hear the army

        what the hell!?! yes, while innocently searching for a book on hiking in japan, i’m subjected to this: someone actually published a book titled: “ORDINARY ENGLISH-SPEAKING MEN, EXTRAORDINARY BEAUTIFUL WOMEN, TEACHING ENGLISH IN JAPAN”.

as if the title wasn’t enough, with chapters like “mini-mini skirts” and excerpts such as “I haven’t met many Western females that speak fluent Japanese” it’s no wonder many western women have a cynical outlook of some western guys in japan. how can they expect us to take them seriously when there’s crap like this published (and to think some might read it)!?! bluck. i feel for those who didn’t come to japan to date and have a japanese girlfriend or wife – must be even more difficult for you than it is for me to stomach nonsense like this.

        partially inspired by betsy’s new fab blog and partly just because it was so bloody fantastic – i’m gonna tell you about my day:

firstly i should inform you that turning 33 for me marks the near end of my yakudoshi. this is the japanese tradition of bad luck years. being how age 32 turned out to be a bust i was quite relieved to realize that the 33 yakudoshi for women actually meant the 33rd year of life (age 32!). of course there are lesser bad luck years preceding and following but the worst of it should be over. thank you very much.

so just how fantastic was the start of this year of lesser evil? (more…)