Jules is the most Japanese white guy I know. Not your predictable J-pop loving, Anime-watching, AV Idol-obsessed Japanophile. No, Jules is the exception to the rule. After four years of living in the Kanto region, he speaks near-perfect Japanese, and uses a dialect unique to Osaka – one used by many Japanese comedians. He works at a host club, an industry found only in Japan, where wealthy, lonely women pay exorbitant sums of money to sit and drink with charismatic, fashionable and conversationally skilled young Japanese men…  And one white guy named Jules. All of his co-workers and customers are Japanese and none of them speak any English. He is the antithesis of an ESL teacher in Japan.

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Remember what it was like to be a kid? Sitting in class, having fantastic adventures in your imagination far away, while your teachers were trying to teach you how to add fractions?

My friend recently shared a story that her 4-year old neice, Ariana, wrote (okay — so she dictated the story and her mom typed it up) and I felt I needed to pass it on. When I read it, I could really picture the kid sitting there, telling the story, and almost see the little creative steps and jumps in her mind — because unlike stories written by adults, there’s no forethought. Just stream-of-consciousness imagination.  I love it.

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(above photo from our motorbike trip in Newfoundland by Josh)

I’ve recently started a new job and have a new home for the next ten months. Seems to me a good time to reevaluate what’s important to me, set priorities and really focus on the next big goal: buying my freedom.

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