Foreign Frenzy.

Being a foreigner certainly has its perks, the least of which is the credit you get for being a cool, interesting person regardless of whether or not it's actually true. Lucky for me. The JET Program brought in a bunch of junior high and high school girls to greet us at Tokyo Orientation, and to practice their English. Many of them were very excited to speak English with a native speaker, and I'm guessing that this will still be a novelty to many of the kids I end up teaching.

I visited Motoyama Junior High (the school I'll be working at), and one of the girls pointed at me saying I looked like Matthew McConaughey, the unfortunate actor. I mean, we both have curly hair, but that's about as far as that goes. That should give you a sense, maybe, of just how insular Japan is still. The movie "Contact" probably ended up here in Kobe at one point and so Matthew McConaughey is one of her few points of reference for what a white male looks like. Yet part of the JET mission is to internationalize Japan, so I guess this is a step in the right direction.