tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62928002011-11-14T09:45:49.551+09:00I would feel even more pretty, I think, If only you would give me a few words of praise.Joshuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03771793873424490650noreply@blogger.comBlogger1881100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-35385088323812058912011-02-12T14:15:00.002+09:002011-02-12T15:45:59.261+09:00

The above headline was my final word to one Miss Leslie, who has proven herself beyond the shadow of a doubt to be 100% crazy as a motherfucker. And you know I like to be slightly silkier with my prose than that, but man, all I can say in this case is motherfuckin bitch has got to go.To boil a long preamble down to its bare bones: some several weeks ago I meet this Miss Leslie, and we dance

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-79471926106956311782010-06-11T04:53:00.003+09:002010-06-11T04:59:05.025+09:00

W/T, St. Vincent's Guesthouse, at $20 a day. A gorgeous property with a great salt-water pool and nice desk guy, but shitty dirty filthy scummy-peopled dorm rooms, roaches, and beds like medieval racks. Lower Garden.F/S, The Burgundy at a negotiated rate of $70, down from $90, for a private room with a queen bed and private bath, and a free loaner bicycle included. Foubourg Marigny, on Burgundy

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-84373222722372729932010-06-11T01:57:00.003+09:002010-06-11T02:37:11.203+09:00

This is a pretty fabulous place to be.Food/drink/music update:I may have had the best breakfast of my life today at a place called Surrey's Juice Bar on Magazine Street: a spicy crawfish omelette stuffed with avocado and brie, and covered in pink crawfish scallion cream sauce; fresh buttermilk biscuits, strong and bottomless coffee, and a shot of wheatgrass to help it all go down. Think about the

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-61285308157070894232010-06-10T05:36:00.002+09:002010-06-10T06:41:52.375+09:00

Well hot damn, here I am on the road again. It feels marvelous and freeing and energizing to be out and free again, although it's embarrassing to quickly realize how much travel savvy I've lost in the last two years of relative stability. In a kind of Fibonacci Sequence of unfortunate realizations, I've become aware at increasing intervals of things I forgot at home or simply forgot I should pack

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-61950964283672781452010-04-23T11:42:00.002+09:002010-04-23T12:25:26.713+09:00

I'm sitting at 15th Street and Prospect Park, facing the trees in the traffic circle and the movie theater with the sun in my face as it sets, sat on the steps of one of those two gorgeous pillars here washed in sunlight along with the stone, both of us gilded and brilliantly monochromatic from its touch. Teenagers play catch with a football somewhere behind me, as evidenced by the ball bouncing

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-51556488585209193832010-04-22T14:57:00.001+09:002010-04-22T14:57:56.981+09:00

GUY IN WHITE: “I’m not gonna tell you you’re beautiful.”LADY AT THE COUNTER: “Come on, don’t I have a cute little button nose and everything”ME: “You alright.”LADY AT THE COUNTER: “Ha!”GUY IN WHITE: “Do you know why?”LADY AT THE COUNTER: “Oh here we go…”GUY IN WHITE: “Because,” he drawls, “I’m not attracted to you for you for your beauty.”A is a disgustingly fat man, one with a skinny

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-79634165693454603452008-02-12T19:38:00.000+09:002008-02-12T19:39:49.682+09:00

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-84347346921684581662008-01-25T03:20:00.000+09:002008-11-13T14:02:47.928+09:00

Kicking ass, taking names.

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-3644342541868085692007-11-29T02:05:00.000+09:002008-11-13T14:02:48.126+09:00

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-14146858541266265242007-11-20T19:39:00.000+09:002007-11-20T20:00:41.205+09:00

Hallelujah! With the help of this completely awesome walkthrough, I have fixed my iPod! I have music again! Thank you, CrunchGear! According to the article, a lot of people's more dire iPod problems have to do age effecting the way the iPod casing grips the hard-drive, the upshot being that when the hard-drive isn't held as tightly in as it needs to be and wobbles minutely as it spins, then

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-26652284742011682462007-11-16T04:56:00.000+09:002008-11-13T14:02:48.328+09:00

Who is a black belt in Aikido? JOSHU!!!

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-26141579820263846502007-11-16T04:33:00.000+09:002008-11-13T14:02:48.707+09:00

My girlfriend, Sachiko. It's our six month anniversary in just two weeks. Crazy, right?! I'm going to get her some of those russian dolls that fold into each other, which aparently she had as a child and wishes she could have gotten at this Works of the Hermitage exhibit we went to recently at the prefectural museum here (or to be more accurate, to the Works of the Hermitage exhibit which I

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-4173662724936187792007-11-16T03:59:00.000+09:002008-11-13T14:02:48.926+09:00

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-4406201540465764572007-11-16T03:55:00.000+09:002008-11-13T14:02:49.040+09:00

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-69573994281517804732007-11-16T03:28:00.000+09:002008-11-13T14:02:49.148+09:00

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-44916662827975692452007-11-02T01:53:00.001+09:002007-11-02T03:51:03.392+09:00

You know how they say that eating too late at night isn't good for you? Well, here I am at ten minutes to two-in-the-morning and I find myself still with a lot on my plate. This mostly has to do with me trying to record a radio show for a city I don't live in anymore on a computer which isn't mine and doesn't work using a program which eludes me at the last, last possible minute to get it all

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-66028397241725799342007-10-26T10:29:00.001+09:002007-10-26T10:30:04.507+09:00

Oh my god, stop this man.

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-44148482057268491342007-09-03T10:40:00.000+09:002007-09-03T11:06:00.169+09:00

Holy crap! I'm in JAPAN!!!!!!!!!!Against all predictions to the contrary I'm back in IMABARI and I'm enjoying the crap out of myself! I have survived my first week of work! I have begun acquiring furniture for my apartment! I will have bookshelves--BOOKSHELVES!!! BOOKSHELVESSSSS! Why am I so excited about bookshelves? Well, last time I went home to America I came back with two suitcases full

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-15047345456070389522007-07-19T16:02:00.000+09:002007-07-19T16:36:42.158+09:00

Moving SUCKS. In one week I'll be home in America, and then a month later I'm coming back to Japan to a new job and new house and new life in Matsuyama. So I'm packing up now in preparation to be homeless for a month with a million things to stash somewhere or other. And there's so much stuff!!! I've thrown out about thirty FULL trash bags in each of our three trash categories, from Burn Me

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1447720414098071842007-07-15T14:08:00.000+09:002007-11-16T13:17:47.912+09:00

Yesterday I got my blackbelt in Aikido!!!!! FUCKIN ALRIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!It took six years and lots of being thrown around a lot, but YUSSSSS!!The test went pretty well and I can post some photos and stuff from it soon, but for the time being here's a link to the dojo's blog, which has a picture of me from last week throwing one of my teachers, Murakami san. What's with this picture, you ask? Why's

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-81556110070593249682007-07-07T17:50:00.000+09:002007-07-07T17:57:12.396+09:00

Life proceeds at quite a clip these days. I haven't had much time to blog about anything, but here's a little slideshow about some of my recent adventures: Picasa Pics school and teaching, a house party at my place, planting rice with my kids, boxing and after-boxing, and a cool jodo demonstration! Enjoy!

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-546059870113682452007-06-20T12:50:00.001+09:002007-06-20T17:40:42.206+09:00

Here we go again: I got hit by a car! Last night on my way to boxing, side-swiped off of my bike. It's not as bad as the last time this all happened, because my bike's OK and I'm okay, but now I have problems from insurance and actively negligent police to deal with(you'd think that "actively negligent" would be an oxymoron, but where cops are concerned I guess any kind of moron is fair game.

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-88223107480592783542007-06-10T17:17:00.000+09:002008-11-13T14:02:49.545+09:00

This is a picture of Josh and Allison dying excruciating, tongue-popping deaths a-la Total Recall. As you can see, we had suddenly found ourselves on the surface of the moon. AAAULAAUALAAHAGAAAAAAA!!!!, as Schwarzenegger would have shouted. Click on it to view it in a bigger size or download; it's a much funnier picture at a slightly higher resolution. This was in Bako national park in

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-50434867313942572792007-06-09T01:03:00.000+09:002008-11-13T14:02:49.701+09:00

This photo was taken from inside the colored cloths making up the lion's body in the Japanese shishi-odori, or Lion Dance (roughly). A bunch of men hold up the cloths from underneath and billow them out into the air following the lead of an ornate lion's head mask at the front. The billowing is grunt work, but doing the dance with the lion's head takes the stamina of an olympian and the

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-86158004406460567332007-06-06T00:41:00.000+09:002008-11-13T14:02:49.860+09:00

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-5770740128910387792007-05-27T16:47:00.000+09:002007-05-27T17:02:10.801+09:00

In the middle of a wonderful day, with only a moment to post about it before running off to make a train. My friends Yasu and Kawamura took me hiking up a mountain in the morning with a crazy old karate man who had us do some several thousand crunches at a rest point in the middle of the trail, and I learned new words for the different parts of a tree in Japanese. I totally heart Yasu and

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-57374908361358895992007-05-26T15:02:00.000+09:002008-11-13T14:02:50.102+09:00

My pal John Tozzi tells me that he's also teaching himself image play using a pirated copy of Photoshop and a handy dandy book, and apparently he's making miles more progress than I am! Here's a dinosaur project he did. Good job John! Does anybody else have cool photoplayed images they've been working on? Send them in! It'll be a thing!It should also get noted down for posterity when my

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-91243916902004220482007-05-25T17:00:00.000+09:002008-11-13T14:02:50.211+09:00

Here's the second finished image I've made using the GIMP, an open-source image editing program I'm trying to learn my way around. My goal with He-Man here was to render a cool image that would be suitable for silkscreening onto a T-shirt or spraypainting onto something.I still have to print it out at school, cut it out (over probably a few trial and error runs) and then make something with it,

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-23623692449957500522007-05-17T16:44:00.000+09:002007-05-18T16:28:38.071+09:00

Couldn't even stand to finish watching this Monty Clift & Liz Taylor movie I got called A Place in the Sun, which looked promising enough went mostly like this and this with a little bit of this thrown in to make things move even more slowly. The one good moment of it is a scene where cops interrupt Monty and his homely non Liz Taylor girlfriend while they're making out in a car on (ah,

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-64018505905588896392007-05-13T22:55:00.000+09:002007-05-13T23:23:25.856+09:00

I cleaned! Finally, I cleaned my apartment! It's been so long! But now I seriously have a pretty tidy place once again. I even, get this, I even cleaned my porch! It's AMAZING! Do you want to know how derelict my porch was? My porch was so derelict the landlord complained I had had squatters living there! And get this: I DID! Sometime in the last month or so, the pigeons who hang out

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-40276295363327321852007-05-09T23:49:00.000+09:002007-05-10T09:55:47.637+09:00

Back in JAPAAAAAAAAAAN from Malaysia...whoops, I guess I mean MALAAAYYYSIAAAAAA. It was a very different sort of trip from the Thailand experience, which if you haven't seen some evidence of, you should go check out the photo set over on flickr. That was a great god damn time. Why didn't we just go back to Thailand?The trip had a lot of good things in it. We did have times. Once we were involved

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-73392306618355505012007-04-25T01:48:00.000+09:002007-04-25T15:50:04.448+09:00

When you shout, "ittekimasu!" it means, "I'm OUT, muthafuckaaaaas!" But also implies you'll be back again soon. So don't fret muthafuckas, in other words.In a few hours I hop a ferry for OOOOOsaka, and from there to Malaysia, and parts unknown. In the meantime, here are a bunch of pics from Al's and my adventure to THAILAND, though still hightly non-annotated. Sorry. In time, perhaps, we

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1176879040734073802007-04-18T15:34:00.000+09:002007-04-18T15:50:40.763+09:00

Next stop....Malaysia! Malaysia here we come!Allison and I are leaving on the 26th of April, which is, looking at my calendar, one week and one day from now. A full-stop, Keanu-like Whoa would not be inappropriate at this juncture.Whoa.I better hurry up and get these Thailand pictures off my camera! And unpack my backpack! The middle compartment is still stuffed full with assorted chazzurai from

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1176740503083793552007-04-17T01:19:00.000+09:002007-04-17T01:21:43.096+09:00

Has everybody read this article yet?

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1176653467839250342007-04-16T00:12:00.000+09:002007-04-16T01:11:07.853+09:00

Take a look at Allison's blog for some pictures of us in THAILAND! We had an amazing time.A snachet of memory for you from the Muay Thai gym in Chiang Mai where we were getting taught some basics of Thai kickboxing (ie, getting pummelled). Our guy Lek (yes, I know a man named Lek) had taught me how to knee Muay Thai style, and was giving me commands and commentary as he stood there with a pad

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1176654184921583792007-04-15T01:15:00.000+09:002007-04-16T01:23:04.923+09:00

New Recipes:-Thai-inspired Soup, a la Japanese Ingredios-Banana-Cornflake Sammy Supreme-Soy Cream Soup #1: Sweet Potatoes, Chili pepper, Onions, Garlic, Toasted Sesame Seeds-Soy Cream Soup #2: S. Potatoes and Pumpkin, Onions, Ginger, Toasted Sesame SeedsSoy Cream Soup Serving Suggestions: #1 is best as a sandwhich on toast. I don't know why this is, but it's absolutely true. #1 is more savory

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1176488372622797892007-04-14T03:05:00.000+09:002007-04-14T03:19:32.636+09:00

I'm having my first sleepover in Japan! I'm at my friend Yasu's house in Onishi cho and he's just gone to bed and told me to stay up as long as I like playing on the HDTV-Internet hookup because he'll wake me up in the morning before he sets off to the towel factory. He's set me up with a futon and a cozy room in his place for the night after inviting me along to a drinking party with the

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1176351865323561882007-04-12T13:22:00.000+09:002007-04-12T13:24:25.336+09:00

Peanut butter and jelly--not as good as eggs for breakfast.Eggs--not as good as peanut butter and jelly for lunch.Ooo.

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1176221807945377952007-04-11T01:16:00.000+09:002007-04-11T01:16:48.060+09:00

Because they were cheaper than all the other bananas is why, and you got a whole bunch to boot!  Never mind about them being six kinds of hog ugly purplish brown and all trailerpark husband showing how much he really loves me bruised to high heaven.  But now you have a bunch of hella bruised up bananas and in the first day or two you’ll pick off and eat the ones that don’t look as bad as the

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1176082321268772262007-04-09T10:31:00.000+09:002007-04-09T10:32:01.273+09:00

I have begun cutting my own hair. It makes me happy. It’s fun to do and it’s cheap and a cool use of time, and it’s fraught with never really looking your best．This is probably the best part about it. Imperfection is not the new Saturday here in Japan, and a DIY appearance is not in step with this lock-step culture. Surprisingly, it can really throw people off when you let yourself out of the

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1176052937524661192007-04-08T02:22:00.000+09:002007-04-09T10:31:23.403+09:00

Cream of Sweet Potato Soup, with a few surprisesSoy Milk, maybe a third of a carton.1 Packet of Dashi (powdered katsuo dashi)½ Onion, chopped.Garlic or toasted garlic powder.1 Spicy Dried Red Pepper, with seeds, chopped up.1 middle-to-big sized satsumaimo—that’s a Japanese sweet potato—sliced small and thin.Black Sesame Seeds, a little pile, finely chopped.Dashi is a fish or seaweed based bullion

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1175848183641591492007-04-06T17:29:00.000+09:002007-04-06T17:29:43.736+09:00

My First Soup!  This is A New Recipe, inspired by the cooking course that Allison and I took in Thailand.  One thing we made was a terrific soup with a coconut milk base and fresh lemon grass and Thai ginger and cilantro, but I couldn’t get those things here in Japan so this recipe was reinvented with ingredients you can get in Japan without any hassle.  It’s simple and very tasty and healthy and

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1174895843053135142007-03-26T17:57:00.000+09:002007-03-26T17:57:23.066+09:00

Yo-sh! Allison and I are in Bangkok, THAILAND, and about to leave for Chiang Mai in the north, despite disaster-level haze conditions over the past month (from what we can tell, it seems to have mostly abated). It should be awesome, and if worst comes to worst, we'll take an overnight bus back to bangkok tomorrow night. We are having a great time together, and the major question that keeps

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1170120011994266152007-01-30T09:48:00.000+09:002007-01-30T10:20:12.006+09:00

Calling my middle school to talk over tomorrow's lessons, I'm told by the English teacher that our vice principal wants to speak to me. Ho now. He picks up the line and says, "Joshu sensei, I have something to ask you." N'kay. "The other day," he says, "we got a visitor at this school. A woman. Looking for a certain foreigner who she said lives in Tamagawa." This is when the sirens should

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1166424996373387262006-12-18T15:55:00.000+09:002006-12-18T15:56:36.386+09:00

I’m so tired today! I’ve had a busy week/weekend with a lot of martial arts, a lot of Christmas shopping and a lot of friend and girlfriend time, and today I’m reeling from it all. If I don’t get a full night’s sleep tonight I’ll die on my feet in class tomorrow. The funny thing is I don’t even want to go rest, I just want to go do more aikido. If I were in keiko (practice) right now I would

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1166410135121921752006-12-17T11:45:00.000+09:002006-12-18T15:57:03.016+09:00

I'm coming home! ON FRIDAY! FOR THREE WEEKS!!! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!I have been super busy gift shopping and figuring out what to bring back and cleaning my house. It's exciting but also stressful, and the truth is I have no idea what I'm going to do when I get back. I want to see friends and family, I want to just relax and be with people, watch American television and go to the movies, get

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1166368528011744142006-12-16T00:14:00.000+09:002006-12-18T15:57:21.303+09:00

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1166411283576911122006-12-13T11:59:00.000+09:002006-12-18T12:08:03.576+09:00

In Japan people buy boxes of these little chemical-filled heat packs that go in your pockets and in your shoes and on your backs underneath your shirt (they come in adhesive appliqué or as little baggies). Today the school’s special needs teacher, Maki sensei, asked me if we use these heat-packs in other countries. A better question is, Why do they use them in Japan? The answer to that one is

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1165510211183876742006-12-08T01:19:00.000+09:002006-12-08T01:50:11.320+09:00

On today's awesome list: although aikido class was only mediocre, jodo class was freaking awesome. I get there and start to put down my stuff and take out my jo (fighty-stick) and the head honcho teacher--the only guy who gets to wear all white like a crazy old stick-wielding jedi man--he comes up to me and says, "let's do it." HELL YES. Let's GO, old man. And he gave me a really great class,

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1165421750387882482006-12-07T01:15:00.000+09:002006-12-18T11:54:54.526+09:00

I woke up today with the same cold that I'd gone to sleep with last night, and I woke up as late into this morning as I had retired into the sneezy, coughy evening before it. This meant that I was late to work, but I was at my lovely middle school in Tamagawa and no one really minded, even though I had class first period. The kids mostly floundered when they had to do on-the-spot presentations

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1165074399113273462006-12-02T23:29:00.000+09:002006-12-03T00:47:30.273+09:00

Can I explain it any better than just saying, "naked swimming pool aikido?" I probably can, but it's late now and I'm very tired from doing aikido randori naked in a swimming pool with four friends for over an hour. Can I also say that it was the most fun thing in the world? This is the strangest country ever.

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1164989612707270442006-12-01T23:07:00.000+09:002006-12-02T06:04:45.440+09:00

Hey Obies, did you know you can still log into Presto? How funny is that! I just looked over all my stuff and saw my transcript and things, and tried to Add/Drop a Winter Term project for 2007 (apparently I need to go pick up my time card from the registrar's office). Yeah, just enter your T# (it still rolls off the memory like your own first name once you see that prompt) and hit "Forgot Your

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1164876282252894962006-11-30T16:55:00.000+09:002006-11-30T17:44:42.596+09:00

Today I brought in omiyage for the teachers at one of my elementary schools and met with an unexpected reaction. Omiyage are gifts, given to people when you've gone somewhere cool and come back home. Omiyage reflect or embody the place you've gone: either a local specialty product that's made or grown in the place you've been to, a postcard from a famous place, or some regional paraphanalia.

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1164815980209130812006-11-30T00:35:00.000+09:002006-11-30T00:59:40.296+09:00

"Are you pondering what I'm pondering, Pinky?""I think so Brain, but if we didn't have ears, we'd look like weasels."

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1164767454220045562006-11-29T11:08:00.000+09:002006-11-29T11:30:54.283+09:00

I love school! I even got here early today. EARLY! By a HALF AN HOUR! ME! Even my students know that Josh 先生is not an “early” person. But it was a lovely experience: I had a very relaxed, non-frantic bike-ride here and a nice sit-down cup of coffee when I arrived, and had plenty of “I’m here at school to work today” brain-change time before class started. Apparently it feels great not to

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1164733990067452832006-11-29T01:30:00.000+09:002006-11-29T02:13:10.163+09:00

Highlight of the day today was talking with Tsukihara san (Tsuki-chan) after ukulele band practice, he talked my ear off for a while telling me all kinds of things about playing music, especially about which hand is important to focus on when you're learning how to play--he says that although you'd think it's best to concentrate on the left hand, you should focus more on the right one; the left

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1163949850506439512006-11-19T23:51:00.000+09:002006-11-20T00:24:11.106+09:00

The funny thing is, this is the first day in a month where not too much notable has happened, and it's now that I'm sitting down to post and drawing blanks as to all the great things that have been making me too busy to write over the last four weeks. I've been busy! Life has been pretty good though. It's been full of good things. I've been having a much easier time writing about the bad

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1159974862797305642006-10-25T23:34:00.000+09:002006-10-25T23:40:50.870+09:00

After ukulele practice a few weeks ago I was looking to go get something to eat and called up my friend Mayu chan. She's a girl who I am an alternate-universe away from happily dating; had we only met a day earlier, rather than the day after I started seeing Sayo chan. It's one of those things I guess. But Sayo chan's really sweet, really matter-of-fact-but-crazy in a very warm, likable way,

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1161613470057039002006-10-23T23:17:00.000+09:002006-10-23T23:24:30.626+09:00

Gay Men's Chorus Originally uploaded by sneakypeteiii. It's like this is too amazing to have actually happened, but lo, here it is.

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1158766744931686382006-09-21T00:36:00.000+09:002006-09-21T00:39:04.953+09:00

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!I MADE IT 1 MORE!!!!I'M 23!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I'd like to take a chance to review the year's foibles and fares, triumphs and traumas, achievements and idiocies, BUT I really haven't the time right now. I'm still rather frenziedly working on my assignment for Fodor's, due Friday. Back to work, I'll still be 23 next week...

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1158073914312147872006-09-12T23:38:00.000+09:002006-09-18T02:09:50.490+09:00

Tonight I had a birthday party! I know it's early (only by a week!) but tonight a bunch of people I know from the radio station had this big birthday dinner for me and three others, Aoi-chan, Maahk-san and To-kun who all have September birthdays and lots of nice people gave us presents! Yay party! I also got to sit next to Hazuki-chan, who, although she's apparently just been recently engaged

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1157471886454394182006-09-07T00:50:00.000+09:002006-09-08T15:36:15.106+09:00

Today I got a phone call from my friend Daisuke at the kaiten-sushi place next door, saying that everyone there was worried about me because no one had seen me in so long, and was I OK and would I come in to see them all soon? I need to remember that things like this happen, especially at those times when I get frustrated about being here in the Twilight Zone; this place can be pretty amazing

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1157509361901245372006-09-06T11:15:00.000+09:002006-09-06T11:22:41.923+09:00

よし！日本語で手紙を書きました！はじめて日本語の手紙ですよ。すごく変なかんじかもしらないやけど、できました。この手紙は前の彼女、長谷部由ちゃんへ。最近由ちゃんと話ししたくなりましたから先週電話でかけてみて、嬉しかった。さ、読んでみてね！こんにちは！この間話してくれて嬉しかったよ。由ちゃんは８月にも９月にもずっとや休みがありまが？学校へ全然行っていないですか？うらやましいぞ！昨日から仕事しおる。火曜日は鴨部小へ行きましたけどあまり何もしなかった。お昼まではぜったいひまだった、少しじゅんびをしたけど。給食が終わってから１年生と５年生授業しました。５年生は携帯電話ゲームをした：音楽をかけているところに、子どもたちが二つの携帯電話を回せて、音楽が止めたら持っている人は会話をする。"Hello,　what's your name?" "Hello, my name is Yumiko. How

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1157470229234730172006-09-06T00:08:00.000+09:002006-09-06T00:30:29.273+09:00

So I'm breaking my 12 o'clock bedtime rule (it's more like guidelines) but today was a good day, and a web post is a nice way to finish it. Right now I'm drinking kabo-cha, the delicious savory tea which mysteriously tastes exactly of very good chicken soup, and eating a small helping of two dried apricots, three prunes and some cashews off a very nice black triangular dish I bought the other

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1157384106318279312006-09-05T00:26:00.000+09:002006-09-06T00:13:17.200+09:00

Lots of new photos up on Flickr: www.flickr.com/people/jbisker including some more highlights from my trip to Takamatsu last weekend. You can also see me turn into a Samurai at the totally awesome Kagawa Prefectural History Museum and watch as I try on an array of rediculous hats at same; also a wander through a Japanese garden park, some good wining and dining, fun with monkeys on an island and

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1157305657621183992006-09-04T02:33:00.000+09:002006-09-04T10:14:10.736+09:00

Who didn't have to sleep in an internet cafe in Kochi City last night because he got to crash with a sexy girl named Ayumi instead? And then also had a city guide and sexy escort through the new-to-him city all day today? Today I Am Awesome, is the answer to both of those questions.Today's ending scene was me and Ayumi, the last two people on a rocky, rough, no-swimming beach a close drive from

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1155029902127039102006-08-08T18:35:00.000+09:002006-08-08T18:38:22.140+09:00

Back home from a fantastically lovely trip. Re-entry has had its down parts, but the trip was fantastic. Still making some notes, will tell some stories soon. For now, you can look at some photos on Flickr! Enjoy!

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1154255323549575672006-07-30T19:23:00.000+09:002006-07-30T19:28:43.563+09:00

It goes like this:Imabari to Toyo shi, by bicycle - I leave in ten minutes and my ETA at the Toyo Ferry Port is 9:15, give or take. Overnight ferry to OOOOOOsaka. Arrive 6:30 AM, reach Shin-Osaka station by 7:30 (god willing) and board the first of a number of local trains to wend me up throught Honshu throughout the course of the day, arriving finally at Kanazawa city sometime in the afternoon

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1154017901773034872006-07-28T00:45:00.000+09:002006-07-28T02:14:07.326+09:00

Since my school kids are on summer vacation I am working at the town office, doing, as you may well be able to imagine, doing about as little as I can possibly get away with. Every day it seems I uncover new thresholds of acceptable non-work participation. Today I got to spend about three assorted hours practicing this year's dance of the dead, the bon odori for the upcoming festival, O-Bon.

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1153229069927004402006-07-18T22:21:00.000+09:002006-07-28T01:34:14.133+09:00

Can't you see on their faces how much it's obvious to them that I completely love them?

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1152892383336032312006-07-15T00:33:00.000+09:002006-07-15T00:53:03.356+09:00

I've decided that the big hinderance to more frequent blogging is the nagging feeling that I need to maintain a continuity (thank you, years of faithful X-men reading). And I'm going to say the hell with it and just update things that have been happening to me. If I get good and smooth at this, then we can retry continuity. But for now, let me tell you (in super brief) about tonight--Tonight I

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1151241098572118852006-06-25T22:09:00.000+09:002006-06-26T00:50:55.523+09:00

Ellie says I should write about the things that have been bothering me being here in Japan. I kinda been going nuts lately. Just overwhelmed. It's systemic here, inescapable, this unbelievable idiocy that seems to govern everything you could ever hope would be slightly less than completely and totally retarded; here, all of the things on that list turn out to be, well, completely and totally

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1151232750433329362006-06-25T19:31:00.000+09:002006-06-25T19:52:30.450+09:00

Once I cliffjumped off of a 9 meter rock into a river because I am a goddamn superhero.

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1150902550851136052006-06-22T00:05:00.002+09:002006-06-25T20:07:18.106+09:00

WRHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is the sound of the screaming inside of my brain. I am in the Twilight Zone. I must be in the Twilight Zone. Rod Serling should be standing in my school’s staff room, invisibly explaining to you that I’ve just departed from the ordinary world I knew.“One Mr. Joshua Bisker, who knows he is a stranger in a strange land: a member of the other

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1150816140946146052006-06-21T00:07:00.000+09:002006-06-21T00:09:00.960+09:00

I have also discovered that you are supposed to clean out your trash cans regularly. There are very good reasons to do this.

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1150722973979996182006-06-19T22:09:00.000+09:002006-06-19T22:16:13.993+09:00

When it comes to cleaning my apartment, I have discovered that I am like a shark. This is of course not to imply that I'm either sleek, deadly, or violently efficient. It's rather that the second I stop, I'm dead in the water.

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1150602496886864982006-06-18T12:30:00.000+09:002006-06-21T00:12:14.073+09:00

So when it's winter in Japan there's mever any way to escape the bitter, withering cold that bites at your fingers, face and feelings no matter where you go--there's no insulation, no indoor heating, and every window and door is habitually flung open to bring the old air in. We let the cold into our homes here like a cowardly Russian welcomes the ravaging Mongols. There is no hope of escape

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1150093931692542012006-06-12T15:26:00.000+09:002006-06-12T15:32:11.706+09:00

Waking up this morning I walked into the kitchen and could not help stopping for a minute to look around at all the mess. How do I manage to live like this? There are clothes both dirty and clean strewn everywhere, not to mention the food products, dirty cups, dirty socks, plastic bags, toys, games, bowls and plates, papers, overturned picture frames, fallen down houseplants, a broken dish…it

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1147085324561026072006-05-08T19:46:00.000+09:002006-05-08T19:49:08.283+09:00

Things to rejoice about today include:According to Sitemeter, someone reached my page by MSN searching forJapanese Toilet EttiqueteThis is awesome.

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1147084673039770272006-05-08T19:27:00.000+09:002006-05-08T19:42:23.966+09:00

This comes somewhat out of nowhere, especially after my vague but terrible last week which I haven't really shared anything concrete about, but I thought this was funny so I'd share it. I'll still share about what's completely stupid and awful with me in good time, but, you know, here's some yuks first.A letter home.Dear Pabst Brewing Co.,My name is Josh Bisker. I'm a graduate of Oberlin

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1146929783810980692006-05-06T23:33:00.001+09:002006-05-07T00:43:06.510+09:00

was that yohgurt bad?stomach's all woogley oogley...whiskey's a no-no.can't i be upset?i wanted to talk, but nowi'm comforting you.cleaned out my roommatesbut now i'm living alone.before, i had bugs!hope it's okay thatthe one thing i understoodwas to practice moreETA's T-PLUS.anytime now would be fine."T-PLUS ONE HOUR."a bit wobbly, butpinkish isn't black and blue.guess it's not broken?if it were

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1146671970791569592006-05-04T00:58:00.000+09:002006-05-04T00:59:30.806+09:00

I am having a rough week.

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1146292005531897992006-04-29T15:09:00.000+09:002006-04-29T15:26:45.546+09:00

Tomorrow morning is my big ukulelelele debut! Our Hawaiian Band in performing tomorrow inside of the mall in Imabari, and there are to be many many hula dancing children there to draw a crowd. Actually it’s more like the other way around, that the dancers are some kind of local community group thing and we’re there giving them music. But we’re performing! It’s totally exciting. I have been

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1145277483786794992006-04-17T21:45:00.000+09:002006-04-17T21:43:19.196+09:00

There was no school lunch to eat while I was working at the town office a couple weeks ago, and mostly I’d go to the Circle K on the corner and get some sushi or onigiri and maybe a sandwich, and either I’d take them back to the office or, if I could find any kids around I’d eat outside and hang out with them until break was over. But because it was rainy one day and I felt like sitting

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1145277536025399182006-04-17T21:38:00.000+09:002006-04-17T21:54:11.426+09:00

It is getting more frequent however that I can read at least a portion of these menus, although I have discovered that I’m not only slow to decode but also rather slow to decide, or at least, slower than my server expects me to be. They will always want to know what I want before I am ready to tell them, and I do not yet know how to say, “still looking!”This can be, in a word, exhausting.

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1144995926556772202006-04-14T15:24:00.000+09:002006-04-14T15:25:26.570+09:00

I've been at my junior high all week and it's the first time in months that I've even been here at all (let alone for a week straight), so I'm really enjoying it. I LOVE the students here. Like, I absolutely love them. They make my heart glow. And besides being completely fantastic in their own right, they become additionally endearing for how completely and unabashedly they adore and idolize

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1144995071154897622006-04-14T15:10:00.001+09:002006-04-14T15:13:39.876+09:00

I crashed the first half of a gym class today with the third graders, who are my favorites. It's the first class of the new year so the kids had to introduce themselves to the new PE teacher. He tells them that they have to say their names and their hobby or club, and then say something else about themselves too; and I, from behind where the kids are sitting on the gym floor, say: "in English!

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1144897535237856192006-04-13T12:03:00.000+09:002006-04-13T12:05:35.253+09:00

I have been thinking about Boston recently, wondering if that's the place I should end up living, but I haven't really been sure why until I got an email from Ellie saying just that: she'd been thinking about Boston and if that's a place I could end up living. Thank you, psychic twin link.Yeah, I don't know. I have a lot of built up biases against Boston, but I can't really tell which ones are

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1144747321311773102006-04-11T18:21:00.000+09:002006-04-11T18:22:01.336+09:00

This week the kids are still on spring vacation, which means that all the teachers and office people still have to go to school and spend hours staring at their desks or running the club and team practices that the kids are required to go to throughout vacation, which the teachers are required to hold. Ever see the movie Brazil? Anyway, it means for me that I’m working at the office I spent

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1144657069915643502006-04-10T17:16:00.000+09:002006-04-10T17:17:49.920+09:00

So last month I was seeing a woman, Yuriko, who was the PE teacher at one of my elementary schools. This was not unawesome. She was real sweet and, being the PE teacher, she was in great shape. And we had some nice times together, although we didn’t go out very much. But it was kind of a mixed bag. On the one hand, I was really happy to just be dating someone. Winter got to be pretty lonely

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1143183674135100442006-03-24T15:48:00.000+09:002006-03-24T16:01:14.150+09:00

Last night I went to the kaiten-sushi place next door for dinner; it's only 100 yen a plate on Wednesdays (as opposed to the 120 yen on normal days) so I make it in there for a meal most Wednesday evenings before I go to conversation class (English conversation, not Japanese conversation) (teaching conversation class, not attending it...despite what some say I'm already able to converse fairly

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1141862610317399172006-03-09T09:03:00.000+09:002006-03-09T09:03:30.330+09:00

So you’ve eaten kappa maki before, right? That’s what we call the sushi rolls that have cucumber slivers in the middle; maki means roll, and for years I believed that “kappa” was Japanese for cucumber. But I never hear anybody call them that. Japanese cucumbers are called “kyurie,” and the rolls are kyurie maki. There are gajillions of kinds of sushi, but mostly they fall into two bigger

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1140768602847840122006-02-24T17:03:00.000+09:002006-02-24T17:34:15.390+09:00

Word.Things I have done in preperation for next Sunday include:Record and broadcast announcements over the radio, in English and Japanese.Written an extensive biography of myself to put in the newsletter of the group hosting the event.Things I have not yet done in preperation for next Sunday include:Pick out what I'm going to wearPlan out, write, or in fact even decide upon a topic for my 30

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1139811978730404512006-02-13T15:26:00.000+09:002006-02-13T23:24:42.263+09:00

An inconvenience to the plans I had had for the last hour of school today—these being to search for and copy down ukulele tablature on the internet while abstractly contemplating tomorrow’s lessons at elementary school—I have been asked if I would like to go to a meeting being held by the principle of another school. Which means, "There’s a meeting at 3:00. It’s in Japanese. You are expected

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1139681169483131782006-02-12T00:46:00.000+09:002006-02-12T17:13:02.320+09:00

I have just finished one of the best books I've read in a long time, the best in a way which most other best books I've ever read aren't able to be. The History of Love is a complex, touching, and wonderful read. Go buy it. Go read it. I chewed through it over the last three days, at first totally unable to put it down, but quick to discover that whenever I DID manage to rest on it for a

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1139425660050520972006-02-09T03:35:00.001+09:002006-02-09T04:11:41.483+09:00

It is far, far too late at night for me to be up. Napped this afternoon instead of doing my prepwork for tomorrow, which means I needed to do it tonight. Of course, I procrasinated tonight instead of doing it promptly after conversation class ended, so that's that. Procrastination tonight came by way of making mushroomy miso nabe and reading about Bengla, Freeze Drying and Japanese Language in

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1139144196499756392006-02-05T21:49:00.000+09:002006-02-06T23:45:34.940+09:00

So a class's teacher makes a big difference in how genki or how crappily difficult the kids are. Surprising, huh? I guess we all remember having crappy teachers: the burn-outs, the block-heads, the dead-zones, the tyrants, the basketcases, the buffoons, the pushovers. It takes all kinds I guess. But classes are pretty closed systems in general, and you really only think about 'you the students'

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1138234089196708192006-01-26T08:57:00.001+09:002006-01-30T22:44:16.763+09:00

This comes to me in an email from my JTE (the Japanese English Teacher) at my Junior High. She writes, "I send you some questions from 2nd graders( today we thought "why Japanese do ～?" and " Because ～." Then I asked the students if they have any questions about America or you. Would you answer to these?" I think you, dear readers, should help me think up some good answers. Any assisstance would

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1138121231604671612006-01-25T00:20:00.000+09:002006-02-03T02:52:58.576+09:00

"Just try to write short posts," Ellie advises me, "don't try to fit it all in, just talk about something cool that happened."The difficulty is presenting your story without presenting a lot of backstory, and it plagues every wish-I-blogged-more-regularly diaryist, but for me the issue is context, not just exposition. I always feel like there's so much surrounding information that someone needs

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292800.post-1137862775089683852006-01-22T01:57:00.000+09:002006-01-30T22:50:29.003+09:00

One of my favorites, this little one. A ninensei, or second grader from Kuwa Sho, my Thursday school. You can't really tell in the picture I guess, but she has a biiiiiiig gap in her front teeth that makes her just even more unbelievably adorable. Also as I discovered when I picked her up, she weighs like 8 pounds. That's less than a normal housecat. Think about that.

Josh Biskerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16281591032834294785noreply@blogger.com0