tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1260602726065393172011-04-22T11:41:41.951+09:00Austin Corbetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11565987635334349431noreply@blogger.comBlogger171100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126060272606539317.post-17376079495154071832008-03-13T10:20:00.002+09:002008-03-13T10:31:20.734+09:00

I've decided to move my blog, just to make it a little bit easier to edit and write new blog posts! Apologies all!You can now find me at http://tokachiterebi.wordpress.comMoving will help me get new entries up faster, so I think it is a good thing! All my previous posts are logged there, so if your coming here for the first time, you won't miss a thing. See you there!

Austin Corbetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11565987635334349431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126060272606539317.post-9047502092140158512008-02-26T13:08:00.003+09:002008-02-26T14:08:02.160+09:00

Yes, I've been away from this blog for far, far too long. Actually, the last post is dated on Boxing Day, while I was recovering from a party in Thailand. Having just come back from Hawaii, and the beach again, I felt it was time to make a return.It's not all that surprising that the blog went quiet for awhile, in fact, it's depressingly normal, as apparently 60-80% of the blogs on the internet

Austin Corbetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11565987635334349431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126060272606539317.post-19402819769461954612007-12-26T15:15:00.000+09:002007-12-26T16:02:42.810+09:00

Ahh, the power of the internet...here I am, not ten metres from the beach, and still able to post about my goings-on. The road to this small beach may be non-existent, but the internet is fast and ubiquitous. This is where I'm staying. View Larger Map It's pretty much heaven on earth, white sandy beaches, delicious restaurants of all kinds right on the beach, many people of all different ages,

Austin Corbetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11565987635334349431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126060272606539317.post-19735956320576970842007-12-18T15:53:00.000+09:002007-12-19T17:34:09.789+09:00

Wow, crap, it's been awhile since I posted! Errh, in my own defense however, I have been busy with other matters. Look, I finally finished another video! It's called Episode 3, but really, it's more of a mini-episode. Catch it here.It's footage I shot of a hike that a bunch of us did back in August. Yeah, August. My current editing speed is about a minute a month, which is beyond pitiful,

Austin Corbetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11565987635334349431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126060272606539317.post-16098161622858735922007-11-29T16:38:00.000+09:002007-11-29T17:16:31.608+09:00

This week, time has seemed...out-of-sync. That's really the best way to describe it. Perhaps a change is coming, I'm not really sure. This weekend I had Thanksgiving dinner on Friday, which was a holiday here in Japan. It's kind of a made up holiday, but nonetheless, it was nice to have it off. Saturday I focused on my squash game, playing quite hard for 4.5 hours, before going out with a

Austin Corbetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11565987635334349431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126060272606539317.post-5918554560257604032007-11-20T21:55:00.001+09:002007-11-20T22:00:03.874+09:00

So I've been kind of down the last couple days, but tonight everything is looking up. It's amazing what a good supper, (spaghetti with garlic bread and salad, all homemade) and (strangely) bad reality TV (the amazing race) will do to lift one's spirits.And someone in Shikaoi finally messaged me back. :D

Austin Corbetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11565987635334349431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126060272606539317.post-34863554719044068062007-11-19T14:58:00.000+09:002007-11-20T16:28:20.944+09:00

We'll return you to your regularly scheduled programming (or lack thereof, what with the writer's strike in Hollywood and my own video-editing negligence) in a moment, but first, a quick rundown of the last couple weeks for me here in Shikaoi.Life is dull. November has for many years now been my least favourite month, and this one, despite being located on the wind-swept plains of a frozen and

Austin Corbetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11565987635334349431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126060272606539317.post-58453099942790490792007-11-01T10:33:00.000+09:002007-11-05T15:11:24.011+09:00

Your shitting me right? I've been here a Quarter of a Year?! I realized this yesterday as I was eating the lunch made for me by my 8th Graders in Home-Ecc class, and it just blew my mind. I could swear that I've been here, perhaps a month, at most.I guess this isn't really all that different than the timewarped university period. (4 years=2 years) but the ratio seems to be skewing evermore in

Austin Corbetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11565987635334349431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126060272606539317.post-9887006299865624802007-10-22T14:34:00.000+09:002007-10-22T17:11:13.356+09:00

It's interesting how the faster the time flies, the slower my blog posts get. Either some sort of arcane inverse temporality is at play here, or maybe it's simply all to easy to let the blog slide when other things demand your attention. I could have sworn it was just a week ago that I last posted, but my calendar informs me that it was two weeks.If I was pressed to summarize those last two weeks

Austin Corbetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11565987635334349431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126060272606539317.post-67782328256542611922007-10-05T10:44:00.001+09:002007-10-05T17:33:51.126+09:00

about updating my blog. ;) What did you think I was going to reveal some ultra-juicy details? Those will have to wait for another post. Instead, I thought I would summarize the last few weeks of my life, but as an extra treat, give you a little bit of my own thoughts on Japan as I recently passed the two month mark of being here. Careful, this shit gets bloggy.So after looking at my own blog

Austin Corbetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11565987635334349431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126060272606539317.post-4207058175512323612007-09-25T15:43:00.000+09:002007-09-25T15:47:16.600+09:00

Ok, so I made a lot of excuses and half-promises about getting the next episode of Tokachi Terebi out soon, and it didn't happen. Partly, this was because I have other commitments and I was busy partying and travelling around Hokkaido, but mostly this is because I was lazy and wanted to browse the Internet aimlessly at work. In any case, here it is; Episode 2 - Bon Odori.I think it's pretty

Austin Corbetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11565987635334349431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126060272606539317.post-73488760502815389792007-09-10T15:39:00.001+09:002007-09-10T16:21:50.895+09:00

Nope I'm not dead. Yet. Really, I'm just fantastically lazy. This job is not the most straining, and it's easy to let the days slide by, one into the next without accomplishing much of anything. Nonetheless, I have been doing things...I've finally started studying Japanese regularly, I've made a ton of progress on my next video, (only a month after I filmed it at this point,) and of course,

Austin Corbetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11565987635334349431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126060272606539317.post-13682498677028081842007-08-31T14:32:00.001+09:002007-08-31T14:46:58.291+09:00

So this week was fairly routine...but it was also busy! (did you really expect any different?) Primarily, this was because the teachers and I were busy preparing for today. Government officials and English teachers from all over Hokkaido descended on Shikaoi to study our method of teaching English. So of course, the teachers were incredibly nervous, and had extremely well-prepared classes,

Austin Corbetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11565987635334349431noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126060272606539317.post-58645451368978063952007-08-27T16:30:00.000+09:002007-08-27T16:33:20.262+09:00

So with the end of the Bon Odori holiday weekend, I've become exceedingly busy. I was in Sapporo from the 18th to the 22nd, for my Hokkaido Orientation, and the day after I got back I started teaching. On top of all that, I had an office party on Friday, and JET's from all over Hokkaido in town on Saturday and Sunday. This week should be a little more routine, so hopefully I will be able to

Austin Corbetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11565987635334349431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126060272606539317.post-11055723862248856382007-08-14T13:43:00.000+09:002007-08-14T14:18:47.919+09:00

Today it is above 30 C for the third straight day, and work in the office has pretty much ground to an ice-cream induced halt. Of 12 workers in the office, 9 of them are away on vacation, including all of the management staff, so I don't think anything has been done today. Of course, this being Japan, I must still come in and dutifully sit at my desk anyways, rather than enjoying the weather

Austin Corbetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11565987635334349431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126060272606539317.post-18139840718011396102007-08-10T10:43:00.000+09:002007-08-10T17:06:31.023+09:00

Japan continues to astound and amaze! Just now, a man in uniform walked into the office, shoved a long pole with a suction mechanism and an aerosol can up to the ceiling and proceeded to clean (?) disinfect (?) reset (?) all the (what I think) are smoke alarms. Of course, this was not interesting in the slightest for the rest of the office staff, but I looked on with an almost child-like

Austin Corbetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11565987635334349431noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-126060272606539317.post-61284018197000554752007-08-07T13:53:00.000+09:002007-08-07T14:10:01.031+09:00

Well I've been here almost a week now, (today is Day 7) and so far, I'm really coming to like Shikaoi. It's alot like the small towns described in all those endless pre-departure orientations; small, quiet, and friendly. But I think what I (and probably others) forget is that it's a new experience only for you. The people in my town have seen plenty of other ALT's come and go before me, and

Austin Corbetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11565987635334349431noreply@blogger.com0