A few fun pictures - Enjoy!

I've learned to love the Japanese English that's everywhere - here's a name of a new candy, just in time for Christmas!

Above are the New Year's Resolutions of my "English Special Lecture Session" class.  They are five high school seniors who either really enjoy English or want to study it more at the university level.  Apparently there is a lot of relationship drama this year.

Another Top 10 List

10 Interesting Observations (In no particular order)

1. It’s okay to take a nap at your desk.  I figured this out one day when I swore that I heard a deep rumbling snoring coming from somewhere in the teacher’s room.  No one looked like they were sleeping, but when I decided that I needed to get some water, I saw one of the teachers sleeping peacefully while sitting at their desk.  Apparently this is normal because no one else paid any attention to it and it’s happened several times since then.

2. Slurping your noodles, soup, or ramen is perfectly acceptable, even expected.  I’m not sure this is something that I’ll adapt because I wouldn’t want to get in the habit of slurping and get stared at when I go back to the States.  I’m not sure what the reasoning is, but the rumor is that it makes the food taste better or slurping shows how much you like the food.  I’ve gotten used to hearing it, but it’s still a mystery to me.

3. Point cards are everywhere, credit cards are not – and where there are point cards, the rewards that you receive are amazingly minimal so that it’s hardly worth getting a point card at all.  For example, a fast-food restaurant at home might do a “buy 5 get the 6th free” deal, but here it’s more like “buy 24 get the 25th at half price/￥500 off/one free.”

4. Pizza Hut is exotically expensive!  An average sized medium pizza (smaller than our mediums at home) will cost between ￥1,800 - ￥2,600 for one pizza, which is approximately $20-28.