Some images in this post were taken last week during an 1-nensei and 2-nensei class. I asked Matsuo and Tsujii sensei if it would be alright to snap some pictures of the classes in session and they gave me the green light.

Murakami-san's birthday was June 3rd, and I burned her a Third Eye Blind CD. She was overjoyed.

Last Wednesday's ALT meeting was almost like any other, save for an unsettling event in which one JTE physically elbowed and kicked an 1-nensei boy. It was completely uncalled for and of course was reported. Some of the others co-taught with him and it was clear that he was a strange guy.

I took nenkyuu (paid leave) on Friday to show Sissie around, who arrived Wednesday night and had taken the week off to relax and travel from her prefecture all the way down here to Kyushu. We visited some local spots in addition to Mojiko and Hakata (Fukuoka).

Starbucks here has a Matcha (Green Tea) Mocha Frappucino, which tasted to me like a Matcha Shake instead. Being the green tea ice cream fan that I am, the frap was nice as we caught up over the past year.

We got excited over a phone that has been pushed on TV and at local J-Phone stores: the J-SH53. What makes it so special?

The SH53 is a keitai (cel phone) with a megapixel camera, able to take pictures that early generation digital cameras would take. It has a "QVGA" display - its ultra sharp and amazing on the eyes.

In addition to the camera and display, the phone also holds the images and data via an SD memory card, which means that its owner could pop the memory card out and load the data into his/her computer if they had a SD card reader.

The keitai also plays MP3s.

Here are two resized images taken from a test drive of the SH53 over at k.vitalbit.com (click on them for the original phonecam shots):

How long will something like this take to come to America? It's just amazing. I was just about ready to get it despite the fact that I am leaving Japan soon. Still, the price tag was too high - even with my current discounts I have as a J-Phone member, it costs somewhere along the lines of $350.

My current camera phone cost me $35 when I signed up with J-Phone last year (it's a camera phone with a .3 megapixel imager). For a society that is truly connected, I think even the most expensive phone is worth it for its abundance of features.