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The Tax Man
Published on 2011-05-01 22:25:00
The letter was sitting on the coffee table when I got home from work. I plonked myself on the couch and scooped it up. Slowly moving my eyes over the characters, I was able to make out my name, and that it had come from the offices of the City of Osaka. This could only mean one thing: that they wanted money from me, and lots of it. Every year the good people of the City send out their city resident taxes, a charge based on your previous year's income. For me, this means a couple of hundred thou
The Physical, Pt.2
Published on 2011-02-17 18:42:00
Did you read Pt.1 first? Ok, good. Please continue...I sat the kids down on the carpet in a circle, and we all observed a quick moment of silence whilst I gathered my thoughts and they waited for something to happen. Okay, here we go. First ever lesson. They're sitting right in front of you. It's time to rock... Wait, how do I start this thing? Oh yeah, introduce yourself. Here we go. Let's blow their minds...I sat the kids down on the carpet in a circle, and we all observed a quick moment of si
The Physical, Pt.1
Published on 2011-01-24 03:24:00
I had survived for fourteen months. Fourteen months without being assigned any kids classes. For anyone to last that long whilst working full time at an English language school in a surburban area was nothing short of a miracle. Most were lucky to hold out for two, maybe three months before they received the call up, but for some reason or another I had slipped under the radar.There were other teachers at my school, trained and more experienced, taking care of those classes, and they had yet to
The Platform Golfer
Published on 2011-01-04 20:23:00
It was a rainy autumn morning as I sauntered up the steps to the train platform on my way to work. When I reached the top I saw that my train had not yet pulled in, letting out a swarm of city workers at their final stop, who would collectively leave the unpleasant stench of tightly-packed bodies and breath in each carriage that us outbound commuters would be forced to gag on as we sat down in uncomfortably warm seats and waited to depart. I headed towards the far end of the platform to grab a s
Ok, go somewhere, but then come back.
Published on 2011-01-03 23:06:00
Yikes, who woulda thought 2010 would just disappear like that. That's what you get for trying to complete a post-grad degree and hold an overseas wedding all in the same year. Anyway, now it's 2011, and I want to be clear that this blog thingy isn't dead or abandoned. As all it really is is a way for me to draft short stories about life in Japan, I've gone back and decided to improve upon existing stories before embarking on new ones. Thus the stuff you see here is getting a working-over as we s