A couple of days ago one of the teachers at my school suggested we let the students write their own script for a scene from the popular manga Death Note. These are three of the best (so far, only one class has done this activity) You might have a hard time reading, so click to open in a new window.
Too late! I should have written about this ages ago. Its not really the new school for me any more now that I have been here since school started again after the summer break. Its quite a new school, but the trip in the morning is horrible. Its almost a full hour to get to school, and there is only one train I can take in the morning, and then another 20 minute walk.
The students are / have been great and I am looking forward to the time I have left. The teachers here are really nice and seem to get along with the students well too. The English level is also fairly high. Makes my job easier 
For those of you out there in a similar situation to me (big ass feet living in Japan) you may be wondering where you might find shoes that will fit you. If you are lucky enough to live around the Tokyo region, there are a few options. First up there is ‘Kutsu no Hikari’ – This is where I have done all of my show shopping, men’s only. They have three shops, I have listed one below. Check out their website for more details.
靴の光
東京都新宿区新宿５丁目１１－３０
TEL 03-3351-0192
FAX 03-3225-1192
Kutsuno Hikari (Shinjuku)
5-11-30 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku
Tel: 03-3351-0192
Fax: 03-3225-1192
http://www.kutsunohikari.co.jp/
In my opinion, compared to shoe prices in New Zealand, Kutsuno Hikari is relatively cheap. Expect to pay around 13,000 yen a pair. Sizes range up to 35cm, and they have all kinds of shoes. I shop at the Shinjuku branch. The top floor has business and walking shoes and the bottom floor covers skateboard and sport shoes. Large selection of international brand name shoes.
Kutsuno Hikari only has a selection of men’s shoes, for you large footed women you will need to look elsewhere. I have heard of another shop called ‘Ten’ and after a little bit of surfing came up with this.
TEN (Shinjuku)
7-8-13 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku Tokyo 160-0023
Tel: 3369-7511
http://www.shoes-ten.com/
Good luck.
I wanted to write a short bit about Yahoo auctions for any of you English people living in Japan that might have thought about using the service but weren’t too sure how to go about it. I (Luckily) had my girlfriend check through most of the steps I took when setting up an account, bidding and paying for purchased items, but I could have (probably) done it by myself.
Why? You may be wondering why I have bothered to write about Yahoo auctions. There are a few reasons, but the main reason would be that many Japanese people use the service, and you can get really good deals. I managed to get a couple dell servers for about 15000 yen each. The entire process was fairly simple and payment was a cinch.
When setting up an account you will need to know all your personal details, address etc in Japanese. Most of the application form is self explanatory. Unless you pay a monthly fee (200 yen I think) you will not be able to make bids over 5000 yen. After setting up the account you will be able to bid on items but not sell.
For those of you looking to sell on Yahoo Auctions, you will need to have your address confirmed. This can be found on one of the pages in your account settings, and Yahoo will send you a letter with a confirmation code to confirm you address and allow you to sell items.
Of course you will most likely need a Japanese credit card to make this a simple process but there were options to use Japanese banks, so if you don’t have a credit card there may still be options for you. Payment options are varied but most sellers allow payment by credit card, payment on delivery or Yahoo raku pay (Yahoo payment via your credit card or specified bank)
If you are unable to read any Japanese, I wouldn’t recommend using Yahoo Auctions unless you have someone who can help you out. Personally, I needed help with the initial setup, but finding items and purchasing is easy, so intermediate level Japanese will be sufficient to use the service.
One final thing. For those of you looking to buy something new i.e a camera, computer, television check out http://www.kakaku.com It tracks online shops for the lowest prices and will give you an idea of how much you should be paying. Expect around 5 to 10 percent more at retail stores.
No excuses for not keeping this blog up to date. I am planning on adding some info from over the last month, but still haven’t gotten around to organizing all my ideas. I’m just going to leave a few topics here so I can write about them later on.
The new school (Toke Minami).
Good places for big people to get shoes.
Yahoo Auctions (Japan)
Studying Japanese.
