimes hard to read kanji depending on the font and size of the text. Read more »