Miso Happy!

One topic that has interested me ever since I taught English at a high school in Korea is the intersection between education and culture. In my blog about my time in Korea, I discussed the problems with creating a student-centered classroom in Korean culture. This notion seems like it stems from Confucian ideas that view the nature of education as transactional and teachers as the gatekeepers of knowledge. When I tried to flip the classroom from what the students were used to (teacher-centered lectures) to what I thought would be advantageous for developing English speaking fluency (a student-centered, communicative and task-based approach), there was often a lot of confusion. Additionally, it was often difficult to get the students to speak any English at all for a variety of reasons. Teacher-centered classrooms were deeply embedded in the cross-section of education and culture in Korea, and that seems to be the case here in Japan as well. Generally speaking, most university classes...

Before coming to Japan, I talked with several friends and acquaintances who had either taught English in Japan in the past or who are currently teaching English here. Many of them had not had experience teaching English at the university level, but most had generally been positive about their experiences in Japan with the one caveat that they hadn't been able to save much money (from what I understand, this is true unless you work for JET). Since I was aiming to teach at the university level, I sought the advice of a specific acquaintance. This acquaintance has been teaching English at a university in Japan for several years. He warned me about several factors that might impede my successful pursuit of university-level employment. I optimistically did not think his assessment of the current job market would be true across the board (what did I know?!), but I believe he was correct on each point. I'll go through the list: 1. Stricter Requirements Compared to Similar Positio...

Along with Miyajima, my favorite stop on my winter break travels was Nara. In fact, my planning for this trip started with Nara because I was told that it would be a good place to witness a more traditional New Years Eve in Japan. Since Kyoto is the center of traditional Japan what with all of their temples and history, Nara is often thought as a smaller, less well-known Kyoto. Similar to Kyoto, Nara is full of temples and its citizens display a more laid-back sort of life apart from the madness of cities like Tokyo and Osaka. It is worth mentioning that my favorite hostel during my travels was also in Nara: Nara Backpackers. A 100-year-old house had been converted into a hostel. It was definitely the coziest hostel experience I have experienced, and the house and garden itself were beautiful. Additionally, the host (seemingly the only employee) was also incredibly nice. He was a young Japanese guy who had lived in Canada for a year giving tours to Japanese tourists to see th...

Background :   As part of my duties as an English teacher in Japan, I teach English writing to university students. The curriculum confoundingly focuses on contexts and lexical chunks rather than starting with a foundation of specific grammar points or specific structural elements in writing (such as transitional/signal words and phrases) and building from there. Even though my students are studying subjects like law, architecture, and mechanical engineering, they are all required to take English writing. As a result, it can be difficult to keep the students motivated, especially compared with our speaking classes. With this in mind, I have been trying to incorporate more kinesthetic activities into my writing lessons. One wouldn't think that writing classes would present ample opportunities for kinesthetic activities, but so far it seems to have served the lessons well by keeping the students energized and engaged. This is based on a pre-written lesson plan that I changed and ...

Kobe is known for, among other things, being Japan's preeminent port city. However, by the numbers, Kobe has dropped to being Japan's 4th busiest port after a 1995 earthquake demolished the city. Despite this, it was one of the first cities to open up to the West for trading after Japan's long period of isolation with the Western world and continues to be an economic center in Japan as it is the home to many of Japan's largest corporations, such as Kawasaki and Kobe Steel. After I arrived, I walked around their Harborland area which is a recreational area apart from the great number of imposing shipyards and large corporate buildings that litter the coast of Kobe. As a result of being one of the first Japanese cities to trade with Western powers, there are lingering relics of the West's footprint in the city. Most visible is the Kitano area where foreign diplomats lived in somewhat ostentatious houses. These houses are now open for tours. On my only full day in K...

Naoshima is a Japanese success story. Prior to the late 1980s, Naoshima was experiencing a more-than-gradual decline in population like many other small towns in the developed and developing worlds. People are having fewer children and more people are moving to the cities for work. Naoshima, being a small island with a small population, was certainly not immune to these trends. However, according to the Benesse Museum website , a joint decision was made by Benesse Holdings and the local administration of Naoshima in 1985 to develop the southern part of the island as a cultural draw for visitors. This eventually turned into the purchase of land and the development of several art museums and installations. Now, according to NPR , the island has seen not only a surge in their economy by way of tourism and cultural events based around the island's art museums and projects, but the island has also experienced a slight increase in their population. My trip to Naoshima from Hiro...

Miyajima has been one of my favorite places that I've visited in recent memory. Just a short train and ferry ride from Hiroshima, it can easily be made into a day trip. The only problem is that you might want to spend a longer time there (like I did!). The one thing that Miyajima is most famous for is its torii (gate) as part of the nearby Itsukushima Shrine, which appears to float in the water during high tide, and it's also the first thing that your eyes focus on as you gaze at the shore from the ferry. It's been consistently voted as one of the views in Japan. However, Miyajima has much more to offer than that. After getting off of the ferry, I wondered through the arcade that is just behind the beachfront, and went directly to the torii since it was lowtide. The first thing I noticed was that there were deer everywhere, and they didn't seem to be afraid of people at all. There were signs everywhere that warned how the deer were wild, but I di...