RJL Vlog #9 - DIY Okonomiyaki (おこのみやき)

Enjoy a trip to an okonomiyaki restaurant with me and my friend, Miymi.

-Jason

SMAP's Kusanagi Kun/草彅君 Arrested! - Breaking Japanese News

Some interesting aspects of Japanese culture are discussed after they finish talking about the breaking news involving a member of popular J-pop group SMAP.

-Jason

Shortening Japanese (Tofugu)

Really well-made vlog helping you speak better Japanese (or at least more natural sounding Japanese).

Deas is a fellow ALT in another part of Japan.

Enjoy!
-Jason

10 questions

Hello All -

I get tons of email at my YouTube page - most of it from JET applicants or people interested in living in Japan.

I do my best to answer as much of it as I can, but I do get asked the same question a lot by people who haven't looked thru all my videos. And I understand, since I have a lot of videos to look thru! :)

I got the email below a few days ago from a student in high school - much of my mail comes from eager high school students trying to plan out their future, a future that many of them hopes will include a job in Japan.

So have a look at Sydney's 10 questions and my 10 answers below.

Cheers,
Jason

Hello!

My name is Sydney and I am a high school student who is interested in teaching English in Japan in the future. I'm working on a career portfolio project in my English class and I was hoping that I could interview you for the "Ask an Expert" portion. If you are busy and don't have the time to answer these questions, please let me know as soon as possible. Also, I'm very sorry if one of these questions were already answered in one of your videos. My boyfriend recently informed me of your videos on YouTube and I was in a hurry to write you this message. However, I will be watching more of your videos. :) Ah, so sorry about the length of this message. Now for the questions:

1. What do you like most about your job?

2. How did you become interested in your career?

3. Briefly describe some of your job responsibilities.

4. Describe the education and/or training required.

5. Approximately how many hours do you work a week?

6. What is the approximate salary range in your area?

7. What do you like least about your job?

8. Does your job come with any benefits?

9. Do you get along with your co-workers/boss/etc.?

10. How long have you had your job?

Thanks for your time!

- Sydney



Hi Sydney -

Well, seeing as we're both from San Diego, I'd be happy to answer your questions.

Glad you're enjoying my vids - please subscribe when you have time.

1 - The best part of my job is helping my students - not only to learn English, but to learn about America and to help them be comfortable speaking to a foreigner.

2 - Before I found out about the JET Programme, I was in college (at UCSD) and studying with the goal of becoming a high school history teacher. So I was already interesting in teaching, and when I found out about JET I decided to try teaching in Japan.

3 - I'm an ALT, which means Assistant Language Teacher. Even though I'm an assistant, I still have to do many of the same things the regular teacher does - teach lessons, prepare lessons, grade papers, go with the students to school events, help with English speech contests, etc.

4 - To be a JET, you have to have a college degree - a BA or BS. You don't have to have a degree in education, but it helps to have had some teaching or youth volunteer experience when you apply.

5 - 35 to 40.

6 - JETs make 3,600,000 yen per year. With the current exchange rate at around 100yen = $1 - that's about $36,000 per year.

7 - After a few years of being an assistant, you do start to want to run your own classes and make more of the decisions about what to study and how to study it. And being an assistant also means that you have to be asked to join classes by the main Japanese teacher of English, so some days you are very busy and other days you are not busy.

8 - Yes, being a JET includes good benefits - excellent health care in the Japanese National system, 20 paid vacation days per year and subsidized rent for my apartment.

9 - Well, that's a tricky question here since there is a language barrier for many JETs who don't speak Japanese well. But I do get along with most of my fellow English teachers very well, and I wish I spoke better Japanese so I could get to know my other co-workers better.

10 - JET is a one-year contract, but you can renew up to five years maximum. I am in my fifth year, so my job ends this July.

Hope that was helpful.

Peace,
Jason H.

Hannya

So this is the most watched video on the Japanese YouTube main page today.

It's two skits from a TV show. Watching it - if you have no idea what they're saying or why people are laughing - welcome to my world. :)

I often channel surf, but I seldom watch any variety or comedy show for too long. While I do get the cultural references some of the time (for example - I think the first skit is a parody of a popular TV show) and I do understand some of the Japanese - most of the humor here goes right over my head.

The actors or comedians on most shows 1 - talk way too fast for me and 2 - often use Kansai dialect full or words and expressions I'm not familiar with.

It's tough sometimes living somewhere where you're never really in on the joke and you can't really make jokes of your own.
Again - the more you can learn Japanese, the more you will enjoy your time in Japan.

My students will most likely enjoy this clip.

-Jason

Gathering Storm by Coughlan666 (RATED R)

WARNING - this does have a bunch of bad language, but I haven't laughed as hard at anything on YouTube in a long while.

-JCH

Scrap Teacher eng subbed Ep 1 Part 1/7

I'm lucky that my Jr High is not like the one portrayed in this popular Japanese TV show - "Scrap Teacher."

The show is popular because 4 of the young male actors are from a very popular J-pop boy band called "Hey! Say! Jump!"

But I like the lead adult actor who plays the 29-year-old new teacher at the school.

It's great to be able to watch stuff like this on YT with added subtitles.

Enjoy!
-Jason

For more, just click on the above video YT icon or wait until the end and click the link for part 2.

First Day of school at my Japanese Jr. High - Part ONE

April 8th was the first day of the new Japanese school year.

I'll only be teaching for first term, as my job with JET ends in July.

So it was a bittersweet start to the year this time - knowing that it will end soon made it a bit sad.

-Jason

Apple's all-new 3G iPod shuffle; it talks to you!

I'm a huge Apple computers fan - ever since 2004, when I got the iBook laptop I'm typing on at this moment , I've enjoyed hearing about each new innovation and product.

I bought my iPod (video, 40gb) back in 2005 or 2006 - I can't even remember now. I still use it all the time - it's been particularly helpful here showing pictures and slideshows in class. And I love having it for long train trips or flights home.

This new iPod Shuffle is pretty amazing - doubt I'll be buying one, but it sure looks cool. :)

-JCH

Pictures and vlogs from my Tokyo trip - part 2

Tokyo - Feb 09 trip - Day Four - 3.jpg
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

Hello All -

I've finally had some time during my Spring Break to update my FLICKR page with the rest of my Tokyo pictures.

These include pictures from Sunday, when I went to a famous Buddhist temple in Asakusa called Senso-ji. And I traveled by train out to neighboring Saitama prefecture to visit the John Lennon Museum.

Both were worthwhile destinations and I recommend them both to people visiting Tokyo.

The picture above is me in the lobby of the JLM - you aren't allowed to take any pictures or video in the actual museum, so that's about all I have, except for a few vlogs I shot at the entrance:



The temple at Asakusa is a very famous landmark in Tokyo and it was super crowded on the Sunday I visited.



But it was interesting to see the mix of commerce, with the path leading up to the temple full of shops on both sides of the path, and the traditional, with people waving incense all over their bodies and making prayers and offerings inside the temple.



It was a great final day in Tokyo - I had just the right amount of time before I had to get the train from Ueno station back to Narita airport. And the weather stayed nice the entire time, altho it did start to get chilly on Sunday.

Unfortunately, I think all the carrying of luggage around the stations, and up and down large flights of stairs, did a number on my back, and after feeling sore all week, my back seized up on me on Friday after I got back and I was in bed all the next weekend, basically unable to move and in great pain, necessitating a trip to the Japanese emergency room that Sunday. Sucks to get old! :P

Anyway - the trip was excellent - I had a great time, met some cool people, saw some awesome sites and ate some great food.

I can't wait to do it again!

Peace,
Jason

100 Scariest Movie Moments - 01 - Jaws

People often ask me what my favorite film of all time is, and I have many, but if pressed I say "JAWS."

For me, it's just a perfect movie. And oddly enough, I never saw it on the big screen when it was originally released in 1976. (I was only 7 years old and I lived in California, so my parents wisely didn't let me see it or I would have never gone to the beach again)
But I never saw "SIngin' in the Rain," "Casablanca," or "Bridge on the River Kwai" on the big screen either, so that's not a big deal.

It was probably the fact that I discovered the movie on VHS and could watch it over and over again (which I did) that has let it become my all time favorite movie.

Everything about it is fantastic - the pace, the plot, the acting, the effects, and of course, the music.

I realized that it's a genre picture and maybe hard to compare to something like Schindler's List or Citizen Kane, but for me, JAWS is endlessly watchable and a great example of everything that Steven Spielberg does so well.

-Jason

Behind the Scenes at MyArgonauts Productions

Happy April Fool's Day everyone. This vid has been getting some good reaction from my viewers on YouTube.

Hope you enjoy it. :D

-JCH

Utada Hikaru - First Love (karaoke)

I really like the style of lyrics seen in the above video.

Watching karaoke vids is a great way to learn Japanese. Many standard karaoke vids include furigana for the kanji, so as long as you know at least hiragana you can follow along. This video is even easier as the Japanese is transcribed into romaji.

Utada is immensely popular here, altho she hasn't had a big hit in over a year.
This song is an early hit for her and one of my favorite sappy J-pop songs.
I'm not sure who to compare her to - maybe Christina Aguilera - since they both are talented vocalists, have had many big hit records, and both started singing at a young age.

The video below is a live version of the song and you can see how Utada looks now.

Enjoy!
-Jason

Updates

Hello All -

I have lots of things to tell you, and no time it seems to type it all up and post it here.

But I should have some time starting this weekend, as I'll be on Spring Break starting tomorrow. yeah!

I'm not going anywhere or doing anything special - just hanging out in my town and trying to catch up on things that need doing, like cleaning my apartment, seeing some movies (Watchmen - yeah!), and updating this here blog.

I'm sure many of you watch my vlogs over on YouTube, and I've been pretty active over there, but I want to spend some time here as well - I have some text posts percolating in my brain that I want to share with y'all.

Also, I need to update my Flickr site, which is way behind. Altho the fun of it has gone mostly for me now that I can't post pics of me with my students, I will try and get the rest of my Tokyo pics posted and some other recent pics as well.

Thanks for reading and I hope your Spring is off to a nice start.

Be Seeing You,
Jason

英語で懐かしい！

Another good vlog from my buddy Koichi.

A good one for my students to watch!

-J

Response - Getting to know TaishaJason

More than you ever wanted or needed to know about me. :)

To follow along with the list, click on the YouTube icon in the lower right corner and watch the video on the YT page so you can access the sidebar.

I invite comments and responses.

-Jason

New STAR TREK trailer

I was never a big Star Trek fan. In that old pop-culture debate, Star Wars vs Star Trek (similar to Elvis vs The Beatles or Batman vs Spider-Man), I was always on the side of the Jedi, Wookies and lightsabers over the side with phasers, Tribbles and bad Scottish accents.

But I certainly enjoyed Star Trek growing up - the original TV series with the best captain (which is another debate - Kirk vs Picard) was always something I liked to watch, but I hadn't seen every episode and I didn't know obsessive details about each show. I had a friend in High School named Chris who was a big Trekkie and he got me to watch some of the best of the original series, like Wolf in the Fold and City on the Edge of Forever. Well, as you can see, I now can name episode titles, so I've grown into being a Trekker (the more recent term for a Trek fan), but I'm still not an uber fan.

What prompted my interest even more than Chris's enthusiasm for the old series was the new series - The Next Generation - that started when I was a Freshman in college. The first season was a bit stiff and awkward at times, but the show grew into an interesting parable of life here even tho the action took place in distant galaxies far into the future. I became a bigger fan of "Next Gen" than I was a fan of the Kirk and Spock version of Trek.

But the first Next Gen movie - called Generations - was a disappointment. The previous 6 ST movies, with the original crew - had been somewhat hit or miss - the generally accepted wisdom nowadays is that the even numbered ones - 2, 4 and 6 - are good movies, with #2 being my personal fave - and the odd numbered ones are not very good, or even downright awful, as in #5. (Although I have a lot of affection for #3 - The Search for Spock)
The Next Gen movies hit their stride with their 2nd attempt - First Contact - which features perhaps the best villian in any of the movies, even better than Khan in ST #2 - the Borg.
Star Trek movies, like Bond films, get by on their established characters, but what makes them really memorable and fun and exciting is a great villian.

So it's with interest that I watch the build-up for the new Trek film, coming to screens in May (even here in Japan where it comes out on May 29th).
Simply titled "Star Trek," this film chronicles the early adventures of Kirk and Spock and the original crew, all played by new, younger actors. The film is being directed by JJ Abrams, who is responsible for Lost and Alias on American TV,

The trailer below is pretty excellent - giving a good indication that the film will be action packed and exciting. What's missing, at least in the trailer, is a hint of the comedy that makes Trek so much fun - no dialog from Scotty in this trailer - and I'm still not sure if Nero, the new villian played by Eric Bana, will be memorable or not, but I'm certainly very excited to see the film.

Abrams has to walk a fine line here - please all the core Trekers out there while trying to build a new audience that will want to "bodly go" on more adventures in the future.
Many casual movies fans will dismiss this picture based on the title alone - "pphhht" Star Trek? - I don't like Star Trek, some of them will say, but if the movie succeeds, then perhaps even casual fans or older fans, like myself, who didn't buy into the recent TV incarnations of the franchise, like Voyager, Deep Space Nine and Enterprise, will give Star Trek another chance.

Watch and enjoy! (There is a short commercial before the trailer begins)



-Jason

new Terminator film trailer

I'm a big fan of the Terminator film franchise. I absolutely love the first two movies, and I even enjoy the third one for what it was - an attempt to prolong the characters on screen.

This new film - with Christian Bale (who plays Bruce Wayne/Batman in the recent Batman films) as John Connor looks AMAZING!

I can't wait to see it. The Terminator films and even the Fox TV show, which just came out on DVD here in Japan, are pretty popular here, so I'm hoping the film will come to Japanese theaters shortly after it debuts on American screens.

Another highly anticiapted movie for me - Watchmen - comes out this weekend in America and in late March here in Japan, so that's not too bad a wait for me. It also looks fantastic based on what I've seen online.

Enjoy!
-Jason

Pictures from my Tokyo trip

Tokyo - Feb 09 trip - Day THREE - 16.jpg
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

Hello All -

I've posted a few pics from my first few days in Tokyo at the beginning of February.

I had a great time and I've posted lots of videos from the trip on my YouTube site.

Day One was Thursday the 5th.
I flew on JAL from Izumo to Haneda airport in Tokyo. Plane trip took about 90 minutes.
From the airport I got a few trains to my hotel near Ueno station and I dropped off my luggage.

I had a few hours to kill before my meeting with the folks that run the JET Programme, so I walked around a bit and had some lunch at an Irish Pub.

Our meeting started at about 1:00 and I met the other 9 ALTs invited to give their opinions to the JET staff and officials on how to improve the JET experience. My presentation wasn't until Friday, so I mostly relaxed and listened and commented on the other presentations.

The great, former ALTs and CIRs who now work in Tokyo for the JET ministries, like CLAIR, took us out-of-towners out for some excellent Indian food and a two hour nomihodai (all you can drink) dinner.
Then it was a few subway stops and I was back at my hotel - a little exhausted from the traveling so I was eager to just crash into bed.

Up early the next morning for our 2nd day of opinion sharing.

My presentation was the last of the day, so time got a little short and I wasn't able to cover all the points in my outline, but overall I think it went well and I enjoyed hearing other perspectives on the job I have and the "company" I work for.

We wrapped up, had a small pizza party for lunch and then I was free for the rest of Friday. I went back to my hotel to change out of my suit and then struck out on the town to explore Tokyo and eventually have dinner.

I ended up spending way too much time in the English book and magazine section of the Shibuya Tower Records, so I didn't look for a place to eat until about 10pm. I ended up going somewhere very familiar to all Californians - TGI Friday's.
It was overpriced and noisy, but I enjoyed it - a rare taste of "American" food for this rural boy.

Here is a picture from Shibuya at night:



The picture at the top of this post is from my full day of sightseeing on Saturday.

I went to Harajuku and visited the nearby shrine dedicated to the Emperor Meiji and his wife. He was a key figure in the Meiji Restoration, an important time in Japanese history in the late 1800s.

It was a beautiful Shinto shrine and the weather was so nice, it was a pleasure to stroll around the grounds and escape the craziness of urban Tokyo if only for a short while.

After Harajuku I went to Akihabara - the famous geek Mecca filled with tons of small shops selling toys and electronics and everything associated with Anime (Japanese animation).
I walked around, bought a few gifts and had lunch at Burger King - another American fast food restaurant that they don't have in Shimane.

After Akiba, I was off to another Mecca - this one for fans of Sumo. The stadium where they hold the Grand Sumo tournaments three times a year in Tokyo is called the Kokugikan and it's a distinctive looking building I've seen on TV many times.

I was eager to explore the Sumo museum, but after making it out to the stadium, I found out that the museum was closed that day. I was so disappointed.

I explored a bit more and then it was back to the hotel to rest and change for my night out with some fellow YouTubers.

We all met near Ueno station at around 7pm and Hiko, who's lived in Tokyo for over 10 years, showed us around a bit before we settled on a pub-type place for drinks and food and conversation.
Later we ended up at TGIF (a different one) for dessert and we all got our cameras out and shot vlogs of each other. How geeky! :P

I'll post more pictures from Sunday - my last day in Tokyo - soon.

This weekend and next I'm super busy getting the graduation movies prepared for my soon-to-graduate 9th graders at both my Jr High schools. It takes me a long time to edit all my pictures and video footage together. But the kids really love the resulting movie each year.

Hope all is well with you.

Peace,
Jason

Jason in Tokyo - Vlog #11 - Hiko, Cruxay, Atomicboyx - meeting Tokyo YouTubers

My version of the video posted somewhere below by my pal Hiko - I got out my camera and started interviewing the other J-vloggers I go to meet in Tokyo during my trip a few weeks ago.

We had a nice night out chatting and eating and bitching about YouTube. :)

-Jason