On to more lighter things. I’ve been taking lots of pics since being here, and after a lot of random snapping on trains I’ve decided to start two series. One about people on trains and the other about places I see from train windows. The galleries are growing every few week as I add new pics and try to take pics everytime I go on a new line or new place in and around Tokyo.

I find people on trains in this country to be strangely fascinating - maybe it’s the wow factor still having it’s effect, and it definitely was at first, but also there is something about trains and people in this country that interests me. People are so different on the trains than they are in most other public places in Tokyo and the views you get from some of the lines are pretty amazing. From the concrete Blade Runner like jungles of central Tokyo to the more rural greater Tokyo areas.

You can see the sets over on Flickr - so click the links below:

Train People Flickr set

View From a Train Flickr set

Keep checking back for updates, and also you can view the sets in the newly minted Flipside gallery (link in the menu above) though I seem to be having issues with it at the moment (funny that) and so I’m not sure if it works on anything other than Firefox on PC (though apparently even that might not be working according to my mate). I’ll post up once it’s fixed, as it’s got a nifty little plug in to view the pics in a flash stream on the page without going to Flickr (which is quite slow at times).

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written by Laurent

Disclaimer: These posts are not meant to be about all teachers and forms of teaching English in Japan. The stories and events reported in there are specific to my experience and the company I work for. They should not be interpreted as being relevant to all forms of teaching in Japan. This is what has happened to me and while I don’t think that it’s the same for everyone, some research and talking with other people has shown that there are good and bad things in all companies and all situations. They’re just my story.

Rouding off on the trials and tribulations of quitting my 9 to 5 to move to Japan and become an English teacher, is the more ugly side of things. As I’ve said before there’s good and bad things, and that’s fine I can take it - it’s life after all. You should always try and take everything that comes to you with a little ‘recul’ (as they say in French) and realise that what goes around comes around.

However there are definitely some ugly things when it comes to English conversation schools in Tokyo. Obviously not anything that is forcing me to leave right now (though even that might not be so easy to do when you’ve packed it all up and are dependent on your job for your housing) but things that definitely make you stop and go ‘wtf!?’

Following from what I mentioned before about school managers, especially franchise owners who aren’t employed by the same company as you, one thing you realise soon enough after teaching for a few months is that no matter what advice you give when it comes to putting students at the right levels for their learning, school managers are likely to ignore you and do what makes the most money. Which means you end up with students who are either on totally the wrong level from the go, or with students who have been studying for so long but haven’t got any better and have done all the books they can do so they are moved to higher levels even though they’re unable to do what the books, or level, requires.

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written by Laurent