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A way to teach ESL in Japan is on the JET Program. It is such a great way to see Japan and do something cool after getting your B.A. If you want to join the JET Program the summer after you graduate, start looking for application forms in your University's Student Employment Center in September or October. Interviews are around January, and then you take off to Japan with a free plane ticket the following July. Working in the public school system definitely has it perks compared to all the private ESL academies out there. Some people don't recommend JET because they might send you to inaka (the countryside). I was transferred to Abashiri, Hokkaido, a town of 30,000 people, and had the time of my life.

Here is a guy that is a "Youtei Tskuranai Hito"(Someone who does not make a plan). He also recommends the band, Alfie.

This is a shark outside Abashiri's Super Sanwa grocery store.

Some sushi

A chained up fox in Hokkaido, Japan

A lake near Daisetzusan

Two of my private students

Here is Toudaiji in Nara.

Here I am with Dave, a Texan who worked as a Welder in Okayama, and the bar owner

This is a famous billboard in Shinsaibashi in Osaka.

Here is a great and cheap place to live in Tokyo - The Teacher's Lodge. Half the people living here are foreigners, half are Japanese.

Here is a student I had when I worked at Gaba in Tokyo.

Here is Home's Stadium Kobe, formerly Kobe Wing Stadium.

Here I am with Christine at Narita Airport.

Here are some streets in Ueno, Tokyo.

Here I am at a park near the Tokyo Imperial Palace.

Here is my brother, Stephen Penner, working hard in his Tokyo Office.

This sign in a Tokyo subway says don't sleep or sit down here.

Here is Christine enjoying Starbucks in Japan. Little did she know that she would become an Assistant Manager of a Starbucks in Vancouver, Canada.

Here is Christine Penner and Chiyo Itoh at a tasty restaurant in Tokyo. I forget the name of it though.

Here we are eating sushi at Tsukiji. I think Steve and Chiyo kind of felt it was a little unnecesary for us to treat them.

Here is Steve showing his adoration of Japan.

Here is Christine at Lawson Convenience Store in Tokyo. Lawson has pretty good bentos, so I like it better than 7-11.

Here we are at Sensouji in Asakusa, a ward of Tokyo.This is Kaminarimon Gate.

Here is a street near Sensouji.

Shibuya

Shibuya girls - kogyaru

A Tokyo train station

Here is Christine at the entrance to Rikugien.