The sakura are finally out and they almost make the four months of snow worth it.
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The sakura are finally out and they almost make the four months of snow worth it.

We’re about a week into the new school year, and last friday our school had our “Club Activity Orientation” assembly, which involves kids in each of the school clubs and committees campaigning to the new first-year students to join them. The members get up in front of the first-year students and give a quick presentation about the club with the intention of gaining new members. The presentations range from silly skits to demonstrations or just a quick speech. It’s completely planned by the club members. Actually, like most school assemblies, the entire event is organized by the seitokai (生徒会) or student council. Yes, we let our students organize and run a whole assembly (yes, there is teacher support and mentorship, but they are doing the bulk of it). And they do it. This the kind of stuff that I love here, and something I’m ever sure would happen in the states on such a scale. We assume our kids can’t do this kind of stuff (and to be fair, kids here are given responsibilities like this starting from Elementary School), but with the right support they can and do. The net result? A strong sense of ownership in their school. I wanted to talk about school clubs here for a while, the sports clubs especially. School sports are so radically different here than in the states, and sometimes I wish I had grown up in Japan because I might have actually ended up liking sports. Here clubs are inclusive instead of exclusive. There are no barriers to entry; no try-outs our screening process where you’re asked, “Are you good enough for us?” Instead you get, “Our club is really fun and we hope you’ll join!” Yes, that’s the kind of stuff that they do say, and it sounds silly in English, but it’s perfectly fine and genuine in Japanese. Since no experience is required to join a club. It’s the responsibility of the 2nd and 3rd year students to get the new members up to speed. If you’ve never played tennis and you join the tennis club, the other members will teach you tennis. You practice six days a week for about 2 hours each day. That’s a lot, but the kids love it. Their clubs are also where they build some of their strongest friendships. There is a huge amount of support inside these groups. Compare this to America where unless you start playing from a young age, expect to be way behind the skill-curve of your peers and probably be made fun of. You get ostracized and pushed out, here you get pulled in. The team rises and falls together and everyone gets held accountable. It’s a tough love, but it’s love. Going back to the assembly, each of the first years get a little booklet at the assembly with information on each bukatsudo (部活動). Every club gets a half-page space that they write a little “ad” in. Again, this entire book is produced by the students, cover to cover. One of my favorite spots this year is from our Judo club, which you can see above with my translation. The club has only two members this year, Kana and Minori who are both 2nd-year girls. Kana is probably the shortest girl in our school. She’s also the National Junior-Wrestling Champion for her weight class. She can actually flip my body over and pound it into a floor mat. She’s also one of the nicest kids ever and is always smiling. Cute Japanese note: They actually spell out “Orientation” in phonetic Japanese: オリエンテション. It’s a borrowed word from English, same meaning.
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We’re about a week into the new school year, and last friday our school had our “Club Activity Orientation” assembly, which involves kids in each of the school clubs and committees campaigning to the new first-year students to join them. The members get up in front of the first-year students and give a quick presentation about the club with the intention of gaining new members. The presentations range from silly skits to demonstrations or just a quick speech. It’s completely planned by the club members. Actually, like most school assemblies, the entire event is organized by the seitokai (生徒会) or student council. Yes, we let our students organize and run a whole assembly (yes, there is teacher support and mentorship, but they are doing the bulk of it). And they do it. This the kind of stuff that I love here, and something I’m ever sure would happen in the states on such a scale. We assume our kids can’t do this kind of stuff (and to be fair, kids here are given responsibilities like this starting from Elementary School), but with the right support they can and do. The net result? A strong sense of ownership in their school.

I wanted to talk about school clubs here for a while, the sports clubs especially. School sports are so radically different here than in the states, and sometimes I wish I had grown up in Japan because I might have actually ended up liking sports. Here clubs are inclusive instead of exclusive. There are no barriers to entry; no try-outs our screening process where you’re asked, “Are you good enough for us?” Instead you get, “Our club is really fun and we hope you’ll join!” Yes, that’s the kind of stuff that they do say, and it sounds silly in English, but it’s perfectly fine and genuine in Japanese.

Since no experience is required to join a club. It’s the responsibility of the 2nd and 3rd year students to get the new members up to speed. If you’ve never played tennis and you join the tennis club, the other members will teach you tennis. You practice six days a week for about 2 hours each day. That’s a lot, but the kids love it. Their clubs are also where they build some of their strongest friendships. There is a huge amount of support inside these groups. Compare this to America where unless you start playing from a young age, expect to be way behind the skill-curve of your peers and probably be made fun of. You get ostracized and pushed out, here you get pulled in. The team rises and falls together and everyone gets held accountable. It’s a tough love, but it’s love.

Going back to the assembly, each of the first years get a little booklet at the assembly with information on each bukatsudo (部活動). Every club gets a half-page space that they write a little “ad” in. Again, this entire book is produced by the students, cover to cover. One of my favorite spots this year is from our Judo club, which you can see above with my translation. The club has only two members this year, Kana and Minori who are both 2nd-year girls. Kana is probably the shortest girl in our school. She’s also the National Junior-Wrestling Champion for her weight class. She can actually flip my body over and pound it into a floor mat. She’s also one of the nicest kids ever and is always smiling.

Cute Japanese note: They actually spell out “Orientation” in phonetic Japanese: オリエンテション. It’s a borrowed word from English, same meaning.

Hey, let me tell you about bread I bought some bread the other day. In the states, you walk into the store and you have nearly an entire wall of puffy carbohydrates available for purchase. Here, you get a tiny little section about 1/32 the size, and with one kind of bread: white. Sometimes they have rye (white bread with some extra grains thrown in) or rasin bread. This is the land of rice, which there is an entire wall of the grocery store dedicated to. Bread takes second chair here. Pretty much all bread comes in these smaller packages that are about a third of the size of a loaf in the states. Japan tends to be pretty humid, so in summer a huge loaf would get moldy pretty fast (they don’t put preservatives in their food here either). You can buy 4,6, or 8 slice packages. Same amount of bread, different thicknesses. This is probably everything you ever wanted to know about bread in Japan. Actually, you probably weren’t too interested in that to begin with. Too bad, I just put some useless knowledge into your head! Anyway, I bought this bread because I made some hummus the other night to spread on it. Good times, that was.
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Hey, let me tell you about bread

I bought some bread the other day. In the states, you walk into the store and you have nearly an entire wall of puffy carbohydrates available for purchase. Here, you get a tiny little section about 1/32 the size, and with one kind of bread: white. Sometimes they have rye (white bread with some extra grains thrown in) or rasin bread. This is the land of rice, which there is an entire wall of the grocery store dedicated to. Bread takes second chair here.

Pretty much all bread comes in these smaller packages that are about a third of the size of a loaf in the states. Japan tends to be pretty humid, so in summer a huge loaf would get moldy pretty fast (they don’t put preservatives in their food here either). You can buy 4,6, or 8 slice packages. Same amount of bread, different thicknesses.

This is probably everything you ever wanted to know about bread in Japan. Actually, you probably weren’t too interested in that to begin with. Too bad, I just put some useless knowledge into your head! Anyway, I bought this bread because I made some hummus the other night to spread on it. Good times, that was.

I was in Hokkaido this weekend visiting a friend and checking out the Sapporo Snow Festival. The Snow Festival didn’t blow my mind, but I loved Sapporo and wished I would’ve had more time exploring the city. This photo, though is from the lantern festival in Otaru (小樽) about forty minutes northwest from Sapporo. The town lays out a huge stretch lights in the snow along these long paths. It’s crazy beautiful for sure.
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I was in Hokkaido this weekend visiting a friend and checking out the Sapporo Snow Festival. The Snow Festival didn’t blow my mind, but I loved Sapporo and wished I would’ve had more time exploring the city.

This photo, though is from the lantern festival in Otaru (小樽) about forty minutes northwest from Sapporo. The town lays out a huge stretch lights in the snow along these long paths. It’s crazy beautiful for sure.

Maniackers Design Fonts

Lots of fun Japanese/English share & freeware fonts at Maniackers Design, in case you’re looking for some!

When I was a design student I was always enamored by contemporary Japanese graphic design because it presented you the chance to design with four alphabets — hiragana, katakana, roman letters and kanji. Kanji itself is already highly pictographic. Each kanji is like a logo in itself, so there’s a ton of fun to be had as a typographer.

My new Kanji workbook! It’s for second graders.
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My new Kanji workbook! It’s for second graders.

Build-a-pen! This is a build-your-own multi-color pen set from a shop called Muji [無印] that has a lot of really cool stuff. In English, you’d translate that brand as “No Brand.” Don’t wrestle with that paradox too much, it got me nowhere. Basically, you buy an empty pen shell, and then choose the color and thickness of the pens you want to add. These nibs are nice, super-rad gel pens too — not crappy ball-point pens. Snap them in and they’re good to go. They even put little rubber caps on the tips so you know they’re not spoiled.
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Build-a-pen!

This is a build-your-own multi-color pen set from a shop called Muji [無印] that has a lot of really cool stuff. In English, you’d translate that brand as “No Brand.” Don’t wrestle with that paradox too much, it got me nowhere.

Basically, you buy an empty pen shell, and then choose the color and thickness of the pens you want to add. These nibs are nice, super-rad gel pens too — not crappy ball-point pens. Snap them in and they’re good to go. They even put little rubber caps on the tips so you know they’re not spoiled.

Source: Flickr / rombocket

I taped you to the windshield of my heart A collection of photos on the sunshade of Tokashiki island’s only bus that ran three times a day back and forth between the various beaches. I thought about where the people in those pictures might be, and who they were to this man driving this little bus, and why he had chosen to display them there. I don’t know if I would have thought about this guy so much otherwise. It reminded me that this man had a history and a Story. Would my perceptions and judgment of other people changed if everyone walked around with pictures of who’s important to them worn on their chests?
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I taped you to the windshield of my heart

A collection of photos on the sunshade of Tokashiki island’s only bus that ran three times a day back and forth between the various beaches.

I thought about where the people in those pictures might be, and who they were to this man driving this little bus, and why he had chosen to display them there. I don’t know if I would have thought about this guy so much otherwise. It reminded me that this man had a history and a Story.

Would my perceptions and judgment of other people changed if everyone walked around with pictures of who’s important to them worn on their chests?

And through the door, what do I see? Sometimes it just falls into place. Taken on Aharen Beach on Tokashiki Island.
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And through the door, what do I see?

Sometimes it just falls into place.

Taken on Aharen Beach on Tokashiki Island.

Source: Flickr / rombocket

Coral on the beach at Tokashiki Island, near Okinawa, Japan.
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Coral on the beach at Tokashiki Island, near Okinawa, Japan.