I got name dropped
...in Jared English's weblog. Check out my link to his web page, and then look under the entry named "TV Show!!"

Update: Jared has since taken down his website, but, preserved for posterity, here's the excerpt in question.
"When they introduced me, I didnt merely wave at the camera, but did an English salute! That's right. I learned that one from Good Ol' Joel Swagman."

Okay, as many of you already noticed, the previous post is a story I stole from Jared English's weblog, and just inserted my own name into it. Cheers to everyone who caught on and e-mailed me. It's Jared's story, it didn't really happen to me.
But I do have a couple stories of my own:
This week the Junior high school students are doing a work experience program, where they spend two days working at some sort of job in order to learn about the real world or something like that. Anyway, nobody told me about it, and I was at the Elementary school early in the week, so I didn't realize the Junior High School students had infiltrated all the gas stations and convenience stores in Ajimu.
So you can imagine my embarrassment when I went to the check out counter at the convenience store with my arms full of pornography and condoms......
I'm kidding of course. Just thought I'd throw that in there to help keep things in perspective in case anyone is too appalled at what comes next.

I went to the cash register to pay for my food, and to my surprise my students came out to work the register. And it was very obvious that my dinner that night was going to consist mostly of candy bars and chips, with a salad and a hamburger (I got the salad to try and balance things out).
In the Junior high school there is a big campaign to try and get the kids to eat healthier. Posters are everywhere, health classes take up school time, etc. So I felt a little silly about my purchase. I said something about how I usually only buy healthy things from this store, and then quickly left.

Have you ever seen someone else's small child in a restaurant and started making faces at it to make it smile? Well, I, Joel Swagman, always try doing this. The other night I, Joel Swagman, living in Japan, made a child cry. Ooops! The family didn't know who was sitting in the adjacent booth making faces, so they got up and looked at me. I acted like I had no clue what was going on (sort of reminds me of Ralphie in "A Christmas Story" when the teacher is looking for culprits to blame for Flick's tongue being stuck to the pole). This one guy stood up and sat down at least 3 times to get a good look at me. I imagine his thought process was:

"Who's making my baby cry?" Stand up. "Hey it's a foreigner". Sit down. "Well he cant make my baby cry. Who does he think he is?" Stand up. Scowl. Sit down. "I wonder how big his nose is." Stand up. "No wonder the baby cried". Sit down.

Ok, maybe not. But I imagine it couldn't have been much different. :-)