End of the School Year 2010

In Japan the school year runs from April to March, and this marks the end of our first full contract at ECC, as well as our first run-in with what some of my Japanese co-workers have dubbed "goodbye season...and it aint easy. I have to say I was really sad to say goodbye to some really awesome kids. I know all good things must come to an end, and so it did. I'll miss these munchkins.

Billboards in Nagoya Station

Marlow made this really cool video of the ECC billboards and posters all around the Higashiyama platform of Nagoya station. Holy cow, my face is huge.

ECC Poster #1

Here's one of the posters that have been released for the new campaign, this is the one that is on most trains. There are four posters in the series, each with a different teacher. So far I've seen it on some JR trains, but almost all the subway trains have it. Pretty cool.

As far as Takeshi and I, we didn't shoot this photo together. Behold the miracle of Photoshop. This kind, understanding and welcoming look of mine was directed not at Mr. Kitano, but at the storage area of the studio...a red ladder to be exact.

ECC Commercial

My school has recently launched a new series of advertisements featuring various teachers from across the country and Takeshi Kitano, a famous Japanese actor and filmmaker. I, along with three co-workers were chosen from Chubu (the Nagoya area). We went to Tokyo and met up with top executives within our company had photo and commercial shoots all day. About a dozen teachers total are in posters that have been released nation-wide, and among that dozen 4 were chosen to be in the TV commercial, also to be aired nation-wide. Marlow has beat me to the punch and posted it on his blog before I did, but Rocky has kept me so busy that I haven't had as much time until now. Anyway, here you go.