My English class was about to start. But the Japanese man I teach with wasn't ready. "Can you please talk to the students while I finish preparing?" He asked me.

"Sure."

I told the class we would start without Mr. Kageyama. They stood up and bowed to me. After asking them the usual questions, which they answered in unison (How's the weather? / What day is today? / What is today's date?) I told them to sit down.

"Who has an iPod, raise your hand?" I asked. Several students raised their hands.

"You sir, how many songs do you have?"

"Two hun-do-re-do." He said.

"And did you copy them from a CD? Or did download them?"

"Download-shi-ma-shi-ta."

"Where did you go to download?" This question stopped him. Several other kids joined in, but he couldn't quite give me an answer. I took a pen and asked him to write the website. The address. Finally one of the kids in class understood and said the magic words, URL.

"Yes, what's the URL?" I asked, thankful that this one translates perfectly.

But he didn't know the URL. Then how did he download songs? I thought about it for a moment, and remembered seeing a Google commercial on TV--before their recent Super Bowl ad. Why would Google have a TV spot in Japan? Because Yahoo is the main search engine here.

On the blackboard I wrote "yahoo.co.jp" and then drew a line to a search box. Then I drew another line to the word "Music." I tapped the empty search box. Kids today don't even bother memorizing the URLs of their favorite webpages, I've noticed.

He understood what I wanted to know, took the chalk and wrote this in the empty box. (I hope your PC supports Japanese)

天元
http://tengen001.web.fc2.com/ is the URL I think.

Several other students joined in and added the following.

ニコニコ動画
http://www.nicovideo.jp/

However this second example is more like a Japanese youtube. And you have to register to use it, so meh. I should caution you as my students cautioned me. The download site above is "Chinese" and "dangerous."

SpongeBob Square Pants, for whatever reason, was popular back in the US what? Like almost a decade ago. When I was in college I remember some friends watching it once for fun. Little known secret--my wife learned English by watching SpongeBob. The English is easy, the situations clear cut and the episodes short.

But did you know SpongeBob is alive and well here in Japan. For sports day, classes must make their own banners. Two of my classes chose SpongeBob as their mascot. Keep in mind these kids are 13, 14 years old. They would be High School freshmen, were they in America.

While SpongeBob may be commonplace here, I remember catching the show on TV once. Amazingly, the theme song was changed to "What Bob Who Pants?" I never saw or heard that jingle again, nor do any of my students recognize "What Bob Who Pants?" but I swear I'm not crazy and heard that on TV once.

Yeah the "Hail Hitler" salute is kinda weird on SpongeBob don't cha think?

Nothing like politics to get the conversation boiling eh? Did you know that about the same time Obama was rising to power in America, Japan had a very similarly positioned man come to power. His name is Hatoyama, and he's the current Prime Minister of Japan.

Hatoyama is significant as a politician because he represents a new party. The American equivalent would be if an independent won a Presidential election. If Ross Perot had won instead of Clinton. If Nader of a Libertarian candidate won an election. That's what Hatoyama's victory was like.

Except my wife HATES Hatoyama. Hates him like I've never seen her hate before. If I had to draw a parallel, I'd say she's the Japanese equivalent of a staunch Republican. The kind of propagandist that heralds posters of Obama with a Hitler mustache.

Here are a couple of pictures from the Japanese political website she frequents. Would you believe one of them was in English? Of course the sentiment here is that Korea is trying to take over Japan as the enemy within.

Do you know??

The 'Democratic Party of Japan' is NOT
Japanese political party
They are the political party for Koreans!

Please notice!
A lot of Fake Japanese!! Invade now

You can find a lot of fake Japanese her in Japan But almost them hidden.
'Cause, they use Japanese name and also speak Japanese language.

You also dangerous if you won't notice. Be careful!

Real Japanese loves Mr. Taro Aso.
'Cause, He is a pure Japanese.

Guess if the people are real Japanese, hate Yukio Hatoyama.

Several Times a week, the Japanese school kids have their cleaning time. No janitors in Japanese schools remember--cleaning is everybody's job.

A few kids are always assigned to clean the teacher's room. If impeccable adults were doing the job, it would take about two or three people the allotted time. Using slacking Jr. High school students, diminishing returns kicks in with about a dozen. At the end of the cleaning time, I always laugh.

The kids line up, and one boy with a card in his hand asks, "Raise your hand if you think we deserve an A for today's cleaning time." Everybody raises their hand. He writes an A on the card.

I leave you with a piece of Engrish I found at a local mall. Its not just an accent, its a way of thinking. Kipring. I mean c'mon the frigging Kipling logo is RIGHT THERE!

I was in the 7-11 the other day when something caught my eye. Not something, someone. Brittney Spears. Ah I remember back when she sang at my high school Disney World Grad Night. I totally hated her back then.

But here she is, doing the cover of some beauty magazine called Blendy. She still looks hot to me, but more in a MILF way now.

Although I've taken many pictures for the blog, and gone to many places, this might be the first purchase (aside from web hosting) I've made just for you. /feel special now

Link: http://www.sanedrachunter.com/

I fought this nice piece of Engrish on the tag from a shirt I bought in Tokio. It reminds me of my favorite DJ Duo, SanedracHunter. Hear their latest mix, and give 'em the five star vote they deserve!