Writing the first post of a blog is like writing a personal ad.
Gotta know what to write to bring people in; tell them what it's all going to be about to keep them coming back.
But it can't be overly personal, and it can't be overly sterile and cold.
It just has to, well, be.

So here's my attempt.



Hi. I'm Chino. Chinotenshi. Chinomama. Pick one. I live and work in central Japan as a jungle gym teacher at kindergartens, community centers, and sport gyms throughout Gifu City. I teach English to kids as young as infants to adults in their 80s. I spend most of my time at kindergartens with little monkeys brats kids hanging off of my legs while I try to make English fun to learn. It's a fun job but man do I need to get in shape if I want to keep up.

This blog is not completely personal. The company that farms me out to teach English has realized that there is a huge market back in the US of otaku anime nerds fans who want to learn Japanese but don't have classes available at their middle school/high school/college/etc. Originally we were going to add yet another website to the insane amount of "Learn It Yourself!" self-study Japanese pages, but realized we were way too far in over our heads. We'd be lost in a sea of websites that range from absolutely wonderful resources to the dreck of the bottom of the barrel. Yeah. Not happening.

So instead, I get told to make a blog.
And here you have it.

This blog is going to cover everything from my personal experiences teaching/living/traveling in Japan, to interesting cultural events/places, to reviews of that very sea of self-study Japanese websites we so very wanted to be a part of. Mainly, it will be reviews of those websites.
But I guarantee a lot of goofing off on my part.
I mean, I'm getting paid to write a blog instead of being overloaded with classes of little monsters wanting to stick their fingers up my butt.
Best. Job. Ever.


So sit back, add this blog to your bookmarks/StumbleUpon/Digg/del.icio.us/whatever, and enjoy reading about life and culture in Japan, as well as which Japanese sites are the best, which should be avoided, and those no one quite understands.
Also prepare yourself for a bunch of pictures.
I'm known to take 500 photos over a course of two days while traveling.

Be warned, I'm still tweaking with the layout of this a bit, so don't be surprised if over the course of the next few weeks the appearance changes drastically.
Also, at least until the holidays are over, I'm going to try for at least one update a week.