First post...obviously

It's been suggested, several times I might add, that I should have started one of these things when I first came over to Japan. That would have required me actually putting an effort into typing things up as they came. As well, I'll admit I'm still not too sure how comfortable about writing up all my personal thoughts and experiences on a website for the world to see. Granted, there aren't likely to be millions of people reading this thing, but you know what I mean.

For a first post we might as well start with a little background then. I'm a Canadian guy (pushing 30 but not quite there just yet) living in Japan since December of 2004. I teach English at one of the big Eikaiwa joints. Basically I think of myself as a kind of fast food employee serving English happy-meals to the Japanese population. I'm good at what I do, but I don't consider it a career by any stretch. My students are improving and enjoy my classes. Hell if you really want me to sing my praises one of my high-school students scored the highest in Japan in the English section of one of the University entrance exams.

I live in a smallish city on Honshu (that's the big island of Japan for the geographically challenged) and am generally bored out of my skull. There's not much in the way of entertainment or nightlife here unless you have a desire to sit in a mostly-empty bar with a bunch of foul-smelling Japanese businessmen. Of course I could go to the local hostess or "snack" bars, but they charge you 3000 to 5000 yen for a half hour just to walk in the door. Some of them actually have nice looking girls working in them from what I hear. Sadly I don't have the funds right now to really go and find out. :( I would prefer meeting women that I don't have to pay to talk to though, but hey, that's just me.

So let's see...what else? Oh yeah, I resigned this week.

How's that for the start of my story?