Thanks for visiting! This is my "Memoirs of a Teacher" website,
cataloguing my two year stay in rural Shikoku, Japan.
I have just finished my second year living in Mima town, working
as an English teacher for the small town's middle and elementary
schools and occasionally,
when the authorities let their guard down, kindergartens.
From the beginning of August until early October, I was backpacking with
a friend (still?) around Korea and China. Here's an article about what I saw. Read
it on Dogmanet .
Now I have come to New Zealand to continue a stretch of living in strange island nations.
England and Japan have been wonderful places to live, and Kiwi Land is no exception.
If you plan to be in the 'other' land down under and
want to grab a Steinlager,
contact me via email. I am currently in Wellington,
the windy capital.
If you'd like to read more of my published work, check out the following links.
One reviews a performance by the famous Japanese taiko group
Kodo and you can read it
here.
It was published by the Tokyo-based magazine
Eye-Ai
for its February 2004 issue. The same magazine will be publishing a follow-up to my
Koshien article in December 2004.
The second is an informative piece about the onsen (hot springs)
in this part of Japan. It was published in December by the Osaka-based
Kansai Time Out.
You can read it here.
Finally, if you're interested in some fine artwork, check out the professional
website of Ruth Askren, my aunt. Find it here.
"And you only arrive at the truth of a situation, or you only think seriously
about it, if you write about it. To talk about it is one thing Ebut thought,
speech, is full of contradictions. When you write about it, you reach
conclusions and you're forced to examine brutally, or dispassionately,
the thing you saw. So the writing about it is essential for me.
Writing forces you to look very hard at the place."
- Paul Theroux
