Dylan Joseph Walsh/New York City, USA/Kato City/Yashiro SHS and Ono Kougyo  Why are you here? I’ve always dreamed of moving abroad and had a lifelong interest in Japanese culture, food, and language. When I heard about the JET program, it sounded perfect.  Why JET? I was looking at many options to make…
I have a confession to make. I am not even close to being able to comprehend that I have less than a month left on my JET contract and house cleaning is suffering as a result. I’m still making lists of things that I need to do, and when I have time to actually do…
Hello, hello! June and warmth are finally here to stay! My temporary staffroom overlooks a tree-lined mini-lake rather than the baseball pitch as the previous one did, and I seem to spend half my time watching the leaves flutter in the breeze. I’m British, so forgive me for the weather talk, but the end…
Message from the Editor They closed my Mister Donut! With no warning at all, the 1st of April found a sign on the door thanking everyone for 2 years of custom and saying that my coffee providing study zone was no more. I was informed of the closure by a friend who came over for dinner on the 2nd…
It’s April and that means the brief, but beautiful cherry blossom season. The sales of blue tarpaulins are set to sky rocket and public intoxication in the middle of the day will reach giddy new heights. Whether it’s your first, final or other, 花見 season in Japan, Hyogo has a positive cornucopia of great spots…
April arrives and that means the new school year; new faces appearing in the staff room, students in slightly too big uniforms highlighting their status as newbies, and a new timetable to get your head around. Slowly but surely you realize that it really is time to put away the kotatsu blanket and that you’re…
MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR At the end of February, the earthquake-proofing of the main building of my school began. For the week before the move, the staff room was littered with cardboard boxes and teachers debating just how much of the crap in their desks they needed. Everyone had to take everything out of their…
Message from the  Block 6 PA “It’s a winter wonderland,†as one of my students said on the first snow day of the year. It may be cold, but it really is beautiful outside! There are so many things we can do in the winter that we can’t do any other time of year. This…
MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR Happy New Year,　明ã‘ã¾ã—ã¦ãŠã‚ã§ã¨ã†ã”ã–ã„ã¾ã™and so on and so forth. Welcome to the first Hyogo Times of 2013. First up, I guess we all have to accept that the Mayans messed up somewhere in their calculations. Clearly there can be no other explanation for the fact that the world is still turning and…