Asahikawa American English Conversation School
for April 2009
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
2009 April 27 Monday thru April 30 Thursday.
The
end of April and the beginning of Golden Week here in Japan. Although
Wednesday April 29 was a National Holiday, now called ShoWa Day, it was right in
the middle of a work week and didn't really give me enough time to drive
anywhere far away from Asahikawa.
Starting on Saturday May 2, at about 12:30, I will have 5 consecutive days off, with no classes to teach until Thursday May 7. Usually when I have these many days off in a row, I will go for a long drive, somewhere around Hokkaido.
Because it is only May, I usually head south towards Otaru and Hakodate. It will be warmer down there and the cherry blossoms might even be in bloom at that time.
However, this year, the PALOSIKS are not playing their music live on stage at the Otaru Beer Warehouse Number 1, as they usually do, so there is no real incentive for me to make the long drive down to there.
Maybe a few day trips to places like Biei and Furano would be a better idea this year.
Also, I want to spend as much time as possible practicing for my upcoming Acoustic Guitar Live performance on May 29. I won't be the only musician appearing on stage that night, but when I do step up onto the stand with my axe in my hand, it will be only me with a guitar and my voice, to make the music that everyone will be listening to. Any mistakes that I make will be very obvious because there will be no other musical instruments playing along with me, to cover up any screw-ups.
Click here for more information on this and other musical events in the city of Asahikawa for the month of May.
I hope to see all of you there for an evening of Real People playing Honest Music, brought to you in real time at a very reasonable price.
2009 April 20 Monday thru April 26 Sunday.
Another
busy week of teaching classes from 09:00 until 21:00 hours, almost every day.
And, again this week, more new students joined my classroom, including a family of 4 who drive all the way from HigashiKawa Town, for a private lesson on Saturdays. They all sit at the same lesson table during the 50 minute lesson so I divide the lesson into 25 minutes for the childrens' level and 25 minutes for the adults' level. It works very well for the family members, and everybody has a wonderful time.
Finally, on Saturday at 12:30 with all of my lessons finished, I had some free time to get back into practicing the acoustic guitar and singing along with the songs I am playing.
On Saturday evening at about 18:00 I drove over to a very small Pub Restaurant in Kagura Oka called いちりん庵 IchiRinAn for the very first time, to eat some really good food and listen to some really good live music.
I was invited to go there by one of my private lesson students who is also a guitar fanatic. I think he owns about 20 or 30 different guitars, all of them high quality musical instruments. Today he was playing one of his acoustic guitars along with another man who was playing the ShakuHachi 尺八. You you can see them in the photo above/left.
They only played one old traditional Japanese song, and the rest of the songs they played were more modern ones from the 1970s including one of my favorite songs by 井上陽水 Inoue Yosui called 少年時代 ShoNen JiDai.
The man on the ShakuHachi has been playing it for about 20 years and is considered to be a Master of the ShakuHachi. I learned a lot by watching him play his real bamboo flute that night.
I also took along my video camera and filmed the entire performance along with most of the performances of the two other artists who were on stage that night.
The other performers that night were KAZZ (click here to visit his website) and YAMA Chan whom I wrote about in my BLOG of 2009 February 21.
All in all, it was a wonderful evening with delicious homemade food.
If you have never been to いちりん庵 be sure to give it a try. They are located at 旭川市神楽岡14条４丁目 and their telephone number is 66-1780. I don't know the complete information about hours of operation, and they don't seem to have a website, but THE FOOD IS HOMEMADE AND EXCELLENT. So, do yourself a favor and give them a call and visit this Pub Restaurant some day soon. I know for sure that I will be going back there again, in the very near future.
2009 April 18 Saturday and 19 Sunday.
Whew!
What a week that was. All of my morning classes at the University
and the two Nursing Schools started again this week. No more staying
up late at night and sleeping in on the weekday mornings anymore. I
gotta get up early and hit the road every week day.
As I have mentioned before, since the start of this new year of 2009, I have been getting a lot of new students, about two every week. This past week set a new record at 6 new students in just one week! Welcome one and all! I am very happy to meet you and we will have a wonderful time together, learning how to communicate with the world, in perfect spoken English. I'm lovin' it!
Finally on Saturday afternoon after all lessons for the week were finished, I had time to get back to practicing for my upcoming Acoustic Guitar Live debut, sometime in May.
In the photo above/left, you can see my practice studio. It looks a lot like my classroom, because that's exactly were it is at.
On the right side of the photo, you can see an accordion curtain which is in the open position. When I have my guitar plugged into the amplifier and I am singing along with the songs, I have this accordion curtain completely closed so that very little sound leaks out into the hallway.
Also, there is no room above this section of my classroom and no rooms on the other side of the walls. I consider myself very lucky to have this apartment room and be able to practice my songs at just about any time of the day or night.
Also on the left side of the photo, you can see my SONY Video Movie Camera on a tripod. I film myself during my practice sessions so that I can get an objective view of how I really look and sound, to other people. When I make a good recording, I will post it to my YOU TUBE channel, which is located here.
After about 5 hours of guitar and singing practice on Saturday afternoon and evening, I took a break to eat dinner, and then went downtown to the Piano in Pub, to listen to some live music and participate on electric bass and vocals. It was just my luck that in addition to the other customers, there were 4 guys who are in an EAGLES copy band, and while they played the guitars, bass and drums, they let me be the vocalist! I can sing just about every EAGLES song that there is, and I had a wonderful time singing along to the live music which was played very well by these guys. Thanx guys! Your musicianship is top notch! I hope to sing along with you all again sometime.
2009 April 13 Monday thru April 17 Friday.
Well,
well, well. He's done it again. ICHIRO has set another new record in
the world of professional baseball.
He beat Isao Harimoto's record for most career hits, in a game against the Los Angeles Angles on Thursday in Seattle Washington at Safeco Field.
Harimoto Isao who played 23 seasons in Japan was in attendance at the game when ICHIRO broke his career record. Harimoto gave ICHIRO a big thumbs up from the box seat he as sitting in.
Because ICHIRO will most likely be playing many more seasons of baseball, the number of career hits he will pile up by the time he retires will most likely be an unbeatable number, and his new record will never be broken.
ICHIRO gets so many hits, because he swings at pitches that most batters will never swing at. A pitch doesn't have to be in the strike zone for ICHIRO to take a swing at it, and often times gets a hit out of a bad pitch.
He puts in the extra effort that most other baseball players don't.
He arrives at the baseball stadium 3 hours early before the start of every game, and spends that time stretching out, warming up and practicing the BASICS. That is why he is the BEST OVERALL baseball player who has ever played the game.
A lot of other players have hit more home runs than ICHIRO, but it's those base hits in the times of a pinch, that drive in the most important runs.
ROCK ON ICHIRO!!!
2009 April 7 Tuesday thru April 12 Sunday.
Another
week of beautiful sunny weather with much warmer temperatures and a beautiful
full moon in the clear night sky.
A lot of new students came to take a look at my classroom again this week, and I really enjoyed meeting them and giving them a free trial lesson. One family of 4, even came all the way from HigashiKawa Town 東川町, which is about a 40 minute drive one way. They expressed interest in taking private lessons together as a family of four. That sounds like a great idea because this school was set up, from the very beginning to be exactly that, a FAMILY CLASSROOM 家庭教室. It says so right there in the Town Pages and on all of the other advertisements that I have made over the years.
On Friday morning, I drove downtown to the Yamaha Musical Instruments store, to pick up my new Yamaha CPX900 Acoustic/Electric Guitar. You can see it in the photo above/left.
Sitting on the table to the left of the guitar is my electric bass guitar amplifier, and sitting to the right of the guitar is a laminated stack of 106 Gordon Lightfoot songs with lyrics and chords.
After all of my classes were finished at 20:00, I wasted no time in trying out my new guitar. In word, it sounds EXCELLENT! It has 5 different sound pickups, three placed directly under the bridge, one placed up towards the low note strings and one place down by the high note strings. It has 3 volume control knobs that directly control these 3 groups of sound pick ups. It has a 3 band equalizer to control the tones of these pick up groups, and it also has a digital string tuner built right into it.
Not only can I be assured that my guitar is in perfect tune at all times, but it sounds just like an acoustic guitar should sound, only louder. That means that I can sing into a microphone and still hear the guitar, even if I am finger picking it.
After practicing for several hours each day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I realized again just how much practice it requires, to get up on stage alone with just a six string guitar, and make it sound good.
I am planning to make my new debut in May, possibly during Golden Week, at a time and location to be announced.
I have made a special web page on this website to announce my upcoming acoustic live gigs. Click here to see that page.
It's time to get back to, picking and grinning.
2009 April 4 Saturday thru April 6 Monday.
Another
beautiful weekend with sunny days.
Since about 3 or 4 months ago, some of my students and other friends have been urging me to get back up on stage with my acoustic guitar, and sing some songs in English. I told them that I didn't really have time for that right now, but I used to sing and play the six string guitar almost every day, until I discovered the electric bass guitar about 5 years ago.
However, now that spring is in the air, and another new academic year is about to get underway, I made a firm commitment to myself, to get back to singing and playing the acoustic six string guitar, on stage in front of a live audience.
The only acoustic guitar that I have now is rather old and beaten up, and it cannot be plugged into an amplifier. Therefore, I started looking around on the internet to see what the newest technology in acoustic/electric guitars might have to offer.
My search stopped, when I found the Yamaha Compass Series, model CPX900.
After reading the specifics of the guitar on the Yamaha website, and reading some reviews written about in on other websites, and seeing a demonstration of it being played on a You Tube Channel, I made up my mind to buy one for myself.
So, early Saturday afternoon, right after my private lesson was finished, I jumped into my van and drove downtown to the Yamaha Music Store located on 4 Jodori close to the Kaimono Koen.
When I got to the store, I was disappointed to find out that they didn't have any in stock, so I asked them to order one for me from their warehouse which is probably somewhere on the Island of Honshu. They said it would take about one week for it to arrive in Asahikawa. OK, I can wait one more week. So, what can I do in the meantime to get ready for my acoustic solo debut in Asahikawa,,,,,,,
I know! Prepare song sheets with the lyrics and chords for all of my favorite songs. What are my favorite songs? That's easy. Anything by Gordon Lightfoot. I have almost all of his CDs and can already play most of his songs since I was in high school, so now I just need to find the lyrics somewhere on the internet.
It didn't take long to find them. Click here to visit a website that has all of the songs he has ever written or performed, listed in alphabetical order. A dream come true for me.
I spent the rest of the weekend and most of Monday night, to copy and past the lyrics into WORD documents, print them out, and of course laminate them two songs a piece into plastic A4 sized cards, for longevity. All in all, I have about 100 Gordon Lightfoot songs that I can sing and play again, after some practice.
My new guitar should arrive in Asahikawa by Friday or Saturday of this week. I can't wait to get started, again.
2009 April 2 Thursday and April 3 Friday.
Two
more beautiful spring-like days. There is something in the air.
It feels like the beginning of another new life, for me and a lot of other folks
as well.
On Thursday, I closed my classroom early at 17:00, so that I could get ready to attend the annual teachers meeting of the Kosei Nursing School.
As usual, the meeting was held at the Grand Hotel starting at 18:00, followed by a dinner party in a room next door from 19:00 until 20:30.
During the business meeting many things were discussed, but the theme that seems to repeat itself every year, is that the various abilities and attitudes of the new students, are slowly but steadily declining, as compared to previous years.
It is not just their test scores, but also their social manners such as being late for class, or using non-polite language when addressing teachers, or not understanding basic protocol when working within a group situation.
My opinion is that younger people are over immersed in digital communications, and have trouble forming human relationships on a face to face basis. Humans are not robots, and robots are not human. Many young people, and older people too, spend an extraordinary amount of time pushing buttons on a mobile phone, or a personal computer. Is this virtual reality, more real, than virtually anything else? What nonsense!!!
Another important thing that I learned during the business meeting, while looking over the class schedules for all three class years of students, is that the Korean Language elective class for the second year students, will be held every Wednesday starting at 10:30. This is very good news for me, because my English class for the first year students is every Wednesday from 8:50 until 10:20. In other words, the Korean Language class starts right after my English class is finished. I couldn't believe my luck!!!
As you may know, if you are a regular reader of this blog, I took the Korean Language class as an auditor at this school in 2005. I wanted to take it again the next year, but I couldn't because it was held at a time, when I have lessons at my own classroom. This situation continued in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Every year I was hopeful that I could take this Korean Language class again, but schedule conflicts prevented me from doing so.
Finally, again this year, can you imagine my delight, when I saw the class schedules for 2009!?! Since 2005, I have continued to study the Korean Language on my own and have made much progress. The teacher of this class at the Kosei Nursing School, is a full time professor at the Hokkaido University of Education, and is conversant in many languages. In fact, his major focus of teaching and research, is LANGUAGES. Many languages.
Just
like him, I am totally immersed in the teaching and learning of human languages.
That is what I like to do the most in life. My second most favorite study
is MUSIC. Not just listening to music, by creating and performing
music.
You see, I consider music to be the language of the universe.
Everything in the cosmos can feel and respond to vibrations 波動.
Words have meanings.
Words are sounds.
Sounds make music.
Talk like singing.
Sing like talking.
Les Paul, the famous guitarist and guitar designer, is still alive and well, AND playing the guitar, LIVE on stage, at the age of 93!!!!
If you don't believe me, click on the Les Paul link above, or on the left, and read more about him, for yourself.
The Rolling Stones, all of them in their 60s, are still performing live on stage, and making world tours!!!
What does that tell you about the power of music?
And languages.
Rock on!!!
2009 April 1 Wednesday.
Today
is the start of the 2009 Fiscal Year 年度 here in Japan. So, how is the
economic situation in this country? It depends on what type of
business you are in. If you are in the export business, things don't
look so good, because overall exports are down by a whopping 50% as compared to
this same time, last year.
That is according to the the most recent TanKan 短観 report, which is released by the Bank of Japan on a quarterly basis.
The Japanese economy is heavily dependent upon its ability to sell its many excellent products in foreign countries, so if people are not buying Japanese products as much as they used to, the whole economy of Japan, feels the pinch.
For businesses operating inside Japan and selling products or services exclusively to Japanese customers, the pinch is not so bad.
However, part time workers in Japan who work at companies that do a lot of exporting, have come upon very hard times recently.
Many of these part time workers, live in company owned apartments, and when they lost their jobs, they also lost their apartments, at the same time.
A double punch, if ever there was one.
No income, and no place to live, either. Nothing sucks worse than that. NOTHING
I
know all about this from personal experience, because I went through the exact
same hell about 17 years ago. It was by far, the worst experience of
my entire life. I know exactly how these newly homeless people feel
right now, because I have been there and done that.
The main lesson that I took away from my experience, is that, it is very unwise to trust and believe in some company or some person to take care of you for the rest of your life. Never ever put all of your eggs in one basket. Blind Faith, is a Fool's Paradise because, it can end at any moment. And suddenly.
The safest way to ensure your own financial safety, is to BELIEVE IN YOURSELF and have your own business. You, yourself know exactly what things you can do very well, and you yourself, can find an honest way, to have many different people become willing to pay you for doing what it is that you do best. No matter what the product or service is, many people all over the world either want it, or need it.
If you can't conjure up the self confidence to start your own business, then a government job might be the next best thing, if you can get one.
Either way, in this sorry state of the world economy, having any job is better than having no job at all.
Count your blessings, and don't forget the importance of always having a feeling of GRATITUDE, whatever your present situation might be.
If you are still alive, you can always make things better.
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