Life in Japan and Korea: Myth vs Reality

I am not an angry blogger; I promise. I am not a bitter blogger; I mean it. Sure, there is a virtual poop-ton of bitter people who are fed up with living in Asia, but rest assured, at the time I write this blog (meaning never say never) I am not one of them. I am making this clear because I want all you out there reading this post to know that I am not trying to be a grumpy old fart raining on your parade for the sake of being a grumpy old fart.

This blog post is based in reality. I am being a realist. If you are an obsessed Japan or Korea fan you may not want to read what I will write, but tough, this is how it is!

I wanted to address some of the false images people have and false assumptions people make about life in Japan and Korea.


1. If I move to Japan or Korea, my life will be better: Maybe, maybe not. There are millions of factors that will cause this to become a reality or not.  Did you come to Asia to teach or live with a massive financial debt hanging over your head or were you running away from a messy divorce? If so, maybe life won't be better for you with a simple geographic change. For many out there though, life does become better.

Simple reasons for this: A massive geographic and cultural change is exciting. It is a sensory overload and an amazing learning experience. Moving to a culture completely foreign and learning to navigate it can be fun. Also, living in a place that may have a deeper history than where you came from may also seem interesting.

2. I want to live in Japan because I love anime and manga: Japan isn't a comic book or a cartoon. it is real and life here is real. It is very different than in Europe and North America, but it is real. People eat breakfast in the morning and go to work. They drink coffee during their coffee breaks and fall asleep with the TV on at night. Life in Japan is certainly cool, but it isn't like a manga or an anime. Sorry!

3. I hear everyone in Japan does Cosplay and I wanna see it: No they don't! To be honest, it is pretty rare to see people doing Cosplay in Japan. It only happens in specific places and only sometimes. Although, as a Canadian, it is interesting and amusing to see people dress up in costumes, it isn't that common. According to my wife and many other Japanese people I have talked to, the regular everyday Japanese person thinks Cosplay is pretty weird. It is a subculture. Sorry folks!

4. If I move to Korea or Japan (some younger readers say this) then I'll never be bullied: ARGH! Please don't think that. Bullying is rampant in these two countries. Their teen suicide rate is through the roof. If you think bullying is bad where you are from, try being pushed to the outside in a group culture!

5. I love Korean dramas and want to move to Korea: Sort of like the anime thing. Life in Korea is interesting, but it is real. Dramas (soap operas in North America) are anything but real. That prince charming way that guys act in those shows...well....they're just TV shows. Nuff said!

6. I really want to move to Japan and Korea because I love the food: Good reason. The food in both countries is outstanding and a fine reason to set up shop there!

7. I wanna move to Korea or Japan cause all the ladies will want me: Did the ladies want you where you came from? If the answer is "No", than maybe you may have trouble here as well. If you go to a club and someone throws themselves all over you right away, either you look like Ryan Reynolds or they've done it many times before. To be honest though, you get a good lady here like you would anywhere else. Be interesting, charming and have some luck on your side!

8. I want to work in Japan or Korea, but I don't want to teach: That is cool. What is skill set though? Do you work for a large multi-national company that will transfer to Japan or Korea. Are you so fluent in the language that you can compete in the local job market? Are you a freelancer who can tele-commute from anywhere in the world? Will you be a language or university exchange student? If not....not sure what you will do?



I lived in Korea and I now live in Japan. They are very interesting countries to call home. They can at times be frustrating though. You will face many of the day to day living problems people all around the world face. You will also get to enjoy many of the benefits of life in such interesting cultures with rich histories.

Follow me on Twitter: @jlandkev

Teaching in Asia....the podcast?

I started playing with something new this eveing. I started to mess around with something called SoundCloud. Basically I can produce quick, on the fly podcasts using my iPhone. I recorded my first episode this evening. I talk about my book "Teaching in Asia: Tales and the Real Deal"


SoundCloud seems pretty freakin cool so far.

Take a listen and let me know what you think. if you like this mini-podcast, I will make more.

Teaching in Asia

Earlier this evening, an online and "real life" friend of mine asked me, over Twitter, "what exactly is your book about and how can I get it when it is finished?"

That's right folks. I'm in the midst and in the home stretch of finishing my first book. Well, at least the first draft of it at any rate. I have mentioned this before here on this blog as well as on my You Tube channels (from which I am taking a hiatus), on Facebook, Google+ and on Twitter. Some of you are aware of my writing project and many of you are not. 

Long story....not so short. I was an ESL teacher in South Korea for more than five years. I then went back to Canada, got my elementary school teaching credentials, taught in Canada and then came to Japan where I now teach at an international school. I have been a teacher for ten years now, taught in three countries and have worked in language schools, Canadian public schools as well as the international school system. All the while, I have been a blogger and for more than five years, a You Tube video blogger. 

In those years, I have received hundreds of questions from people all around the world interested in coming to Asia to teach. Some questions have been thoughtful while others, not so much. I have written many a blog post answering some of them and have made even more videos. My videos about teaching in Korea and Japan have received hundreds of thousands of hits. Some of my most popular ones are not so much about facts and advice, but stories from my time in Korea and Japan. 

I am a teacher and I am a story teller. I'm honestly not sure which one I like being more. In a way, they both go hand in hand. 

Last September, while out for a lunch time walk at work I came to a conclusion. There was no way I could ever truly explain everything I want to about working and living in Korea and Japan in a blog format. There's simply too much to discuss. Likewise, I could never do more than scratch the surface with a You Tube video. That's when the idea was born.

I began writing "Teaching in Asia: Tales and the Real Deal" that same evening. A book that would be both practical and hopefully entertaining. A book aimed at those around the world who were interested in coming to either South Korea of Japan to teach. It would be a practical "how to" guide as well as series of stories about my experiences in Asia, both inside and outside of the classroom. People really seemed to enjoy my stories on You Tube so I thought a lot of people out there would enjoy them on paper as well. 

The book started to almost write itself and by November, the bulk of the first draft was completed. Then my work schedule increased and I started video blogging on You Tube more than ever before. With all the time I was spending on You Tube, I had little or no time to write. The book basically got put on the back burner. 

The new year came along and I decided that writing was far more meaningful to me than video blogging. I decided to stop video blogging all together until I could get this project finished. My priority is to get this done and self-published. In 2012, that is a pretty easy thing. My book, once done will be available on the Amazon Kindle store for a small sum. At the moment I am in the midst of adding a few more stories to make it more worth while and fun for the "future readers" out there. 

If you have any thoughts of coming to Asia to teach, this book will help you find a job and hopefully the right one for you. it will also help anyone out there with no classroom experience and for those who do, hopefully offer you a few new perspectives. 

Even if you have no desire to ever teach in Asia, I think you will still find something interesting within it's pages.

Close to launch time, I will let you know about the website for the book itself.

Stay tuned for more!

Check ut a story from my BusanKevin You Tube channel. I shot this one more than 3 years ago. It is about the first time I stepped foot in a classroom. This story and many others will be in "Teaching in Asia: Tales and the Real Deal."

A Japan Week in Pictures

A few photos I took with my phone this week in and around Kobe, Japan where I live.. Hope you like them!

REMEMBER to go and check out my new blog Things I Hate Project. Everyday I'll write a short blog about something in life that I like. I'll complain about it in an ironic and hopefully humorous way!

 Cool wheels

 Blue skies

 Almost home after a day at work.

 Playing cars with my son.

Almost home (6:00pm).

Influenza Weirdness in Japan

It’s an interesting thing getting sick in another country. I’ve been getting sick in other countries for years and each time, it’s an experience. Obviously, things are simply done differently in other places. Sometimes they seem normal and sometimes they don’t.

Earlier this week I unfortunately got my butt whopped by a bad case of the seasonal flu. Yup, it was my turn. Not sure how much it helps, but normally my wife and I get our seasonal flu shots in late autumn. Last year for one reason or another, we simply forgot. I know many out there will argue that the seasonal flu shot offers at best, minimal protection, but at least it is something. This year we didn’t get our shots and we both got sick.

Now of course there is nothing out of the normal about getting the flu, but what seems odd to me and many other non-Japanese living in Japan is how seriously it is taken here. People talk about getting the flu like we might talk about getting Ebola. Here, the news and citizens in general really talk it up as if it is a life-altering event.

Tapping into the far recesses of my brain, I seem to remember being diagnosed with the flu in Canada very quickly. The doctor would quickly name a list of flu symptoms and ask me if I had them. If I answered “yes”, he would make a prescription for 10-12 days of antibiotics and send me on my way.

The other day here it was quite a different story. Upon arriving at my family doctor’s office they asked me to take my temperature (standard practice for any visit to a doctor’s office in Japan). I handed the thermometer back to the nurse and once she saw my temperature was 38.5C, she gave me a mask to wear and made me sit in a back room away from the main waiting room.

The doctor then gave me an “Influenza test.” With a special kit, he took a cotton swab about three inches long and shoved it deep into my sinus cavity and swabbed. This by no means was a pleasant experience. After that, the swab was placed in a solution and within 5 minutes we had the results. He said, “I’m afraid you have Type A Hong Kong Influenza.” He made it seem so serious and dire. I was starting to get worried.

While waiting for my prescription to be filled, I Googled that strain of influenza and was quickly relieved to find out that all of that very dramatic talk meant I simply had caught a seasonal flu virus.

Amazing how dramatic people can be about something in Canada, we are so casual about.

Yup….being sick in another country can be a strange experience!

5 More Things I Hate About Japan

This is a continuation of yesterday's blog that took an ironic look at various things I "don't" like about Japan (irony folks...just in case you don't realize it).

1. The sense of safety: I can leave my laptop on a coffee shop table while I go to the washroom and when I return I know it will still be there. That pisses me off! I can leave my bag on the train and there's a very good chance it will be placed in lost and found. That's just ridiculous! Where I come from there would possibly be a fight in the coffee shop because too many people would try to steal my computer at the same time. I mean, at Christmas, when my wife bought me a Tim Hortons coffee tumbler, she was warned by staff not to leave it on a table unattended because someone will steal it. I expect the same level of thievery here in Japan, but it just doesn't exist. So disappointing.

2. Convenient and efficient public transportation: This is something that really chaps my ass. I want to be left waiting I freezing weather while unreliable buses don't show up on time. I want to live in a place where, I don't have a car, I'm pretty much screwed for getting around the city. Give me that Japan!

3. Japanese ramen: I hate it so much because it is so delicious. Every mouthful is packed with so much flavor that I want to eat it everyday. If I did eat it everyday I would most certainly die of a massive heart attack within the next 6 months!

4. Japanese green tea: Hey there Mr. Green Tea....you're full of anti-oxidants, your tasty and warm me up on cold winter nights! Get over yourself you fancy schmancy drink!

5. Really fast Internet speeds: I want the "snail paced" speeds that Canadian "high speed" Internet offers. I mean...come on, you don't even throttle people's Internet like back home. If I want to download something it happens in the blink of an eye. That's just bullshit if you ask me!

There ya go folks. 5 more things about Japan that I "hate." I you liked this post and the previous post, come on over to a new blog "experiment" mine. I'll make one short daily post about something I "hate" in life (The I Hate Project). Eventually all the posts will be compiled into a silly eBook of sorts!

10 Things I Hate About Japan

Before you get yourself all worked up in a lather thinking another "complainer foreigner" is getting down on Japan, I want to STOP you! This is a tongue and cheek post. I like Japan a lot and am just having a little fun as I lay in bed, sick as a dog. Why not write a short little blog post on my iPhone as I hack and wheeze my brains out?



So, here we go. 10 things about Japan that drive me nuts!

1. Mini Food: Food portions at restaurants are too damn small! How am I supposed to be a stereotypical "fat cat" foreigner if servings at restaurants are all under 1000 calories? Get it together folks. I want massive amounts of greasy food everywhere I go. I am a Canadian after all!

2. Speaking Japanese: What's with everyone speaking Japanese everywhere I go? Come on people. Get with the program! English is the international language of commerce. Why isn't everyone speaking it here in Japan? I mean do you really expect me to learn some
Japanese if I live here in Japan? You gotta be kidding me?

3. Heated toilet seats! That's just by as fun as the shock when you sit on a cold toilet seat in the middle of a freezing winter's night. Toughen up people and lets get back to the cold toilet seats that once dominated the fecal landscape!

4. Lack of bland food! I'm from the East Coast of Canada and if it ain't boiled potatoes and boiled steak then it's just crap. Japanese food is delicious an chalked full of so many flavors. It's not fair. I want my food hard to chew and lacking taste!

5. Beautiful women everywhere: For the love of God, what's with all the hot women everywhere here in Japan? Don't they know they keep distracting me and causing me to lose my train of thought in mid.....

6. Cosplay! I hate Cosplay. How dare you take a bunch if young women, make them dress up in revealing fantasy type costumes and have them prance around in public! It's just cruel of you Japan.

7. Earthquakes! Ok....no humor here. I really do hate them.

8. CC Lemon: A pop so delicious I want to drink it all the time. If I did drink it as much as I want to, all of my teeth would rot and fall out. I would only have Japan to blame. They created this beverage and would be responsible for Kevin's dentures at an early age.

9. Did I mention all of the beautiful women?

10. Interesting lifestyles: The final thing I hate about Japan is that it's given me an interesting and exciting life. I was really counting on a boring and mundane existence, but oh no...oh no Japan!


Nuff said...

You can follow me on Twitter @jlandkev

Check me on You Tube here and here.

Beaten By My Wife's Common Sense

This weekend was supposed to involve two really great runs. I have been lazy throughout the week and simply haven't been getting out there early in the morning and putting the kilometres I should be under my feet. I could make many excuses, but laziness is the only true reason.

The plan was to go for a run this afternoon while my son was taking a nap. There's a little problem though. I woke up several times throughout the night coughing and hacking. by 5:00 am this morning I was pretty much completely awake and laying in bed coughing up a lung. I can't remember if it was the right or left one, but it felt like one of those rascally lungs was trying to crawl out of my mouth and scamper away under the bed.

My wife and I took my son to Kobe Women's University later on in the morning. I want him to start chasing women early, so I thought that would be the perfect location! Ok….maybe I lie. We actually took him to the university because they have an early child care program there and once a month they have an open house. They have a great mock classroom facility with tons of cool toys. the student teachers have a chance to interact with children and I had a chance to take a load of cute pictures!

Soon after that we were back home and I continued to cough up a lung. There is a chance I may have been coughing up two lungs.....but definitely not three!

My planned run was snuffed when my wife, using her common sense told me I probably shouldn't. "Kevin, last time you went running with a chest cold, you made it worse." I lowered my head and admitted that her common sense beat my need to run.

So, here I sit, making worksheets for my students for next week's classes and writing a blog post. The coughing is getting worse and I'm wearing a little sad face.

:(

Here are some scenes from Sannomiya in downtown Kobe, Japan. I took these last night on my way home from work.

This is my favourite Starbucks location in downtown Kobe.

This is the Nescafe Cafe close to my favorite Starbucks.

A pile of sad looking teddies. Took this picture of a crane game close to Sannomiya Station.

Don't Step in the Shit

Don't step in the shit! Why not? Isn't the shit the stuff that's going to get you all the viewers on You Tube and al of the readers on your blog? Well, what I mean by "shit" is controversy. Controversy is something that gets people watching videos on your video blog or reading your blog posts. Being edgy and controversial is interesting if done well. It is exciting if thought through. Controversial views are often the key to success in the world of content creation. Being a hot young lady also works if you are on You Tube!

As a mid 30-something guy, my hot lady days are far behind me. Come to think of it, they never existed. So, what is a mid 30-something Canadian blogger with a receding hairline to do in order to get tens of thousands of people to read my posts and millions to watch his videos? I could take my shirt off! Wait a second...that might cause a violent physical reaction known as "vomiting." I could simply show more cleavage! Wait a second....my chest hair might impede the view.

What's a guy to do?

Ah....that's right. I can get edgy and controversial. BUUUUTTT...I don't want to. I don't want that sort of attention. Don't get me wrong. I love attention. If I didn't love attention I never would have become a drama freak in university or done improv theatre after university. I never would have played music in so many bands. If I didn't love attention I wouldn't have three You Tube channels and this blog. I wouldn't be such a Twitter whore (btw...you can follow me here)!

In the past I have made some edgy videos and they have done well. A lot of people watched them. On a former blog, I used to write some edgy posts and many people read them. The problem was and I'm sure still would be that I attracted negative attention. I was noticed by normal readers and viewers, but at the same time I was noticed by internet trolls.

More than fours years ago I was in the Canadian capital city of Ottawa and there were duel protests on Parliament Hill (Canadian houses of government). There were are very large number of pro-China supporters and some Free-Tibet people (with heavy police protection) a block away. This was just before the Beijing Olympics. I shot a video of each group and as I did, shared some of my thoughts on the issues at hand. That night I posted the video and went to sleep. The next morning I awoke to thousands of hits which I initially thought was very cool. Then I noticed that I had dozens of very insane/nationalistic/threatening comments on my page by Chinese netizens. Some of my loyal viewers tried to support me in the comment section and then they were attacked by large numbers of netizens. After a few days of FAR TOO MUCH ATTENTION, I decided it would be in the best interest of my You Tube channel to just pull the video down. I didn't post another video for a few weeks and by then, the storm had calmed.

A few years later, while here in Japan, I made a video defending English teachers in South Korea. I worked there for more than five years and it is pretty common knowledge that there are certain nationalistic segments of society there that like to use teachers as scapegoats. There has also been a history of tabloid journalists there doing the same. I made a very frank and abrasive video (I was pissed off at the time about the topic) defending teachers and "poo pooing" their detractors. I posted the video and it immediately began to get lots of hits. Soon after that though, I started to attract the trolls. I left that video up for more than a year though. I didn't care, but every once and awhile a very nasty and persistent troll would rear his ugly head.

Fast forward to now. In 2012, I am still an attention whore. I would love for my videos and blog posts to all be popular and viral. Heck, I'd love to even be able to make a living doing this hobby that I love so much! BUT….I now refuse to be controversial. Well, a little edgy is ok. Some bloggers and video bloggers obviously pander to their audiences and only say positive things. Some never speak their minds freely.

I intend to speak my mind, but I never go looking for a fight. What is the point? I am not a very angry person. At times I become a little disgruntled about things in life, but we all do. I don't want to get myself noticed because I am negative or angry. I'm just not that sort of person. I suppose I could pretend to be angry and that would probably get some hits. Many people have online personas and it works for them. In my case though, that just isn't the "angle" I am shooting for. In fact, I don't have an angle. I'm just Kevin sharing his non-angry thoughts with all of you folks out there.

Being controversial definitely works if you want to be noticed online. BEWARE though. With all that attention, some negatives are bound to be included!

How Blogging has Kept Me Sane!

Blogging isn’t for everyone. Video blogging is even more “not” for everyone.

When we blog we sit down in front of our computers and pour out our thoughts and feeling on various topics. When blogs first started to emerge in the late 1990’s they tended to be an almost diary style form of online writing. Even in 2012, many people who write bogs follow a similar style.

I began writing blogs in the late 1990’s. My first blog was a fan page for an indie musician based in Canada. I stopped maintaining the site and stopped doing the “blog thing” by 2000. Just a few years later, I was living and working in South Korea and I decided to jump back into my old hobby. It had become so much easier. I could simply write something in Blogger and hit “post.” In the 1990’s I would write all of my web page language in HTML using Notepad on my Windows machine as my main editing tool. I would upload all text and photos using a File Transfer Protocol app called Cute FTP. I thought it was a lot of fun at the time, but it was also a lot of work.

Jump ahead to 2006. I began to make video blogs on You Tube. I now had a blog and vlog presence on the Internet. It was a fun way to let off steam, complain about stuff that annoyed me in Korea, play around with technology and be a little creative.

Jump ahead to 2012 and I have three You Tube channels, two blogs and have tried my hand at podcasting. I would probably attempt to do more, but having a family and “non-online” life luckily keeps me from attempting to take on more.

I’ve been in Asia for almost ten years now. While I’ve been here I’ve made some amazing friends and then inevitably said goodbye to them. Once I became married and started a family I became even more cocooned I my little world far away from home. Sometimes I miss communication with other native English speakers and those who share a similar cultural understanding. Luckily, blogging and vlogging have given me an outlet. They have given me a way to reach out to like-minded folks around the world.

Through this amazing hobby I have been able to share my experiences in Korea, Japan and as a teacher with those around the world who are interested in those very things. Not only have I been able to meet amazing folks from all over the globe, but also I have been able to meet so many wonderful people in person right here in Japan.

Blogging has given me the chance to meet new people as well as share my thoughts, feelings and knowledge.

If you have the ability to read this blog then you have the ability to start your own. I highly recommend it. It’s been lifesaver for me!

Some of the great things you can see while living in Asia...worth blogging about!