Vacation, Graduation and Life in Japan

It's officially been 1,000,000 years since I've made a post on this blog. Apologies, apologies. I suppose I've been concentrating mostly on work (it is the end of the school year crunch time), making videos for You Tube and organizing the first You Tube met up in Kansai. It's actually going to be tonight in Osaka. Should be a great time. Some of the You Tubers who I knowwill be there include: BusanKevin (moi), kansaipj, kkajapan, sydermurphy, thatjapanesegirl, renoldsair, platonicmojo, jnmorrison, Takarcuka Tim, and many others I'm sure.

Some interesting things have happened recently. March 3rd was Hina Matsuri 雛祭り, or Girl's Day here in Japan. I only have 2 girls in my class, but we used the afternoon to make Hina Matsuri crafts. It was very cute, the boys made their crafts and then gave them to the girls.

Here's a little more info about the festival.

The Japanese Doll Festival-雛祭り

This video was made by Gimmeabreakman, a well-known Japan video blogger.


I'm also very excited about the fact that next Friday will be my last day of work before Spring vacation. The Japanese school year ends in March and begins in April. I'm teaching at an international school, but we use the Japanese school cycle. I'm pretty excited because I'll be heading to South Korea for a vacation with my wife. We're going to Busan for 5 days. I'm really looking forward to it since both my wife and I have many mutual friends still living there. My old band will be having a "reunion" show on Friday, March 20th.

I think the thing I'm most looking forward to when visiting Korea (aside hanging out with my friends) will be the food. I'm really looking forward to filling my stomach with galbi (Korean bbq), anyong jimduk, bibimbap and many other things. I'll stay away from thesoju, but plan to bring a few bottles back to Japan as gifts!

Here's a video of my old band on my last night playing with them before I left Korea 2 years ago.


Hermit Kings in Korea (BusanKevin on drums)

I was the drummer...BusanKevin. For all my You Tube subscribers, now you know why the city "Busan" is in my username.


Recently, I've been enjoying a podcast based in Korea. Seoul Podcast is entertaining and fairly relevant for anyone who teaches in Korea, has taught there or would like to in the future. I'd recommend checking it out. Each podcast is quite long (between 2-3 hours), but interesting. I really enjoy listening to it when I'm out running.

The guy who runs this podcast is a fairly well-known blogger. He has a very cool blog about Korean food. Check out Zen Kimchi.