Tour Guide Duty

First and foremost on my mind: counting down the days until my heart from Seattle comes to visit me, and seeing the whole group of Seattle homies (Mel, Amy, Kristie).

I spent most of today bumming around the city of Kobe with Michelle, my company orientation buddy. Her sister Elaine is visiting from Vancouver BC, so the two of them + two nihonjin buddies met up with me. It was their first time seeing Kobe city, so we hit the usual spots people go to when they visit Kobe: Nankin-Machi (Chinatown), Motomachi shopping area, Sentagai shopping strip, and Santica underground shopping mall.

Yeah, lots of shopping, but hey... they're girls... haha. Selman also came out later to kick with us. We ate dinner on their way back home, takoyaki and okonomiyake at Umeda. Yum.

At present, I'm using my latest find... a free internet cafe in a mammoth electronics store called Yodobashi Camera. Filled with computers, cameras, stereos, gadgets, toys, DVDs, music... every man's dream. Entering its well lit halls is an open invitation to technolust, heh.

Tomorrow will be pretty chill.. I've decided to go on the grand adventure of...

...
...
...

...doing my laundry. (cue dramatic music)

It'll be off to the coin laundry with a book and a bag full of clothes.


.:.

News-age:

An interesting Seattle Times article on effects of over-testing in child education. If any country in the world is test-happy, is mos def Japan. While most children have excellent memories of facts, figures, and dates... the abilities of using ones imagination / critical thinking is sorely lacking.

My opinion is based on numerous English lessons with junior high and high school students... the following scenario often happens:

Gar: Imagine you have 100,000,000 yen. You have one week to spend it all and you can't give it away. What do you do?
Student: (blank look)
Gar: OK, maybe that is difficult. How about you have one month to spend it?
Student: (blank look)
Gar: OK, OK... what do you want to buy? Anything is fine.
Student: (blank look)
Gar: ...
Student: I want to buy a hamburger?
Gar: ...

No joke. Of course it's not every kid, but most poor kids have their imaginations beat out of them by the systems in place here...
posted by G at 3:53 AM   |

in?scrip?tion (n-skrip-shun)n.
1. The act or an instance of inscribing.
2. Something, such as the wording on a coin, medal, monument, or seal, that is inscribed.
3. A short, signed message in a book or on a photograph given as a gift.
4. The usually informal dedication of an artistic work.
5. Jeremiah 31:33