Nagasaki Hotspots Map

This is a fantastic maleable Google Map created by Mr. Colin Pattison. Check out some of the great places in Nagasaki prefecture that you may not have known about and add your own! This could be an even more valuable tool if we all add together our collective knowledge of this area.

View Nagasaki Hotspots in a larger map

It’s the Little Things

Last December right before winter break, a couple of the 3rd-year girls at the junior high school I work at started writing little notes to me, which they would pass to me discretely after class and in the hallway. These notes soon evolved into short letters, and I was delighted to see the girls develop an interest in using English outside of their class assignments. It was a nice change of pace, considering I got to play the role of “big sister” and “friend” instead of my usual “teacher looking over my shoulder making me nervous as I struggle to make progress with this stupid grammar pattern” role. We exchanged letters about movies, Xmas traditions, favorite foods, plans for the holidays, etc. It was a breath of fresh air to say the least!

One day, a girl named Makoto noticed me passing a folded-up letter on brightly-colored construction paper to her classmate (I guess I’m not that good at being discreet, haha). Wide-eyed and looking a tad jealous, she demanded (Read more)

Boris, The Nihilistic Existentialist’s Metal Band

“Face melting” is kind of a strange musical descriptor right? Well, go and read some Internet reviews of Metal genre devouring trio, Boris’, albums or their live shows and you’ll become well acquainted with the term. As a ‘daifan’ of Boris’ who has had the consummate pleasure of catching them live, I can only say, “Oh yeah, totally.”

I would not say that I’m a “metal head” by any stretch, (although Master of Puppets still rules) but I can without a shred of irony or tongue-in-cheek-ness say that seeing Boris live is a damn near spiritual experience. The members of Boris don’t write songs, they compose sound. Occasionally there are song-like patterns that wander into the music but usually they more closely resemble journeys through volume, distortion, and reverberation. You don’t just hear their music you freaking feel it.

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X Japan – Because You Love It

X Japan were and are a rather interesting Japanese phenomenon. As a costumed speed metal band with a penchant for 10 minute balladry they grew to become literally the biggest rock band in the nation. To this day they maintain a somewhat mythic status here in Japan, and have achieved levels frightening devotion unprecedented in the Japanese music universe. They also pretty much single handedly made the visual-kei style of music into a legitimate format for all the other costumed speed metal freaks of the world (of which there is a rather startling amount). Also, on a more personal note, they were my first exposure to Japanese music back when I was 12 years old.

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