Asahikawa American English Conversation School
for April 2005
NOTE: The OBJECTIVE of this BLOG is to help my students with their study of English.
AND
For all of you, out there, around the world to;
SEE HOKKAIDO
2005 April 29 Friday - May 3 Thursday
On the road in southern Hokkaido. ROAD TRIP!!!
2005 April 28 Thursday
Another warm and partly cloudy day. I went to the Korean Language class at the Kosei Nursing School (JA北海道厚生連旭川厚生看護専門学校）again today. As usual it was entertaining and informative. I really enjoy this class because the teacher is very good. I had to leave class a little early so I could get back to my classroom in time for the 15:00 lesson. The young lady who comes to the 19:00 class every week didn't show up today. I was wondering if she was working overtime and didn't have time to call. Then at about 21:15, I got a call from her on my answering machine. She forgot about today's lesson until just now! Oh well, see you after golden week. Tomorrow, I start my 6 day road trip which will take me along both sides of the southern Hokkaido panhandle starting on the Pacific Ocean side and then coming back this way on the Sea of Japan side. This is a very long drive but there are many places in this area that I have never been to before so now is my big chance. Of course I will take a ton of photos and post them in the photo gallery section of this website. See ya when I get back.
2005 April 27 Wednesday
A warm and partly cloudy day. A few weeks ago, I got a postcard from my friendly Toyota dealer informing me that there was a small factory defect with part of my electrical system and that I should bring my van in for free repairs as soon as possible. So, today I drove over to Suehiro and had the repairs done. Also, they changed my tires from winter to summer tires and the wiper blades as well. Not only that, but they even washed my car! All for free! Talk about service with a smile,...... After that, It was time to come back to my classroom and get ready for classes from 15:00 until 20:00.
2005 April 26 Tuesday
Another warm and sunny day. My teaching day started at 9:00 at Asahikawa University. I met the University President today while I was talking to a staff member in the office. I have known the University president for many years and I have talked with him many times before. Always in English. After my classes were finished at 12:10, I went to the Western Supermarket in Nagayama to buy some Rye French Bread. Fortunately, they had a lot of it in stock today, so I bought 6 loaves. As I was driving back to my classroom in Kagura, I ate one loaf. Yummy. After I arrived back at my classroom, I took out the burnable garbage, then I cleaned up my classroom in preparation for my classes which run from 15:00 until 20:00. After classes were finished, I sat down to plan my road trip to Southern Hokkaido during Golden Week (GW). This year, GW starts on Friday, April 29 and lasts until Thursday, May 5. That's one full week!!! Yahoo!!! As I mentioned before, I bought a new car last October. A Toyota Noah YY. The nice thing about this van is that you can fold down the seats and lie down, spread full eagle, and sleep. Just like a real camping car. Therefore, I have decided on the ambitious plan of driving from Asahikawa to Tomakomai, and then taking the coastal road all the way down the Pacific Ocean side of the Hokkaido panhandle, to Hakodate and then over to Matsumae, and then take the Sea of Japan coastal road side of the panhandle all the way back up to Otaru, Rumoi and then back to Asahikawa. If you look at a map of Hokkaido, you can see that this is a very long way to go. But, I have the time, I have the right vehicle and I have been wanting to take this trip for many years so, starting this Friday April 29, I will be on the road again. Of course, I will write a blog every day and take a lot of photos which I will post on this website when I get back on May 5. This trip will reveal the real Unknown Hokkaido that most foreign tourists never see. I will share it with you. Please check back again.
2005 April 25 Monday
Overcast but warm today. My teaching day started at 13:30 at the 神楽公民館英会話を楽しむ会. Today, one of the ladies baked a cheese cake and brought it to class so everyone could eat some. It was really good. Thank you Mrs. S! One of the students told about a big train wreck that happened just this morning at about 9:00 in Amagasaki City in Hyogo Prefecture which is near Osaka. I didn't see the TV news this morning and the morning newspaper was already printed before the accident happened. Sure enough, it was the big headline in the evening edition of the Hokkaido Newspaper with a big photo. What a nasty train wreck! The train derailed and smashed into an apartment building. At least 37 people where killed and 230 injured. What a tragedy. You can read about the accident in English by clicking here. Other students talked about various other subjects including the anti-Japanese rallies being held in China. After that class was finished at 14:30, it was back here to my classroom for classes from 15:00 until 20:00. For the 19:00 class, a husband and wife came to take a look at my classroom. The husband just started working for a very big U.S. pharmaceutical company and needs to brush up on his English. His wife also speaks English quite well. I hope they decided to come to my classroom on a regular basis. They were a friendly and delightful couple. At about 20:30, the post office brought me a package from amazon.com. It was a set of 6 books that I had recently ordered that explain in great detail how to use the Macromedia Studio MX software suite. The suite includes, Flash, Fireworks, Freehand and Dreamweaver. Flash especially is useful for making animations and movies as well as educational presentations. I have already bought the software, so now I can start learning how to use it. Expect to see some new stuff on this website in the not too distant future. Also, I hope to be able to offer English lessons on the internet before the end of this year. Stay tuned. More about this later.
2005 April 24 Sunday
A warm and sunny day. It's about time! A perfect day for a drive so that's what we did. We left at about 14:30 heading south on highway 237 towards Biei. Along the way I stopped and took many photos of the snow covered mountains of the Taisetsu Mountain Range. When we arrived in Biei the first thing we did was have ramen at SanToKa 山頭火. I always have the miso toro niku ramen, super size me! And my wife has the shio ramen. After that delicious meal it was off towards Shirogane Hot Spring and Mt. Tokachi. The roadway from Shirogane up to the observation parking lot at the base of Mt. Tokachi was open so we drove up there and parked the van. I got out onto the still snow covered parking lot and then up onto the snow cover at the base of the mountain and took a lot of photos. You can see the photo gallery by clicking here. After that we drove back to Asahikawa and did some shopping for food. Then is was dinner time and time to put together this new photo gallery. Tomorrow should be another nice day.
2005 April 23 Saturday
Cold again today. No classes to teach so at 13:30 I went to the Fukido Bookstore Gallery to hear a two hour lecture about book publishing. It was fairly interesting and I learned some new things. I even met one of my students from the 神楽公民館英会話を楽しむ会 who was also there to listen to the lecture. After the lecture was finished, I went to the Central Public Library near Tokiwa Park. Along the way, I met the Korean teacher of Asahikawa University. After about an hour at the library, I walked over to the Taisetsu Micro Brewery and had two different types of beer and some Korean Bibinba to eat. You can visit their website by clicking here. After that, I walked over to Pub Restaurant Oofune and stayed there for about an hour. I think I caught a mild cold because I didn't feel very energetic today. I ended the day by walking home from Oofune and taking a nice long hot bath.
2005 April 22 Friday
Another cold day. At 9:00 I went to the Hokkaido Prefecture Nursing School of Asahikawa 北海道立旭川高等看護学院 to teach English to the second year students. Today we started conversation practice using page one of my original textbook American English for All Occasions. This textbook is a continuous story that starts with a first meeting and ends up going to a concert in Sapporo. I will only be able to use about 4 or 5 pages of this textbook at this school. Some of the students who come to my classroom have memorized the entire book, as a result they can speak English quite well. After the nursing school class was finished at 10:30, I came back here and got ready for my first lesson at 13:30. After that, it was straight classes from 15:00 until 20:00. Then, after having a few drinks I played the guitar for the first time in a long time. I used to play the guitar every day for about 3 or 4 hours a day. Nowadays, I don't really have time to do that, but I still do enjoy banging away at the six-string from time to time.
2005 April 21 Thursday
And the rain continues to fall. Reminds me of Seattle. Speaking of Seattle, one day I paid a visit to the Red Hook Ale micro brewery with a friend of mine. It was raining that day as it usually does. When we got to the parking lot and got out of his Chevy Blazer to go inside the building, we saw a couple, a man and a woman, standing on the grassy area around a park bench having a picnic!!! Yes, that's right. A picnic in the rain! Of course they were wearing rain gear and all of that, but how much fun is a picnic in the rain? True story. My day started at 13:00 by attending the Korean Language class at the Kosei Nursing School (JA北海道厚生連旭川厚生看護専門学校）I really like this class and the professor who teaches it is very good. The pace of this class is rather fast so I am glad I first starting learning Korean a year ago. I have learned the alphabet so I can sort of read the words and phrases that he writes on the blackboard. Most of the other students in the class appear to have just started their study of Korean this year. I know they are struggling to keep up. Fortunately, the professor also writes the words on the black board using the Roman Alphabet, but to tell you the truth, I prefer to read Korean in its original form. He explains everything in Japanese but he also speaks in Korean about 20% of the time, which I enjoy. I think he is an excellent teacher and I am not only learning Korean, but also learning how to be a better language teacher. Thank you Dr. I! After that, it was back to my classroom to teach classes from 15:00 until 20:00. Another busy but enjoyable day.
2005 April 20 Wednesday
The weather forecast was wrong. It is warm and sunny this morning turning cloudy in the afternoon. Maybe it will rain tomorrow. One of my students at the 神楽公民館英会話を楽しむ会 sent me some more beautiful photos of the cherry blossoms in Kyoto. I have added them to my previous photo gallery of Springtime In Kyoto. You can view the photos by clicking here. My classes started at 15:00 and ended at 20:00. The 15:00 class is with a boy who has just started elementary school. He has been coming to my class room since kindergarten and has learned a lot. Now that he is ready, he has started using my new original conversation textbook for elementary school students. He memorized the first conversation today. Good job K! After my last lesson, it started raining little by little. I guess the weather forecast was right after all.
2005 April 19 Tuesday
A beautiful sunny day with a high temperature of about 12 degrees C. My day started off a 9:00 with two English classes at Asahikawa University. This year, the first year students and those that didn't pass English last year and the year before that, are using an internet based learning system. Some of the students have trouble staying awake for the entire 90 minutes. During each class, I asked the students to do an internet search and find a list of the world's largest cities. Most of them could do it. Some couldn't so I showed them how to do it. After all that was finished at 12:10, I drove back here, ate lunch and got ready for classes from 15:00 - 20:00. After that my wife and I went for a one hour walk. It was not too cold and the sky was only partly cloudy so we could see the moon as well as Jupiter, Saturn, Vega and other stars as well. After that it was time for dinner and research on the internet. Tomorrow is supposed to be a rainy day. We shall see.
2005 April 18 Monday
Still a little bit of snow falling from the sky but off and on sunny as well. My work day started at 13:30 at the 神楽公民館英会話を楽しむ会. One of the students told about a drive she and her husband had taken during the weekend. She said that she saw three different animals. One was a male deer with a big set of antlers. Not an uncommon sight in Hokkaido. Another was a fox running across a field. Again, not unusual in this area. The third animal she saw was a cat, sitting in the middle of Highway 12 with cars zooming past on both sides. Now this is a bit unusual. I have often seen cats trying to cross a busy highway, sometimes with less than desirable results. Something called road kill. But I can't remember seeing one just sitting in the middle of a road and ignoring the danger of speeding cars. I wonder what was on the mind of this cat. Maybe nothing at all. I also wonder what happened to it. One of the other students had recently gone to Nagoya and attended the World Expo 2005 in Aichi. He even brought back some pamphlets and the Almanac of the U.S. Pavilion. Thanks Mr. N! The almanac of the U.S. Pavilion is mostly a big advertisement for many American companies and some universities. No big surprise there. It even has a message from our esteemed president. The theme of the pavilion is "The Franklin Spirit" which commemorates the creative and inventive nature of Benjamin Franklin. His face appears on the US $100 bill. Another student talked about the increase in anti-Japanese protests in China in recent weeks. After that is was back to my classroom for classes from 15:00 until 20:00.
2005 April 17 Sunday
SNOW! Yes, it is white and floating down. Won't stick to the ground but a bit depressing none the less. Again I was hoping to ride my MTB but in this weather it is not enjoyable at all. Again today, writing more pages for various textbooks and surfing the web. I haven't watched TV for a while but I don't really want to either. I really should have gone cycling yesterday. I missed my chance. Guess I'll have to go and take a long walk instead. I'll need to dress up like an Arctic explorer so I don't catch a cold.
2005 April 16 Saturday
Sunny off and on but cold. Planned to go mountain biking today but I didn't get around to it. Made some new teaching materials and surfed the internet instead. Not much else to talk about.
2005 April 15 Friday
My work day started at 9:00 at the Hokkaido Prefecture Nursing Academy of Asahikawa 北海道立旭川高等看護学院。You can visit their website by clicking here. This week, I taught the second group of students in the second year class, so I used exactly the same lesson plan as last week. There was one boy in this group bringing the total to 4 boys in this second year class. This is largest number of boys in one class that I have seen. I think that it is a good thing. After this class was finished at 10:30 I went back to my classroom to eat lunch and get the place cleaned up for my next class, a private lesson, at 13:30. The two ladies who come to this lesson every week are delightful. We spend most of the class laughing. This week they told me that they had been able to get tickets the the Inoue Yosui 井上陽水 concert that will be held in Asahikawa this June. Inoue Yosui is my favorite Japanese musician by far. I was lucky enough to get tickets to his concert here in Asahikawa 2 years ago in July. It was fantastic. I have many of his CDs. I have been listening to his music for more than 35 years. I decided not to go the his concert this year because it was very expensive and also on a weekday night when I have lessons here at my classroom. I know the two ladies will enjoy his concert. After that, lessons from 15:00 until 20:00 as usual. The girl who comes to the 19:00 lesson every Friday with her mother and father has Down's Syndrome. She can speak English quite well, but she has a limited vocabulary and range of subject matter. Never the less, she enjoys her lessons very much and so do her parents. In the past, she and her parents even spent some time living in my hometown of Spokane Washington. Is that a coincidence? Anyway, this sweet young lady likes to watch Korean dramas which have become a big fad here in Japan since about 2 years ago. So, today I showed her how to write some simple words and phrases in the Korean alphabet. She was able to imitate the letters quite well and she has a wonderful time. So did I. After that is was dinner time and research on the internet. Tomorrow is supposed to be a sunny day. We shall see.
2005 April 14 Thursday
Partly cloudy and partly sunny with a high temperature of about 12 degrees C. I got up at about 5:30 am this morning and wrote 2 more pages for my new textbook for 1st year junior high school students. After that I ate some oden and then read some back issues of Nikkei Business Magazine. Starting today, I will be auditing a Korean Language class at the Kosei Nursing School (JA北海道厚生連旭川厚生看護専門学校）I first started studying Korean about one year ago at Asahikawa University as an audit student and also I listen to Korean Language CDs or MDs while I am driving or walking. So far, I have managed to learn the basic alphabet and a few phrases. I want to learn more. Much more. So starting again today, I will be taking 14 classes at the Kosei Nursing School. The teacher is a Japanese National who has a PhD from Hokkaido University in Literature. His class was very entertaining and informative. He also knows English and Chinese plus Ainu and possibly several other European languages as well. I got the impression that he has spent some time studying in the USA and his teaching style reflected that. Many Japanese professors are stiff and monotone, but this guy was animated and engaging. Most of the students, including myself were laughing at his puns and other humorous remarks. I am truly glad that I have the opportunity to take this professor's class because not only can I learn more about Korean, but I can also learn about how to be a better teacher. A truly auspicious day for me. I had to leave his class 15 minutes early so I could get back to my classroom in time for the 15:00 lesson. After that I had consecutive lessons until 21:00. A very busy but rewarding day. I think I will spend another 2 hours writing some new pages for my English conversation textbook for elementary school students.
2005 April 13 Wednesday
A bit cold and overcast today with a light rain on and off. My teaching day started at 15:00. The first lesson was with a retired high school teacher. In fact, he was an English teacher and his English is very good. He never makes mistakes! Amazing. Lately he has become interested in Korean dramas and sometimes stays up late at night to watch them. I have been studying Korean for about one year so I showed him how the Korean writing system works. He thought it was very interesting. After that lesson was finished, the next lesson was with 5 elementary school students, so I used page one of the new textbook that I am writing. The students were able to use it easily and one of them even memorized the dialogues. I guess this new textbook is a success. The next lesson was a mother and her 6 year old daughter. The mother is a professor at the university were I teach English part time and her daughter just started elementary school 4 days ago. She told me what a big change this was not only for her daughter but also for herself. I can imagine. After that, one more lesson with a nice young lady that I have know for about 8 years. She speaks English very well even though she has never lived outside of Japan. She seems to have a natural ability for language acquisition. Some people do, and some people don't.
2005 April 12 Tuesday
I recorded a high temperature of 14 degrees C today. Now this is more like spring! My first order of business was to drive out to the university were I teach English part time and get ready for two classes, the first one of which starts at 9:00 am. Starting this year, all first year students, and repeating students as well will be using an internet program to study English, at least for the 1st semester. So, today was the initial setup of the system for each student so they could each get a user name and a password. At first there was a little confusion, but after about 20 minutes, things went smoothly. Unfortunately for me, I don't have much to do while the students are using the internet based English Language instruction software. Usually, I am talking to each and every student, face-to-face and one-on-one during each and every class. But today, after everything was set up, I found myself reading the 2005 syllabus during class time! Most of the students seemed to enjoy their experience on the internet, and I think that it is a good system for language study. The only problem is that the students have no opportunity to practice speaking English. I hope to solve this problem during the second semester of this school year by implementing my usual lesson plans for conversation practice. Well anyway, after my second class of the morning was finished at 12:10, I drove back to my classroom and had classes from 15:00 until 21:00. After that, I continued to work on a new textbook for elementary school students. I have been teaching English as a foreign language for about 15 years now and the more I do it, the more ideas and much better ideas I get for making teaching materials and for teaching classes. Maybe that's why I love this work. It is true: TEACHING IS LEARNING. 教えることは学ぶことなり。 I am too tired to go for a walk again today. Maybe tomorrow. Thank you for reading my web log.
2005 April 11 Monday
Partly sunny and partly cloudy. Not too cold and not much wind. The snow cover continues to melt. My work day started at 13:30 at the 神楽公民館英会話を楽しむ会. Lots of fun and interesting conversations as usual. Then it was back to my classroom for classes from 15:00 until 20:00. The 15:00 class had two new students who just enrolled in my school. Two girls, sisters. One is almost 4 years old and the other one just turned 7 years old this March. The older sister is very bright and attentive. I know I can teach her how to speak English well if she doesn't give up on her studies. The younger sister is still very young and can't yet pay attention during the entire 50 minute lesson. But she will get better as she gets older. After my last class was finished at 20:00, I went for a 100 minute walk. This time I walked over to the Shin Kagura Bashi 新神楽橋 and walked across to Miyashita Doori 宮下通り. Then I walked down that street until I got to the pedestrian mall known as Kaimono Koen 買物公園. I walked all the way to the end of that and then over to Midori Bashi Dori 緑橋通り and walked all the way down that street until I got to 1 Jodori. After that it was over to the Chubetsu Bashi 忠別橋 and then back here to my classroom. The temperature was about 4 degrees Celsius and I started to feel a bit cold towards the end of the walk. After the walk I took a hot bath and ate dinner. I will sleep well tonight. While I am walking, I always have a portable MD player with me and listen to Korean Language or Chinese Language conversation recordings. That way, I can get the exercise I need and also learn another 2 languages. Two birds with one stone 一石二鳥. By the way, I saw an interesting news item on the internet just now. The founder and owner of Amazon . com, Jeff Bezos, just but a huge plot of land in Texas and is planning to build a space station there! I am not kidding. Read the article for yourself by clicking here. One reason this caught my eye is because on My Profile that I copy and give to new students both here at my classroom and at other places were I teach English, it says at the bottom: My Dream is to become the Head Honcho of the Hokkaido Prefecture Asahikawa City Space Development Bureau 将来の夢：北海道立旭川市宇宙開発局の局長になること. It is also written on my self-introduction page of this website. Of course this place doesn't exist now but,........ Maybe in the future??? Who knows? Anything is possible.
2005 April 10 Sunday
A cold windy and somewhat snowy day. Not a nice day to be walking around outside. I spent the entire day inside reading back issues of Nikkei Business 日経ビジネス a weekly magazine. Nikkei Business is only available by subscription and it costs about $200 per year. In my case, I'm lucky because I can get it for free. One of my students works at a sales office for Otsuka Pharmaceuticals and the office subscribes to the magazine. When everybody is finished reading the magazines, she brings them to me. Thanks N! However, the magazines that she brings to me look brand new so maybe nobody at the office is reading them. Anyway, it's a good deal for me. Nikkei Business is written entirely in Japanese and it is more difficult to read than the Hokkaido Newspaper. Some of the articles I can read, and some I don't understand at all. Fortunately, the articles of most interest to me are the ones I can read the best. Every field of study has its own special vocabulary and once you understand the lingo, you can communicate with other persons in that business. For me it's: education, marketing, innovation, advertising and personal motivation.
2005 April 9 Saturday
An overcast and windy day. In the morning, I went to the Western supermarket and bought some French rye bread along with some chicken and beef. I found a pair of size 12 (30cm) running shoes at KixZone at a very low price. When I first came to Asahikawa 15 years ago, I could not find shoes in my size. But since about 5 years ago, large size shoes are becoming more and more common. A lot of Japanese young people these days are big and tall. Some of them are taller than me. In the afternoon, I drove to Biei with my wife and ate ramen at Santoka 山頭火ラーメン。 I like the miso flavored type the best. My wife likes the shio flavored type the most. After that we drove toward Shirogane Onsen 白金温泉 and stopped at a place along the way where you can get natural spring water 湧き水 for free. I filled up 6 four-liter plastic jugs and a 20-liter plastic water container which is designed for camping use. My van felt noticeably heavier as we drove away from the spring. After we got back to Asahikawa at about 7:00 pm, we both went for a 70 minute walk along the sidewalks of Kagura and Kamui. It was rather cold, but there was no snow on the streets so it was easy to get around. After that it was time for dinner and an very much need rest.
2005 April 8 Friday
Today was the first day of classes at the Hokkaido Prefecture Nursing Academy of Asahikawa 北海道立旭川高等看護学院。You can visit their website by clicking here. You can see photos of their graduation party by clicking here. I have taught English conversation to the second year students at this school for about 12 years. The second year class has about 40 students but they are divided into 2 groups of about 20 students each. This makes it possible to have a one on one conversation practice with each and every student, each and every class time. The class is held for 90 minutes each time. This year there were 3 boys among the mostly female class members in my group. My lesson plan for the first lesson is the same every year. First I write my name on the blackboard and explain that it means North Man. "That's why I live in Hokkaido" I always say. Then I suddenly announce that we are going to have a QUIZ! As usual, everybody gasps. Then I explain that the quiz is a top 10 ranking of the largest cities in the USA and Japan. I go down the name list from top to bottom and ask which city is number 1, 2, 3, etc. Most years, the students can guess the top 3 largest cities in the USA without a hint but after that, they need many hints and a map of the USA to get the right answer. They do a little better with the top 10 largest cities in Japan. After the quiz I use the first 2 pages of one of my original textbooks called Pronunciation Clinic. The first two pages explain the vowel sounds of the English language. It also contains 3 short quizzes. Finally, I give the students a copy of My Profile and ask them to write their own My Profile on a piece of notebook paper by the end of class. After that class was finished at 10:30, I came back to my classroom and cleaned the place up in preparation for my private lesson at 13:30. After the private lesson was finished at 14:30, I had classes from 15:00 until 20:00. After that it was dinner time and then work on a new textbook for elementary school students. I finally ran out of juice at about 1:00 am. Lights out.
2005 April 7 Thursday
I stayed up until about 3:00 am this morning surfing the internet. Since I have had a broadband connection to the internet which I can use as much as I want to for a flat monthly fee, I have spent more and more time online. In fact, I very seldom watch TV anymore. I have found that the internet is like having a huge library right at your fingertips. I can do research on absolutely anything I want to learn more about. I realize that there is a lot of vulgarity and foolish garbage on the web also but if you don't like that kind of stuff, don't look at it. My classes today started at 15:00 and ended at 21:00. The lesson that started at 20:00 was a private lesson with the high school teacher that I mentioned in my blog of Saturday April 2. When he came to class today, he had a rather thick notebook binder with him. He opened it up and showed me what was inside. He had logged onto this website and downloaded all of my essays and my blogs for April and had printed them out on his PC at home! Wow! Thank you very much. This is the main reason I write this blog, essays and other stories. I want my students to use them in their study of English. All of the essays and other writings are true stories. 100% non-fiction. I am communicating real information and that is the most useful kind for language study. Speaking of essays, I haven't written a new one for quite a while. I have a lot of things to write about so I guess I'd better write another one again soon.
2005 April 6 Wednesday
When I woke up this morning, I was feeling a bit shaky. I had way too much fun last night. Now I need to recover and get back to work. I only had two classes today so it was an easy schedule. Nothing much to talk about today.
2005 April 5 Tuesday
I only had two classes from 15:00 t0 17:00 because I cancelled the rest of today's classes so that I could attend a teachers conference for the Kosei Nursing School (JA北海道厚生連旭川厚生看護専門学校）being held at the Grand Hotel. I go every year so I can hear about the progress of the school and any changes for the new school year. After the meeting, there was a dinner party in the next room. After the dinner party was over at about 8:30pm, I went to Pub Restaurant Oofune (大舟) to have some more food and drink and talk to my friends who own the place. The father-in-law of one of the owners was there and invited me to go out to 3 or 4 more places for drinks and karaoke. I said OK and off we went. During the course of the evening I drank beer, shochu, whiskey and tequila. I usually don't drink that quantity and variety, so the next morning I didn't feel so well. However, I did have a wonderful time today.
2005 April 4 Monday
A nice clear and sunny day. My first class of the day was at 13:30 at the 神楽公民館 英会話を楽しむ会 As usual, it was fun and interesting. Again this week, there were stories about cars. This time, two car accidents. Nobody was injured but two cars were damaged in separate incidents. After that class, I had classes from 15:00 to 20:00 at my classroom. After all of today's classes were finished, I went for a 70 minute walk on the snow free sidewalks of Kagura and Kamui. The night sky was crystal clear and I could see all of the stars and planets very easily. This is the longest walk that I have been on in about 5 months. In other words, since it started snowing last year. I feels real good to be able to enjoy walking excursions again.
2005 April 3 Sunday
At about 16:00 today, I decided to take a walk. I most certainly need the exercise because I am very overweight. During the winter, it is very inconvenient to get enough exercise, but during the season of no snow, it is very easy to go outside and take a 30 - 90 minute walk. Also, cycling is a fun and interesting way to burn off some fat. Starting today, I must make an effort to get out and exercise every day. If I don't lose about 20 kilos, I am headed for some health problems in the future. Anyway, today I managed to get about 30 minutes of walking exercise. Since the cycling roads by the riversides are not yet free of snow, I had to walk on the sidewalks around my neighborhood. My route took me behind the Bellco Kaikan which is a funeral home. I was surprised to see so many cars going into the parking lot. In fact, the parking lot was full! I wondered if some very important person had passed away so I walked around to the front of the building to see whose name was on the sign. I found out that there were 3 separate funerals being held at the same time! Well, that explains why there are so many cars. After that I went home and took a nice long hot bath and relaxed while surfing the internet. Back to work again tomorrow.
2005 April 2 Saturday
I had two private lessons today, one at 11:00 and another at 20:00. Yes, that's right I work on Saturdays too. The one at 11:00 was a high school girl who has been coming to my classroom for many years. Today we concentrated on English conversation. Sometimes we study for an upcoming test. The 20:00 lesson was with a high school teacher. He has two children, a boy and a girl which are fraternal twins. His children came to my classroom for about 3 years and now both of them are university students. The boy is in Tokyo and the Girl is in Kyoto. The father, being a high school teacher sometimes has a need to speak English with exchange students and/or Assistant English Teachers (AETs) at his high school. Therefore he wants to practice speaking English here at my classroom twice a week. I conducted a level test and then recommended a course of study for him. He will start his lessons next Thursday. During the time between those two private lessons, I completely remade the pamphlet for this classroom. The one we had used before was made using one of those old word processor machines. As such, it was very basic in style. This time I took advantage of the graphics software and DTP (Desk Top Publishing) software that I have to make a truly professional looking two-fold brochure with a one page insert. Of course the whole thing is written in Japanese so I had my wife check it for language usage errors. Then, I printed it out. I must say, it's lookin' good!
2005 April 1 Friday
Today all of the world leaders got together and decided to end all wars, quit using gasoline and other fossil fuels, get rid of all nuclear weapons as well as all conventional weapons, stop telling lies and wasting the tax payer's money, reduce the prices for all prescription drugs and have a universal health care system for everyone in the world. Sounds too good to be true? It is. APRIL FOOLS!
On another note, in my blog of 2005 March 29 Tuesday, I wrote that the university where I teach English part time had only gotten 24 new students this year. Today, one of the professors that teaches at that university came to her English lesson along with her 6 year old daughter as she does every week. So, I asked her about it. She said that those 24 new students were just one part of the freshman class for 2005. In total, there are 115 new students this year about 15 less than last year. That is still no very many, but is a lot better than just 24. I was glad to hear the news.
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