-"Hello" (or "haro", as it's most often pronounced) is an acceptable substitute for real conversation.
-Before visiting a school I haven't been to in a while, I always take some time to think of some interesting or exciting potential weekend plans to save inquisitive people the disappointment of learning that my weekend will be spent watching TV or doing other normal stuff that normal people do--gotta live up to that gaijin razzle dazzle lifestyle.
-In Korea, food from street vendors is meant to be avoided, but in Japan it's something to be sought after, no question.
-Getting nice and hammered by early afternoon under some blossoming cherry trees with your friends is the nationally preferred method of ushering in Spring.
-I recently started going out jogging, largely because the weather has become really nice. I found a nice secluded path down by the river that serves as both a scenic backdrop and a way to avoid inducing heart attacks among the elderly inhabitants of Daishoji--particularly the sort not accustomed to seeing young, sweaty white guys booking it through town for no apparent reason.
-My most fun schools are also the most dysfunctional.
-My students' most common response to a friendly "Good Morning" from me in the hallway is some sort of open-mouthed exclamation or look of discomfort, rarely resembling a greeting in either English or Japanese.
-Despite the language gap, I've found there's very little that can't be communicated in one way or another. You may be speaking/acting/wildly gesturing like a child/ape/less intelligent life form, but at least it's possible to express a bastardized version of what's on your mind.
-I went on a camping trip last week around the northern, peninsular part of Ishikawa, which is called the Noto. We made the newbie mistake of following road rules and posted signs, resulting in near-death situations more than a few times. Drivers in small, rural towns spit in the face of automobile laws and laughed at us at the same time...
