Timothy Baril

Hyori Lee’s (Lee Hyo Ri / 이효리) 3rd album is fantastic!! It’s a great mix of R&B and pop, a little reggae, that makes you want to get up and dance. It’s fun, it’s sexy, and from the 1st to last, the tracks are all worth listening to. You’ll surely find more than a few [...]

It’s my first year on the JET Programme (Program) and I’m already finished my time at my second school. 3rd semester only runs from January to March, and within that you miss about 3 weeks between beginning and end of term. SO SHORT! And unfortunately, I’ve been quite sick for 6 weeks of the term, [...]

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | ‘Good Nazi of Nanjing’ sparks debate.
Just because the truth is hard to watch, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. It means you should pay extra close attention. The Japanese who committed such acts are now dead and gone, and only a small portion of their spirit lives on, as it does [...]

ポールダンス・アーティストバニラ（大阪）.

Pole dance lessons from one of Osaka’s top dancers. Very interesting!

There’s no play on words in the title. Japanese porn is simply awful.
Don’t get me wrong, the actresses are often very beautiful, and I’m glad it’s there, because it serves a purpose. Anything to help people get a little more sexual is great, because really, in practicality, they’re repressed here. Self repressed.
But why [...]

The Day Before
Unfortunately, during the graduation preparation period, I find myself increasingly either useless or ignored. The staff, with no lessons to discuss with me, are off doing things on their own. I find myself in an empty staff room, forgotten and alone.
It’s probably the fact that I’ve only been here for 3rd semester. [...]

Icon of Hope, Symbol of Difference
By Timothy Baril
Why are we here? Why are we JETs in Japan? You thought it was to teach English? It’s not to teach English. Well, ok, maybe a little bit. But that’s not the most important part of your job. You want to learn English? Here’s a textbook and some [...]

The sliding glass door everyone uses to get in and out of the office became extra difficult to use today. I watched from my desk as first one, then another, then many more each struggle with the door individually, but no one stops to do anything about it. Without thinking I stood up and waved [...]

A teacher came up to me today and told me he met and spoke with another JET around town the other day. His wife happens to teach at the same school this ALT works at currently, and has told the her husband many stories. I know the ALT in question. We are not friends. While [...]

A conversation with a friend, spawned by the new Wolverine: Origins movie, about the veracity of Wolverine’s origins led me to read about him online. It turns out I was surprised by just how much I have in common with the fictional comic book character.
Wolverine and I both:
- are Born Canadian
- are from small town [...]