VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

I wanna tell you about this girl that I used to do date.
When I was little younger. I’m not old now. I’m still young, but when I younger…there was this girl I used to date.

And…Wow, what can I say about her? She was everything I wanted in a girl. She was really smart, she was cute, wasn’t high maintenance whatsoever. She just liked to hang out. She didn’t need anything special. We just enjoyed being in each other’s company and that was enough.

But one day she came up to me and she said “Donald, I’m sorry but I can’t see you anymore.”
I was devastated. With tears in my eyes I pleaded with her: “Please don’t do this! I thought we were having a good time. What’s wrong?”

“Donald, I think we were having a good time, too.
But…I’m a cartoon…I’m a cartoon, Donald.”

This is Donald with thejapanguy.com and today let’s talk about CARTOON CRUSHES!

Now don’t lie. I know somebody knows what I’m talking about. Somebody out there had a crush on a cartoon and you just don’t wanna admit it. But I’m gonna admit it. I’m gonna put everything on the table right now. I had a cartoon crush, and today and I’m gonna tell you about the first three (well the third one wasn’t really a crush but we’ll talk about that later). I’m gonna tell you about the first cartoon crushes I can remember.

Number one: I had a crush on Inspector Gadget’s niece, Penny Gadget. In my little five year-old, six-year-old brain (or whatever year it was) I just didn’t make the connection that you couldn’t BE WITH a cartoon. You know?

I just saw this cute little girl on TV talking. And at five or six I’m not thing “Man I wanna have sex with Penny Gadget.” I’m not thinking that in my head. I’m just thinking “Man, she’d be really cool to hang out with.”

She was the one that was always saving the day. Let’s face it, if we left saving the world up to Inpsector Gadget, we’d all be dead right now…because he was a screw up.
But Penny, would always save the day. She had the cool watch. She was smart. She was cute.

And we know she wasn’t high maintenance because she wore the same clothes everyday. Now I do hope in real life, if she was real, that she wouldn’t stink, you know? Because, I guess if you’re wearing the same clothes all the time…but I’m sure she washed them. She seemed like the type of girl who was always on top of her business. So, yeah, my first cartoon crush was Penny Gadget.

Cartoon Crush Number 2: …

Uh, I’m just gonna get into it. I’m not gonna try to explain anything.

Did you ever watch the cartoon “Heathcliff” back in the 80s? Well, if you didn’t, Heathcliff was this rambunctious cat that was always getting into fights and always getting into trouble. And there was this other gang of cats that he would always get into fights with (I wanna say it was five other cats, maybe?).

But the boss/leader of that gang of cats, who I suspect was a pimp because he had a cane and a really cool hat…his girlfriend was this really sexy cat named Cleo. Cleo was one of the first cartoons I remember that had curves. Yeah she was a cat! Hey, don’t…don’t judge me! Don’t judge me! Yes she was a cat! Okay?!

You know what, we’re gonna look at the picture right now:

Tell me…YOU TELL ME this cat is not sexy! C’mon.

She had the 80s leg warmers that were kinda hot back in the day, she was tall, curvy, she wore eye shadow. She was always looking cute. And What topped it off was…you know how sometimes when a girl has long hair?… When she wears it down, it’s cool. When she wears it in a ponytail, it’s cool. But there’s something just slightly exotic about a woman who puts the hair on one side…

Right? RIGHT!? No?…You don’t know what I’m talking about? Nobody agrees because it’s a cat…

But you know what? I’m just trying to be honest. I thought the cat was sexy.

But…does that make me a pervert? Does that make me a pervert or a weirdo? Because if I said that to you in real life. If I was like “Hey man! That cat look sexy don’t it? That is a sexy cat!”

You’d probably think “Umm, I don’t need to talk to you anymore, Donald, because I suspect you’re into bestiality.”

And I’m not into bestiality! But am I in the wrong for thinking a cartoon cat is sexy. I’m just saying…

Number three is not a cat, it’s not even a girl. It’s a machine.

The first Japanese anime I ever watched, and I guess I completely forgot about it, was a cartoon called Tranzor Z. I think in Japan…I wanna say the name of it was different. I think it’s Mazinger Z? Something like that? But anyaway…

There were two main robots in this anime series. One of course Tranzor Z (I think that was the name) and the lady robot was named Aphrodite. And the cool thing about Aphrodite was that she had missile boobs

…missile boobs.

Right?

Now I didn’t have a crush on the robot per se, but I think that cartoon really got me interested in female anatomy. When she (Aphrodite) was in the heat of battle she could shoot off a breast. They could come off independently of each other.

As I kid I was like “WHOA! Is that what breasts can do! JESUS! That’s awesome!”

And ever since that cartoon I was fascinated with breasts…still am.

Okay, so I poured my soul. I embarrassed myself with my cartoon crushes. And NOW I wanna hear yours.

What are your cartoon crushes? Because somebody out there is an adult with a cartoon crush…AND THAT’S ALRIGHT! I’m not gonna judge you! I may laugh a little in private, but I’m not gonna judge, you know? Let’s all laugh together!

So…I wanna hear what your cartoon crush or crushes are/were.

I don’t care if it’s an animal, if it’s a plant, if it’s a sexy dog. I don’t know…I don’t know what you’re into.

You can leave them in the comments section below and I’ll see you next time.

Donald Ash in Panasonic Viera commercial spot 1.

This commercial is for a pretty cool television set by Panasonic that allows you to share and connect with your smart phones and other smart devices. I don’t know much about price or release date specifics of the actual smart tv (as I like to call it), but it does look useful. I had a feeling that this is where television would eventually go.

Everything being connected is the way to go. I wonder what your smart phone won’t be able to do in 20 years. It’s really interesting to think about. We’ll have to have a discussion/debate about one of these days here on the site.

I really think this commercial came out well. It’s one of the longer spots I had the opportunity to do, but check it out

It’s all in Japanese, but if you click around you’ll be able to see more about the Panasonic Viera.

Thank for reading. I’ll see you next post!

Donald

P.S.-To Mitzi, Kyle, Yurika and the crew, I REALLY had fun working with you guys

My Japanese Kindergarten assistant teacher…Bunny Sensei

I told that being away from my beloved writing hasn’t been because of my master ghost ninpou tactics, but because the start of this year has been a whirlwind. Even thought I recently moved to Tokyo in early January, I did things a bit backwards from the “traditional job” perspective. I moved, then ended having to hunt after the modeling dry spell. I had to find a full-time job because I needed to eat, pay bills, invest, all that good stuff.

A good friend friend reached out when I was struggling to find work and I ended up in a rather good position with a company called JIEC (thanks, Ben!). JIEC teaches primarily to Japanese kindergarten students and seems to be a great middle ground between eikaiwa and ALT work.

How is teaching kindergarten like ALT work?

I’m still quite new to this job, but so far, being at an actual Japanese kindergarten means that you will often be the only English speaker at a the school, which I felt was one of the benefits of ALT work. Some people do feel isolated by it at times, though.

Having exposure to Japanese on a daily basis is important if I’m going to keep my Japanese skills up to snuff or, dare I say, build on them.

Japanese kindergartens have special events, ceremonies, and customs just like Japanese elementary, middle, or high schools do. I will have the chance to watch and take part in some of these events as well.

How is JIEC like eikaiwa work?


With my current job situation, I don’t have the full summer breaks that I did as an ALT, but I’m not complaining, because the tradeoff is a much more comfortable salary. Over 500 USD a month more to be specific. With the time off I had as an ALT, I guess the problem I ran into was that I wasn’t earning enough to take any big trips, but I’m planning to change that this year.

So, Where did you move to?
When I interviewed I wanted to try to stay in Tokyo, but that wasn’t in the cards. One of the stipulations of securing my kindergarten teaching job was that I would have to move. I didn’t complain and did even make it an issue.

I was a little worried…EXTREMELY worried…of course about where I was going to end up, but I agreed to it because I wanted, no…NEEDED to work. I ended moving to Yokohama.

For the second time in about 60 days, I had to move again. I packed up my things got a cheap moving company to help me (we’ll talk about that, too) and now I’m here in Yokhama. I’m close to a JR line, not far from a 24-hour Gold’s Gym (WOO HOO) and close to everything I need.

On top of that, it’s also not so hard for me to get to Tokyo, if need be.

JIEC (the company I’m working for) was SUPER cool about helping to find a reasonable moving company and they even spotted me on the key money, which I will pay back over the course of my first twelve months of work. I’ll take!

My apartment is smaller & more expensive than the one I had in Tsukba or in Ouji, but at the same time it’s more modern, it’s cozier, and more convenient. I realize being in my own apartment trumps being in sharehouse, at least for me. It’s quieter, which means it’s easier for me to get back to making more Japan Guy vids, coming and going as I please, and having people over when I want (that hasn’t been happening a whole lot, though, unfortunately).

So now it’s time to see what cool things Yokohama has to offer. It really seems like it’s gonna be a cool place to live. I’m excited!

Donald Ash

Pant, pant, hoo, hooo…hoooooo! (the sound of Donald gasping for breath).
“I…I’m…I’m back”…hoooo.

Oh my God, let me tell you what’s been going on with me lately. I recently finished up at the Tokyo Ninjitsu graduate school with a major in the Ghost Arts. During our final examination, all ninja candidates had to demonstrate all of the 忍法 (ninpou: ninja arts) they had learned over the course of the program.

I REALLY wanted to impress my panel of instructors, especially head instructor, Ryu Hayabusa…yes, Mr. Ninja Gaiden himself. I ended up demonstrating the forbidden Shadow Ginpou technique (Shadow + Ghost + Ninpou) the ultimate disappearing ninjitsu. This is not to be confused with the Shadow Gimpou technique (Shadow + Gimp + Ninpou) where you disappear and end up in reappearing in a black leather suit with a red ball in your mouth (a la Pulp Fiction).

Needless to say, I was teleported to another dimension, and I have been fighting my a$$ off every single day just to find a way back to my home dimension. It’s been tough, but I did finally make it back.

It turns out it was a silly little mistake with my hand sealing technique. Did you know that your fingers being just 2 degrees off while performing a ninjitsu hand seal can ruin or completely alter a magic ninpou technique? Well I didn’t either, but I know now!

LIES & GARBAGE, DONALD ASH! LIES & GARBAGE!

Maybe I haven’t been fighting ninjas, maybe I don’t have a graduate degree in the Ghost Arts, maybe Nintendo legend Ryu Hayabusa isn’t my ninjitsu teacher. Hell, maybe I don’t damn lick of ninpou, but I have been going through a whirlwind of stuff, and IT IS good to be back to talk to you again.

As some of you may know, I moved to Tokyo back in early January. I was living in a sharehouse near Ouji Station because I figured if I was going to be doing more modeling gigs, Tokyo was the best place for me to be.

I was able to get by for a while, and started landing regular extra, modeling, and commercial jobs. I had the opportunity to do some cool work for Panasonic & Canon, tv extra work, events, etc.

Being able to smile and say, “I was in this Canon commercial” may sound cool, but it’s not the equivalent of landing the same type of job in the U.S.. Sometimes people think if you’re landing those big name gigs in Japan, that you’re rolling in dough and it simply not how things work. Were the modeling industry in Japan unionized the way it is in the U.S., it would be a different story altogether…but that’s for another post, I suppose.

Though I haven’t done enough modeling in the U.S. to know fully, I hear that landing a commercial in the U.S. with a “big” company would mean that you wouldn’t have to work for the the rest of the year.

Granted, modeling gigs can pay pretty well for a day’s work in Japan ($1000 or more if it’s a good job), but it’s often not quit your job type of money, at least it hasn’t been for me.

After a string of jobs, I started thinking that I might actually be able to make a career of it, but all of sudden…“poof!” those audition dry spells blew in out of nowhere. There were those time where I wasn’t landing jobs, and of course those times when the audition offers slowed down. But that’s the nature of the entertainment beast.

During those lean times, recognition is nice, but it doesn’t pay the rent.

I know it’s doable because I have friends (not many, but some) who do it full-time. I guess things didn’t line up the way I wanted them to. A stable yet flexible source of part-time income may have made a difference, but I can’t say that for sure. I just didn’t leaving my income to chance.

But you know what? Screw all that!

We’re not gonna dwell on anything negative right now. I tried for six months, I’m glad I did, and that’s that. I may do some part-time acting/modeling work, but it’s time to change gears, and trade in the freedom/unpredictability of modeling for the stability of a full-time job. Yes, it’s back to the classroom for me & back to the dream drawing board for me.

That’s life. You live, you learn, you adjust

A humongous thanks to all of my family, friends, and even Japan Guy readers that helped me stay positive when things weren’t going so smoothly. I hit a rough patch, but I’m back on course now.

You know what singing group has been making lots of Japanese news fairly recently? I’ll give you a hint (cue the candy, J-pop music) “I want you…I need you…I love you…” Still don’t know? Okay so maybe not everyone reading this may not be familiar with the group, but it’s AKB48, and there has been a just a bit of “controversy” surrounding the group lately.

AKB48 is easily Japan’s premier girl, J-Pop band. Although there are other imitation groups that have had been relatively successful (NMB48 & SKE 48), AKB is hands down the most popular of these Japanese girl bands. This band is featured on everything from cell phone train ads, to television ads, to clothing, to commercials for fruits & vegetables (huh?), to a cafe chain. Odds are if you’re in Japan, you’ll see them…somewhere…it’s kind of hard not to.

Being as much of a phenomenon as they are, and being very much a part of popular Japanese culture as they are, it’s a wonder that their influence doesn’t have a greater international reach. Then again, it’s always been amazing to me how groups can have such a huge following in one country and be completely unknown to other parts of the world.

In the US, as well as quite a few bands in the UK, it seems like once you’ve hit it big there, the international crossover appeal is nearly a given.

I probably mentioned it before, but I’m not the biggest AKB fan. However you can’t deny the facts: AKB makes enough money from record sales, and everything in between, to create their own bank. I don’t know what current sales figures are, but just to give you an idea of numbers, in 2011 AKB48 made $200 million dollars in JUST record sales alone (those may be gross figures, but still!).

Whether you enjoy the young, sexy school girl, candy-style J-pop or not, if we base success solely on money and sales, this is a VERY successful group! They also happen to have a HUGE, ravenous fan base!

Despite their financial success, I have been a little suspicious about some of the recent AKB news.

One happened just over a month-and-a-half ago, maybe? AKB member Tomomi Kasai took a racy photo with a very strange twist. The young woman posed nude but had a VERY young boy, like toddler young, covering her breasts:

At first you’re like “Wow, Tomomi Chan!” Then you’re like “Wait, is that a little kid???” It really does mess with your brain a bit when you see it, at least it does for me. However, I know quite a few guys just kinda blocked the kid outta their minds. I know the first thing I saw wasn’t the little kid, just being honest.

The second story was controversial in a different way, but just as weird if you ask me. Another member, Minami Minegishi, shaved her head for “dishonoring the group” when she was photographed leaving her 19 year-old boyfriend’s home.

Huh? Isn’t she 20 years old? I don’t understand what the problem was, but perhaps she broke some cardinal, AKB dating contract rule. I can’t really say for sure, but she tearfully apologized for potentially damaging the image of group.

In her YouTube apology she begs to stay in group and from what I understand will be placed one of the lesser known “AKB Teams.” I heard there’s like an A squad and a B squad; something along those lines. That’s why there are more than 48 members (I think it’s 80+ members in total, right?). I have really given up trying to understand cogs of the AKB machine.

Does anyone else find it weird that all this stuff is happened just before the latest AKB Album release? Controversy fuels exposure. In entertainment, controversy fuels sales, plain and simple. Add a little controversy to a sales spark and you get a huge, roaring fire.

The thing about these stories is that they gained national media coverage. I even saw that the AKB48 (Minami’s apology) made it onto The Young Turks news reel (on a smaller scale), and even CNN! That’s HUGE, seeing as how I haven’t seen AKB receiving very much American news story coverage in recent years:

The timing seems also seems just a bit too perfect. Two huge, controversial events happens within about a month of each other, and when I’m getting on the train to go for a job interview I see this large poster promoting the February 20th release of the new AKB48 Album “So Long.” The minute I saw it, I had an “Ah-ha” moment:

Hmm...an album release just after a bunch of controversy? Anyone else find that weird?

Though I could be wrong, I can’t help but think that is what this whole media circus was. It honestly seems to me like a 3-month PR plan that will end with the album release. If it was planned, AKB48 has a brilliant PR team behind them.

So when you go to Tower Records or any other CD stores in Tokyo and see lines snaked around corners to get the latest AKB album, you might start to wonder, too.

What’s your take on either of the controversial stories? Are they real? Are they PR ploys?
Please share what you think in the comments section below.

There is nothing like a good story to me. I was brought up hearing just about every story you could imagine. I was always fascinated that you could have so many different versions of a single tale. Japanese Fairy Tales are no different. Some of them are rather insightful, while others can be a tad strange.

One story in particular really takes the “Huh?!” Award for Japanese folktales and that the story of Urashimataro. If you don’t know this story, please check out the video below and hear my take on a very strange Japanese story:

When people used to ask me where I lived it was really quite easy to just say “Oh I live in Tsukuba.” If I got the “Where is that?” follow-up question, I could just easily say “It’s in Ibaraki, a prefecture in eastern Japan.” Generally, that is the end of the conversation.

Now when people ask me where I live, I can say Tokyo, but after trying to remember my address, I realize there is a lot more to Tokyo than meets the eye. When you hear Tokyo, what do you think? A city in Japan, right? I know that’s what I thought of. When I hear that Tokyo is the capital of Japan, I automatically think capital city.

Yes, there was a city called Tokyo, or Tokyo-shi (東京市), but that city disappeared in the late 1800’s. Well not disappeared, but more like absorbed when Tokyo became the bustling megalopolis that it is today.

For me to say that I live in Tokyo now, is true, but slightly vague. I am now living in Kita-ku which is also considered Tokyo. Other popular places in the “Tokyo” area include Akihabara, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku, and a whole host of other areas. But what exactly is Tokyo? A city? A state? A town?

When you think of Tokyo think of Hakim (sorry old, poorly-timed, “Coming To America reference). When you think of Tokyo, go from broad to specific, similar to how most countries are organized. Putting it simply, Tokyo is Japan’s (possibly even the world’s) most densely-populated, metropolitan area. We can then subdivide this metropolitan area into bite-sized wards and districts. Let’s examine good old Tokyo piece by piece: Tokyo the prefecture, the wards of Tokyo, and the districts of Tokyo.

TOKYO THE THE PREFECTURE

Tokyo is one of Japan’s forty-seven prefectures, plain and simple. The name of the prefecture I lived in prior to this one was Ibaraki. Haven’t heard of all 47 of Japan’s prefectures? Want to see all 47? Click here!

Prefectures are very similar to say states in the U.S.. I am from Georgia, but you can be from Atlanta, Savannah, Conyers, Decatur, or Podunk (don’t think that’s a real GA city, by the way). Similarly, prefectural Tokyo is also made up of many regions that are akin to cities.

TOKYO WARDS

For all intensive purposes, Tokyo’s wards are very much like cities. When I get mail, I have to write “Kita-ku, Tokyo-to.” It’s like writing the city and province (or ward and province in most eastern Tokyo examples). It similar to some who lives in L.A. having “Los Angeles, California” written on their.

TOKYO SUBDISTRICTS

After looking at all of Tokyo’s wards, I thought to myself “Okay. I got it. I understand.” But then I started looking and thinking about some of the stations I would see on the Tsukuba Express on my way to Tokyo? Or some of the other places I would visit in Tokyo? “Where’s Kita Senju? Where’s Akihabara? Where’s Ueno?

For those places we have to break things down one more level and you end up with smaller, Tokyo districts. I know this isn’t all of the subdistricts, I’m still trying to figure them all out. But here are some of the major Tokyo subdistricts:

1. Akasaka
2. Akihabara
3. Aomi
4. Asakusa
5. Daiba
6. Ginza
7. Harajuku
8. Higashiyama
9. Ichigaya
10. Ikebukuro
11. Kabukicho
12. Kagurazaka
13. Nihonbashi
14. Nishi-Shinjuku
15. Roppongi
16. Shiba
17. Ueno

Quite a few of the ward and distict names may look familiar to you, because many of the Tokyo-based train station stops are named after Tokyo them.

I think these are the basics of east Tokyo, but I know that’s not even the end of it! There are subprefectures, the cities of western Tokyo, the islands of Tokyo, and more.

Is your head spinning yet? Mine is . Looks like I’ve got a lot to learn about this place, but I think that’s a good thing.

I’ll see you next time!

Donald Ash

I have been a genuine funk for several weeks. I can’t say whether it’s because I left Tsukuba, if it’s the bustle of lugging all of my things to Tokyo, having to move into shared housing, the up and downs of modeling work, having to restart the job hunt, the recent convenience store diet, or a combination of all of it, but I am out of it. I feel like a stolid shell.

Moving into a shared house wasn’t my plan, but I know from experience that everything doesn’t always work out the way you want it to. Being that my house mates are SOooo quiet, and everyone keeps to themselves (at least so far), I getting those “fish out of water” feelings reminiscent of the first time I foot in Japan.

Going to Tsukuba for the first time, was a relatively easy adjustment. Not only did I go there with my friend Emiko from training, but my first evening in my apartment I got this knock on my door from the teacher I was replacing. He told me to come with him and the other American teachers got together made dinner for us. It was one of the warmest welcomes I have ever received.

Here at the share house, despite living a with a lot more people, the welcome has been, well…tepid.

I always try to remember Mom’s good ol’ “be a thermostat and not a thermometer” advice. I try not to let situations around me control whether I’m up or down, but it hasn’t been easy in a new town and a string of hapless auditions this month. Stay positive, Donnie…stay positive.

Yesterday, I woke up because of a backache. My mattress hasn’t come yet, so I’ve been sleeping of the floor, or on the wooden bed frame that came with the place. 9:38pm.

I went to grab some salad dressing from the convenience store, just to get something green in my system, and despite the Friday-night, winter chill in the air, I paused on the road to my new place, and just thought to myself “I don’t feel like going home and being quiet on my first real Friday night in Tokyo.”

Not having much money in my pockets (getting extremely tired of having limited funds), I just walked. And I walked. And walked some more.

I purposefully left my headphones on my room floor, so I had no choice but to listen to the city around me. I walked around Oji station to get a lay of the land, but for some reason my legs just took on a mind of their own. I saw all kinds of great, 24-hour grocery stores and the walk was rather peaceful, rather charming. Before I knew it I was approaching Ikebukuro station. As I approached and could hear the pulse of the city beginning to quicken. There were people laughing, people out and a about on a Friday night, so many people. Though I didn’t know any of them, it was comforting to hear their laughter. Even the obnoxious drunk screams and yells were music to my ears.

The walk was addictive and I nearly made it to Shinjuku. When I finally got home, it was around 1:30 am. It is amazing to me that if I so desire, I can literally walk my way into some of the coolest wards and cities in Tokyo. Now some of the walks would be a lot longer than others, mind you, but that’s okay.

Tokyo is a true, living, breathing city, and I could almost feel the city’s electricity making my mustache hairs stand on end. I needed that walk.

Welcome to Tokyo, Donnie…

This kebab brand isn't so widespread in Japan, but it's so good!

I pulled my Toucan Sam move and followed my nose to the smell and I stumbled upon this kabob truck. Across the front of it I saw the name: “Ali’s Kebab.” In an instant, I knew where I recognized the smell. My siblings and I used to frequent this donut this popular, local kebab stand in Germany. We always called them donut kebabs as kids, but I am just realizing that “doner kebab” is the proper Though I couldn’t remember the taste of kebab so well, that hearty smell was enough to lift my spirits out of my apartment worries.

I asked for a double meat, chicken kabob. The kind, middle-eastern gentleman skillfully made this amazing kebab right before my very eyes and topped with two short jets of mild kebab sauce. He gave it to me. I was so entranced by how it looked and smelled that I said “Thank you” and began to walk off. The man looked confused/semi-hurt expression. Oh my God! I forgot to pay him! He probably thought I was going to steal a kebab. I felt terrible. I handed over the kebab so I could pull out my wallet and pay him. Donald, you idiot!

This is the nice man I nearly stole a kebab from

Wistfully, I took a bite of the juicy chicken, flatbread sandwich with just the right touch of kebab sauce. The first bite left me wide-eyed with surprise. Things went from wistful to wonderful in on chomp. The kebab was amazing! I greedily devoured the rest of it.

I don’t know if Ali’s Kebab trucks/restaurants are everywhere, but I do know they have them in Tsukuba and Ibaraki. If you are a kebab fan at all, even if you’re not. You might want to give these a try, I THOROUGHLY enjoyed mine, it literally put a smile on my face:

See?! Man, I'm craving one of these this very second!

The website isn’t super fancy and neither are the trucks, but DO NOT let that fool you. What the stands lack in flash, the kebabs more than make up for it in flavor.

ご馳走さまでした！
Donald Ash

COOL PERSPECTIVES ON TEACHING IN JAPAN
featuring Kevin Davies

Introspective Kevin. Truly one of the most entertaining teachers (and friends) that I know.

1. Kevin, tell us about yourself. Where were you born? Burien, Washington

2.Where did you grow up? Lived in Washington until I was 11 then moved to Idaho. A few years after I finished college my family moved back to Washington.

3. Where did you go to school? Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon.

4. What brought you to Japan? I’m quarter Japanese and have quite a bit of extended family here. That was probably my main motivation. The only reason I ended up teaching English was because that’s the easiest way to make it over here.

5. I know it’s a weird question, but are you Japanese? I’m 1/4th Japanese. My mom is half and her mom is full.

6. What’s been the biggest challenge for you living in Japan as an American of Japanese descent? Most Japanese people don’t realize I’m of Japanese descent, so I’m just treated like any other foreigner. I’ve never really run into any problems. I’ve found it’s pretty easy to live in Japan as a foreigner.

7. Where do you like living more, Japan or America? Why? I feel like it’s definitely easier living in America. Everything is way cheaper and more convenient, which is appealing to me because I’m so lazy. With that said, I don’t plan to move back there anytime soon. Still got some stuff I want to do here.

8. What do you do for a living? I’m an elementary school ALT.

9. How long have you been teaching? I’m currently in my third year.

Round 1 is really a cool place to hang out. How Kevin ended up in a Round 1 outfit? I'll have to ask him someday.

10. All teachers, at some point or another have an off day. What was your worst day like? Back during my first year our school was going to be showcased on some TV program. Apparently, my school had a bit of a reputation back in the day of having a really strong English program, or so I heard. It really isn’t anything special nowadays. But we had this principal that was kind of sadistic in the way she abused her power and made everyone around her suffer. Because she was the only Japanese principal I had any experience with I just thought for a long time that this was normal.

The principal somehow led the reporter to believe that the students were fluent to some extent. Then she told all the teachers to tell the students that they weren’t allowed to use Japanese when the TV crew was here. The thing that just killed me was how hard the kids tried to meet that expectation. Especially the 5th graders of the class that got filmed and interviewed. But, of course, the kids can’t just magically become fluent. I could tell from the look on the crew’s faces that they were less than impressed.

I was so angry that the kids had all this extra pressure put on them because the principal was so full of herself and only cared about the school’s image, but I had to hide it because I didn’t want the kids to think they did something wrong. I just kept telling them how awesome they did and how cool it was going to be when they ended up on TV. The program ended up not airing, which was probably for the best.

It was less of a bad day and more of a bad month. The principal kept coming up to me and giving me this phony smile and saying “I’m sure you’ll do fine because I know you don’t speak Japanese to the kids riiiiiggghhht?”

11. Whoa, that’s quite a story! So when you have a bad teaching day (or month ) how do you bounce back? I think there’s two things you can do. You can either take the “tomorrow’s a new day” approach and just move on, or you can try and figure out what went wrong and tackle it head on. When it comes to situations like the one above, there’s not really much you can do. It took me a long time to get over that whole ordeal. However, when it comes to just having a day of bad lessons where it seems like the kids are out of control and nothing’s going right, I find those are usually pretty easy to dissect. Most of the time it just comes down to how I reacted to the situation and what I need to change to deal with it better next time.

Kevin Davies on another Japanese adventure!

I used to follow the “tomorrow’s a new day” methodology, but what I found was that tomorrow might be a new day, but at some point your going to run into the same problems again if you don’ deal with them. Over the past 2.5 years this has proved true time and time again. It was actually just recently I decided I didn’t want to work that way anymore.

One of my friends (we’ll call him Pee Pee because that’s what I call him) gave me some really good advice a couple weeks ago that helped me deal with one of my problem classes more effectively. I won’t go into the details, but it gave me a huge confidence boost that allowed me to tackle a couple other problem classes later in the week. Now, I’m fairly certain I’ll have to deal with these classes again next week, but I’ve already started to see an improvement and now that I know how to deal with them without freaking out and losing my temper it’s much less stressful.

12. What are four ways that the Japanese public school system differs from the American one?
1.) The thing I hate the most about the Japanese schools is the way they let parents walk all over them. Even after a kid goes home, if something happens the parents usually blame the home room teacher in some way. What I really hate is the parents that think that way, but the school is just as much to blame in my opinion for putting up with it.

2.) Bullying is incredibly weird here. There’s obviously bullying everywhere, but here they treat it like some sort of epidemic, yet no one ever does anything about it. They always have meetings and stuff about what they can do to address it and stop it and it never amounts to anything. I rarely see anyone get punished for bullying because the teachers either don’t notice or they feel like they have to walk on egg shells and aren’t sure how to deal with it.

3.) Lunch is delicious. And healthy if the lady from the food center is to be believed.

4.) Every elementary school has a swimming pool and swimming is actually a part of the yearly curriculum. I quite like this because I can go swimming whenever I don’t have class.

Kevin with another one of my favorite teachers, Robbie (gotta get him to talk to us one of these days).

13. How does a typical Japanese student differ from a typical American student? I think the stereotype would be that Japanese kids are more studious, but I don’t really see that. I actually can’t really think of any big differences.

14. What’s your favorite type of student to teach? (active, quite, loud, etc.) Why? I like kids that are active, but not loud.

15. I recently did a post about Japanese school lunches. What’s your favorite meal at your school? ビビンバ！
(Heh, heh, that was one of my favorites, too. I put a picture of bibimbap in the Japanese school lunches post if you want to check it out)

16. What has been your most memorable teaching moment in Japan? This is less of a teaching moment and more just random, but back during my first year there was a 5th grader that was transferring to a new school over winter break. I wasn’t super close with him, but he was always really outgoing both in and out of class. Anyway, we were cleaning the chalkboard erasers up on the third floor balcony when he stopped and turned to me and said “I guess this is goodbye.” I thought he was just joking around, so I was like “Alright, goodbye!” Then he told me that he was transferring. I became all quiet trying to decide if I should console him or be all “Oh man that’ll be fun!” We ended up just standing there in silence until the bell rang for recess. Then we shook hands and parted ways.

This was like 2 months before he was scheduled to be transferred, mind you. But it still seemed like something out of a movie or something.

17. On the day you finish teaching for good, what would you like to hear your students say about you? I plan to tell them that I’m leaving to pursue some crazy dream like being an astronaut or something. So, I hope they’ll look up to the moon one day and be like “I wonder if Kevin’s up there.”

18. What advice would you give to someone who’s thinking about teaching in Japan? Just do it.

Kevin, as always, it’s a pleasure bro. Thanks for doing an interview with me today. Much respect to you and all the teachers out there working hard everyday!

Got questions/comments for Kevin? There’s a comment section below with your name on it

Kevin and Donnie fake modeling on the Tsukuba Express

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