Monday, June 25, 2012

Summer Vacation

Some of you have sent me e-mails wondering if I have abandoned this blog. The answer is 'no.' I was simply on vacation.

For those of you who have been reading for a long time, you may know that I once worked as an English teacher in Japan several years ago. Well, in the past two weeks, I finally managed to set aside time to visit again, seeing old co-workers, a few students, and friends.

Interestingly enough, I did not run into any women I dated or slept with. For the people I did run into, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they did not appear to age.

One thing that changed drastically since my last visit was the exchange rate. Back in 2005, I could get around 120 to 125 yen to the dollar. Now a dollar only gets about 78 to 79 yen. That meant that items in Japan are almost 50% more expensive than when I was there last. I guess when the U.S. Federal Reserve prints money out of thin air, these things happen.

Other than that, your western "Charisma Man" type of guys still live in Japan, picking up on girls with better success than in their home countries. Japanese girls still wear high heels and mini-skirts. Pokemon and One Piece are still big. And Obesity remains a lot lower than the typical average western country.