Aaron Ackerson's Blog

One of my favorite websites, last.fm has added a new feature where users can embed radio stations on websites of music they've listened to, so I decided to put mine on my blog. You should see it near the top of this page. Now, if you want to, you can listen music that I've listened to while you read my blog. If you want to hear a different song, just click the skip button to the right of the play/stop button. If you want the player to pop up as a separate window so you can keep listening after you've closed the browser window or while you look at other pages, just click the "Pop Up" button on the lower part of the player. If you have any technical problems with the player, please let me know.

Posted by Aaron Ackerson at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Hi. it's been a while. The number of years one can do JET for has increased from 3 to 5, but even so I decided to take a pass on renewing, and I'm not looking for any other work in Japan. I'll probably be moving back to the U.S. in July or August of this year. I'm tired of my job and certain aspects of life in Japan, but the main reason I'm going back is music. I pretty much made up my mind when I was back in Chicago this summer vacation. After a long period of trying and eventually giving up on keeping a serious band going here, my friends in Chicago were eager to play music with me. I had two shows, one with my own band and one with the Scotland Yard Gospel Choir. I still think living abroad is one of best things I've decided to do, but I really feel like it's about time that I moved on and put all my energy into following my number one passion, music, and I think the U.S. is the best place for me to do that. Tomo hasn't decided whether or not she'll be going with me, but she says she'll decide for sure by April 1.

Hugh, one of the two JETs who filled Hunter's position after he didn't recontract has quit his job early for health reasons, and Hiten's and my work load has increased a little, with each one of us getting an extra school. I'm not exactly thrilled about it, but it's less extra work than I was given last year when Hunter told the Board of Education he couldn't do all of the elementary schools himself. I think I can handle it.

Anyway, the main reason I decided to post here today is because my friend Locke and his friend Dan are in Japan, and we showed them around the area this weekend. On the first night they were here in Kansai, we took them to two Izakayas in town. On Saturday, we walked around Tondabayashi and went to see our friend Aodun's Mongolian dance performance. Yesterday, we went to Mt. Koya, and this time I remembered to bring my camera. Maybe I'll post the pictures on here some time.

Dan took some pictures and videos and put them on his myspace.

update: Dan wrote a a blog entry about their time here

Posted by Aaron Ackerson at 02:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)