ブログ北海道　旭川市　英会話　スクール WEB LOG Snowman Japan Hokkaido Asahikawa BLOG　Life in Hokkaido Photos

www.snowmanjapan.net

February 2007

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

2007 February 28 Wednesday.

Today is the last day of February. What does that really mean? For one thing, it means that this year is NOT a leap year. That's about all. During my last class of today, which started at 19:00, I used one of my original essays as the textbook. The essay is entitled Feeding Wild Hawks. You can read it too, by clicking here. I wrote this essay on June 26, 2004. It is the true story of my encounter with an elderly man who is able to whistle up into the sky, and call wild hawks to circle above him. Then, he raises his right hand holding a piece of deep fried tofu 油揚げ and throws it out onto the ground in front of him. The circling hawks will then dive down, one by one, to pick up the pieces of deep fried tofu, and fly away to the nearby forest where they live. Only to return again and circle above the man waiting for their next turn to dive down to the ground and grab another chunk of 油揚げ. The two lovely ladies who come to this class every week, have a very high level of ability to speak, read and write English. Therefore, an essay such as we used today, turned out to be a very appropriate textbook for them. Plus, it is a true story that I wrote myself, so we were able to engage in a very interesting and lively discussion about the events of that day, way back in June of 2004. In other words, it was real information, discussed in real time. A very effective brain stimulant, for all persons involved. If you have time, please click on the link above, and read the essay for yourself. I think you will like it. It was written on a day that I will never forget, because I learned something totally new, on that day. I didn't know that humans can actually call and feed wild hawks. Since that day, I have realized that it is in fact true. What a beautiful memory.

2007 February 27 Tuesday.

Again this week as with almost every week at 15:00, it was Tuesday's with Mr. T. Again today, we talked about teaching the Japanese Language to non-native students of the language. I showed him a few of the many books that I have purchased over the years, and used on my own to learn the Japanese Language. During our conversation today, he praised me repeatedly on my diligent efforts over many hours spent learning how to speak, read and write Japanese. I was very glad to hear his polite words of commendation, but I also felt that I somehow didn't really deserve them. It is true that I have spent thousands and thousands of hours learning the Japanese language, but I did so because I enjoyed it very much. Also, I had a very specific goal in mind, to live and work in Japan some day. Mission Accomplished. He also mentioned that he has met very few other people like me, who have a well rounded knowledge of his native language. Other people have also told me this same thing in the past, so maybe I am a member of a somewhat unique club. Anyway, I do it because I like it. Always have, and always will. After our lesson was finished at about 16:00, I had my next lesson with a young boy who will become a 5th year student at Kagura Elementary School in April. He has been coming to my classroom for about one year now, and is a very fast learner. Today, I pulled out page one of my original textbook 中学校1年生で学ぶ米会話. I wrote this textbook of my own, using the standard textbook that students in Asahikawa are given by the junior high schools, as the base. This original textbook of mine has been very useful for the students who have used it. Because it follows the same sequence of the official junior high school textbook for first year students, and expands upon that basic pattern, all of my students do very well on their English tests and quizzes at school. This makes the students themselves, and their parents very happy. It makes me happy too. Anyway, when I tried using page one with this student today for the first time, he was able to memorize the 3 short dialogues within a very short time. I was impressed. I hope he will continue to come to my classroom for another 2 or 3 years at least, because I know I can teach him enough English so that it will become a very useful tool for his future life. I love my students, and they love me too. It's a win-win situation, with no losers. The way everything was INTENDED (meant) to be.

2007 February 26 Monday.

Another sunny and rather warm day, with the snow melting all around. My first gig of the day was at 13:00 with the 神楽公民館英会話を楽しむ会. Today, one of the ladies brought a bunch of folded newspaper inserts with her, and showed us all how to fold them into paper boxes. Last week she told us that this is one of her hobbies. Everyone tried to do it including me, and most of the people were successful, except for me. My attempt at paper folding had turned into a pirate's hat! When I put it on my head, I looked like Johnny Depp (not really). Another lady talked about 二宮金次郎 and how in the old days, there was a bronze statue of this man in front of every school in Japan. However, after the end of the Great Pacific War in 1945, the Japanese government began taking down all of the statues, until nowadays there are very very few of them still remaining. The OFFICIAL REASON for removing all of these statues of NINOMIYA KINJIROU was stated something as follows; The bronze statue is of a young school boy, wearing a backpack and reading a book, WHILE WALKING!!! This is a bad influence on children because they will imitate him, and get hit by cars while they are crossing the street. I nearly burst out laughing when I heard this "reason" for removing the statues. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me. After that class was finished at 14:30, I walked back to my classroom for straight classes from 15:00 until 20:00. As I have mentioned in this blog before, the nice lady who comes every week on Monday at 15:00, is writing her life story, in English. I have been proofreading it, and finding very few mistakes. Since about 2 or 3 weeks ago, our focus has shifted from writing and reading to music. Hebrew music in particular. This lady has a deep interest in, and love of, Israel and can in fact sing Hebrew songs in their original language. Two or three weeks ago, she gave me a cassette tape with some Hebrew songs on it, which I immediately dubbed onto an MD so that I could listen to it while driving, and also so that I could find any song on the MD quickly and easily by selecting a numbered track. Today, she brought two recorders (vertical flutes) with her and played some of the songs. Then I got out my folk guitar and I tried to play along with her on one of the songs. After a few minutes, I started to get it down on the guitar, but I still didn't sound very good. For one thing, I have never tried to play this song on the guitar before, even though I knew the melody from listening to the MD. Another reason is because the strings on my guitar are old and worn out. I promised her that I will change the guitar strings this weekend, and we can try again next Monday with new guitar strings and a little preparatory practice on my part. Oh! by the way, the illustration that you can see at the top/left of today's blog is one that I made myself, yesterday, with FreeHand MX using mostly the PEN TOOL. I need to get much better and faster at producing this type of original artwork, so that I can use them in my eLearning applications for children. I still have a lot of learning to do in this area. Learning by doing is my favorite method.

2007 February 25 Sunday.

A very nice and sunny day, albeit rather cold. The main streets were mostly dry as you can see from the photo above/left. I had no plans to go anywhere, so I continued to sift through my very old original teaching materials and think of new ways to make them more useful and more interesting. During that time, I had some interesting "inspirations" as to what I should do, in order to, get it even better than today. Plug yourself into THE SOURCE, and find every answer to every question, that you will ever need to ask. NOT a pipeline through a 3rd person, but a one-to-one direct link to ALL THAT IS. Anybody can learn how to do it. If you practice it often enough, it will become an automatic HABIT. When that happens, you can stop worrying and start living in the sure knowledge that your pure intentions of good, will manifest themselves in many many ways. Often, in very wonderful and totally unexpected ways. In a nutshell, FAITH, LOVE and HOPE, are the feelings that you must keep in your heart, at all times. Where, have I heard these words before? Anyway, when I got enough "bright ideas" for one session, and had written them all down, I decided to have some more fun with FreeHand MX. In the past, I have concentrated on making simple faces and simple animal shapes. Today, with plenty of time on my hands, and nothing to worry about, I decided to try my hand at making simple landscapes. Something like the picture I drew by hand, that you can see in my blog of 2007 February 18. That one, is of the view from a ship, or a beach. Another one that I made today, was an illustration that shows a barn and a green field in the foreground, with a Mt. Fuji shaped, snow capped mountain in the background, and an evening sky at twilight (just after sunset), covering them all. I will post these new illustrations in my blogs for tomorrow and the next day. Stay Tuned.

2007 February 24 Saturday.

Again this week, I had a private lesson with the young sisters who come every Saturday at 12:30. This week, only the elder sister took her lesson, the younger sister stayed at home. The lesson was cut from 80 minutes to 50 minutes as well, by agreement between me and the mother. This little girl is very bright, but she is only 6 years old and likes to play around. Without her little sister in the room, it was much easier for me to direct her attention towards my lesson plan. We actually got some real learning done today. This little girl still makes some mistakes with the basic alphabet, such as writing letters backward or upside down. Sometimes she does this on purpose, just to see my reaction. My reaction is the same every time. A big smile and a stern voice, while correcting her mistakes, in a friendly manner. Along with the basic ABCs, I am teaching her how to read and write 3 and 4 letter words using Phonics as my method. After about one hour, her father, younger sister and younger brother came to my classroom to pick her up. She said that she wanted to study longer, but her mother and I had already agreed that today's lesson would be for 50 minutes only. I was able to tell her father that his oldest daughter had been a good student today, and didn't play around very much. He was pleased to hear that. When that lesson was all finished at 13:40, I had the rest of the day off, to do as I pleased. I decided to go through all of my very old original textbooks and work sheets and see where I could rewrite and improve them. I made a big list for myself, of what needs to be done. My work is endless, but it is never boring or unpleasant. Let's see, where should I take it today,....... I know, I'll spend some more time learning how to use FreeHand MX. A few hours later, I was a clown. See the face above/left. Howdy strangers! My name is SNOWPY. SnowPy the Clown.

2007 February 23 Friday.

Another warm day and rather windy as well. It even rained a bit during the afternoon! Rain in February? Yes, it did today. Seems more like the end of March than the end of February. But then again, on 2005 May 7 Saturday, it snowed! Click on the date to see a photo from that day. Well, at least the weather here is interesting. My first gig of the day was at the Dokan Nursing School. Today was my final English exam for one half of the second year students. In years past I have always given them a written exam, that each student did by themselves at their own desk. Today was different. I had a one-on-one interview test with each and every one of the 18 students using either page 1, 2 or 3 of my original "pair work" textbook entitled Questions and Answers. We have used these pages in class during the school year, so the students should be familiar with the contents. Most of them were, but a few of the students looked like they had never seen this material before. That may be because most of them were suffering from a lack of sleep, due to the long hours of studying that they are doing now in preparation for their many other final exams. Anyway, it took the entire 90 minutes to interview each and every student and I was mostly satisfied with the results. All of them will pass my class. After that was finished at 10:30, I took a taxi back to my classroom and got ready for straight classes from 15:00 until 20:00. When all classes were finished for the day, I got out my 6 string folk guitar and played some music for about 2 hours before eating dinner and then finally going to bed at about 2:00. Another day in paradise.

2007 February 22 Thursday.

It has been getting warmer and warmer by the day this week. In fact, the wind today actually felt warm to the skin. In the Northwest USA where I used to live, we call this type of warm wind a CHINOOK WIND. This means an unseasonably warm wind during the winter, causing snow to melt in rapid fashion. I can clearly remember these Chinook winds from my early childhood living in Spokane Washington. It creates the awesome feeling that "spring is in the air", as it did so again today. The wind was blowing hard enough today to create big ripples on the water surface of the puddles that were expanding above their icy surfaces. A very very slippery surface, where the slightest misstep, can set you down upon the cold hard (and wet) ground. I haven't taken a spill yet this year, and let's hope that I never do again. It hurts a lot more, the older you get. Anyway, the warm wind today felt great, and it smelled good too. It caused me to re-visualize many similar such days, that I had lived before among the snow covered hills of the Inland Empire of the Pacific Northwest, in Washington State. In those days, I used to go running almost every day. Even during winter. In fact, one of my favorite times to go for a run was at night, during the winter when just such a warm wind was blowing. Man, what a feeling that was. Today's warm wind, took me right back in time, to those very moments. Nowadays, I can't run at all, but I can take a leisurely walk in the warm wind, being very careful not to slip and fall down, along the way. This is no joke, because during this time of year, there are a lot of people admitted to hospitals, because they have slipped and fallen down hard. Please, WATCH YOUR STEP.

2007 February 21 Wednesday.

In my blog of Monday, I explained how my van had refused to start on that morning. Today, the TOYOTA dealership drove my van back to me. Welcome Home NOAH kun. The problem with the electrical system had been a computer chip that failed. Because the van is still under warranty, it didn't cost me anything to have it repaired. Thank god this little incident didn't happen when I was out camping in the middle of nowhere, as I often do during the season of no snow. That is one reason that I am a member of the Japan Automobile Federation JAF. You never know when you might need some assistance while on the road. This is the very first time I have ever had any trouble with my car in Japan. The first car I bought here was a Toyota Corolla. It was a very reliable and easy to drive car. Even on the very coldest mornings of the year, it would start up each and every time, with no hesitation. The same for my new NOAH. Until just last Monday. That was a big surprise. Apparently the problem has been fixed now, but why did the computer chip fail in the first place? Hopefully it was just a defective part, and not related to the amount of usage or the weather conditions. No more surprises please. Cars are meant to be driven, not left sitting in a garage doing nothing.

2007 February 20 Tuesday.

As with almost every week at this time, it was Tuesday's with Mr. T. Today, Mr. T. told me about a seminar he had attended at the Citizen's Culture Hall 市民文化会館 on either Saturday or Sunday, (I can't remember which) to learn more about becoming a Volunteer Japanese Language Teacher in Asahikawa. I was very interested to hear this, because I have met several such persons during my almost 17 years of continuous residence, here in Asahikawa. In fact, I have utilized the services of one such person about 3 or 4 years ago. At that time, she had a young Australian man as her student, who was studying for the 日本語能力試験 2級. She asked me if I too would like to join her class, I said that I would, and I did so the next week. We used a standard textbook, available at any bookstore, and had a 90 minute lesson about once a week. For the most part, her lessons were useful and interesting, but since we were studying for a test, that I myself had no further interest in taking, I soon grew bored with the class and quit, after only about 3 months. I think the young Aussie guy stayed on longer, and even went on to pass the test for the level 2 examination of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. The only reason I didn't take the test myself, is that I had no further need for the "qualification" 資格 of such. If we could turn the clock back to 1980 when I was a university student at WSU, I did indeed study Japanese very very diligently, in the hopes that I could land a job with a Japanese Company in Japan. Remember, at that time it was the peak of the bubble economy in Japan, and almost any American could get a high paying job at a large Japanese company, based mostly on their Japanese Language ability, alone. Times are much different now. Not just for me, but for the world at large. Anyway, back to Mr. T. and his decision to register as a Volunteer Japanese Language Teacher with the Asahikawa International Committee. I think it is a vary good thing for Mr. T., because he can speak English very fluently. Why is this important? Because many of the students who rely on volunteer teachers to learn Japanese, are not from English speaking countries. Many of them are from China, Korea, various nations in Africa, Europe, etc. There are a wide variety of "non-native Japanese persons" who live in Hokkaido. Some of them live here short-term and some live here long-term. Either way, being able to speak, read and write Japanese, makes a big difference in your COMFORT LEVEL, of daily life. Oh, by the way, the photo above/left is of a very old textbook, that I started using in 1976. while I was living on the island of IWO JIMA 硫黄島. At that time, I was working as a radioman for the USCG. This book was given to me for free, by another Coastie, who was on the same island at that time. He was about ready to leave the island, and to be reassigned Stateside, so he didn't need this particular book anymore. When he gave it to me he said; "Here Norman. You can have this book. I can see that you are spending a lot of time learning the Japanese Language. I have tried to learn the contents of this book, but I can't. Maybe it will be more useful to you." I replied; "Thank you very much. This is exactly the kind of textbook I have been looking for. Even if it takes me 4 or 5 years, I will learn the entire book from cover to cover. Thanks again." End of story. I have never had any further contact with that person, but the gift he gave to me, set me off onto, a road of wild adventure. A road that I am still traveling upon, to this very day. And, LOVIN' IT!!! , by the way.

2007 February 19 Monday.

I was in for a BIG and unexpected surprise this morning, but I didn't know about it, until the very last minute. I was scheduled to go to めばえ幼稚園 today at about 10:00 for my final 英語ふれあい of this school year. Twenty minutes before my departure, I used my remote engine starter, to start my van's engine from the window of my classroom. When I pushed the button, the key holder device made its characteristic BEEP sound, so I assumed everything was normal. About 15 minutes later, when I grabbed my folk guitar and a heavy bag full of flash cards, and headed down the stairs and outside to my waiting van. When I got there, I noticed that the engine wasn't running. When I put the key in the door lock and opened the door, noticed that the inside of the van was ice cold. Hmmm, the engine had failed to start when I used my remote starter from my classroom window. So, I put the key in the ignition and turned it forward. NOTHING. Not even the faintest of sounds. Damn! My battery must be dead. Did I leave on some small little interior light or something like that? I checked all of the switches for all of the lights and discovered that they were all in the OFF position. What in the HECK is going on here? Fully realizing that I was not going to be driving my van today, I closed and locked the door, and went back up to my classroom to make a telephone call to the kindergarten. When the principle answered the phone, I told him of my situation. He said; "We are taking a group photo with all of the students, and also with the graduating students separately, so we want you to be in the photo as well. Is there anyway that you can come here today?" I told him that I would call a taxi and be there within 10 or 15 minutes. That's exactly what I did. When everything was finished at the kindergarten, I took a taxi back home and made a phone call to my friendly TOYOTA dealer. I asked them to send someone out to take a look at my van. A short while later, a young man showed up with a battery starter and tried to start my van. It didn't work. He said; "Your battery is not dead. It seems to be fine. There is some other type of electrical problem." Oh great! An electrical problem. The most difficult type of problem there is to have with an automobile. He looked inside the various fuse and junction boxes of the van, and could not find a specific cause for the problem. After about 15 minutes he said; "We need to haul your van back over to the shop and put it on an ANALYZE machine for further testing. I told him that, it would be OK because I don't really need to use the van during this week on any given day. He drove off into the afternoon glow, and a few hours later, the big truck that you can see in the photo above/left came by, to haul my NOAH away. Back to the TOYOTA dealership from which it had come. I really appreciate the excellent service that this dealership provides. Thank you so much. Please do your best to fix the problem and, GET MY FAT ASS, back on the road again, as soon as possible. Living in Hokkaido without an automobile, is very inconvenient.

2007 February 18 Sunday.

No classes today, and a rather warm day at that, with water puddles and slushy snow on the streets and sidewalks of Asahikawa. I used the morning hours to make some more digital flash cards on my PC, but I have not yet printed them out. The wife thing, had to work at HOMAC in Kagura until about 15:00. After she came home and ate lunch, we decided to take a walk down to the DAISO 100 YEN shop, which is just a stone's throw away from our classroom, on Route 237. The main purpose for going there today, was that we needed some new white board erasers and white board markers for our little classroom. We were very pleased to discover that the shop had many useful items for our classroom and at a very reasonable price. Not only did we buy what we set out to buy, but we also found several other useful items as well. One example is, B4 sized sketch pads with about 30 sheets each, that I and the students can use together with color pencils, to have an enjoyable English lesson, while drawing pictures, and speaking English at the same time. I especially like to do this with the very young children's classes, but only about once every 5 or 6 weeks. At first the children say できない I can't draw that! But when I show them, that even the most difficult looking illustrations are composed of a very limited set of simple and basic shapes, which they can easily draw, a light goes on in their heads, and they imitate my drawing style, until they have a rather good looking drawing of the same thing. For example, an ocean with an island and the sun shining brightly in the sky with clouds and birds floating in the sky, and a black steamship sailing along on the horizon. While we are drawing these pictures together, we write the words; SKY, SUN, SHIP, BIRD, CLOUD, etc. on the same piece of paper. One REAL EXAMPLE of what we do, can be seen in the photo above/left. It was drawn by 3 people. ME, MYSELF and I. The triangle. In 3D it is viewed as a PYRAMID. Think about it for a moment, H2O. 123 ABC TELL ME

2007 February 17 Saturday.

I had a private lesson today starting at 12:30 with the little girls who love to come to my little classroom. Today, only the elder sister came for a lesson. Her younger sister stayed at home this week. The classroom was much less noisy today, and we managed to get in some real "study time" . Today, I mainly used the new flash cards that I had just made last week, which are centered around using common VERBS such as eat, drink, walk, run, jump, catch, throw, etc. Somehow along the way, the little girl got interesting in playing "food store", so I got out my play money, and we did business. She was the shop owner selling TaiYaki. I played along with her as the customer, speaking English at all times. When her mother came to my classroom about 90 minutes later, I explained to her how today's lesson had made more progress than those of previous weeks, but that there was still a bit too much "playing" going on. We decided that maybe a 50 minute lesson might be better than an 80 minute lesson, starting next week. After that class was finished at about 14:00, I sat down to watch some documentary movies on the internet. One that I watched, was about the Rothschild Family and it was most interesting. Especially the way Nathan had used his superior information network to sell short on the London stock market, when he was the first one in London to know that Napoleon had been defeated at Waterloo. Yes indeed, knowledge is power, BUT ONLY IF you know how to use it well. At about 18:00 just after the sun had set in the west, I went out for a walk in the not too cold evening air. The beautiful and very brightly illuminated planet Venus 金星, was clearly visible on the western horizon. It felt really good to get out and go for a walk again, after having not done so for more than a month. On my way back home, I walked through Crystal Park along the trampled down foot path through the snow, that others before me had made before me. On the ground beneath a pine tree, I found the little twig that you can see in the photo, above left. I put it into a glass of water, and after only a few hours, I could clearly see the bubbles of carbon dioxide gas, coming off of the submerged portion of the twig, and collecting in the water. Even though this little twig had either fallen off of the branch, or had been pulled off by someone, it still continued to live on its own. Demonstrating once again that, the LIFE FORCE is truly powerful and persistent.

2007 February 16 Friday.

My first gig of the day started off at 9:00 at the Dokan Nursing School. These second year students have only about 3 weeks left in their school year, and they are busy writing reports and studying for their final examinations in a wide variety of subjects. I think there are about 10 or 11 different classes that they all must take. That's a lot of stuff to remember. Next week and the week after that, I will be giving them their final exam in English. This year, instead of giving them a paper test as I usually do, I will give them an interview examination using pages 1, 2 or 3 of my original textbook; Questions and Answers. Each page is divided up into 6 sections of 5 questions each. Each section is numbered A thru F. During that actual test time, the student will have to select one of three cards, which will be lying face-down on the table. This will determine if they will be using page one, two or three. Then they will choose one of the 6 other cards which will also be lying face-down on the table. This will determine which one of the 6 sections they will be using on that page. I conducted a practice test with each and every student that was present today, and it went quite well. Previously, the students have used all three of these pages during various classes, doing "pair work" in groups of 2, 3 or 6 students each, so this material is not new to them. However, some of the questions they seem to have forgotten today. Anyway, today's practice test was interesting and enjoyable for both me and the students, and they all still had time to work on their big report for another class during the time that they were not in the hot seat. One of the students in this class is also an amateur musician who sings along with a guitar player in a band called KIHOU. Last week, I purchased a CD from her for 500 yen, that has 14 different songs on it, performed by 7 different artists. The CD was produced by Studio Orange right here in Asahikawa. After listening to her voice on the CD, I realized that she sounded like a very young Joni Mitchell, in the sense that her voice goes from very high to very low, and very quickly, while singing her songs. So, this week I brought her a dubbed copy of the 1974 album, Miles of Aisles, and gave it to her as a present. I know that she will really like it. Maybe she will even want to sing some of these songs at her live concerts in the future. That would be interesting to see.

2007 February 15 Thursday.

Today at 19:00, I had my last lesson with a high school girl who will be graduating during the first week of March. I wrote about her in my blog of 2007 January 25. Starting in April of this year, she will be going to the Nippon Business School in Sapporo for a two year course in Business English. Therefore, during today's final lesson, I conducted a sort of interview examination, to see how much she has really progressed, in her ability to use English, as a tool for communication, in the real world. I used a textbook that I had received as a free sample copy from Nan Un Do, entitled, "American Homestay, DOs and DON'Ts". I used this rather interesting textbook, as a "prop" for our last one hour lesson together. In conjunction with her two year course at the technical school, she and her classmates will be going to California in the USA for a 2 week Study Tour 修学旅行 during January of 2008. Although the students will be staying in hotels, and not doing any homestays, with typical American families, some of the differences in the "COMMON SENSE" between Japan and the USA, are clearly highlighted in this textbook. Therefore, it was very useful for today's final lesson with the very tall and beautiful, Miss, S.A. I used English 99% of the time during the lesson, and only resorted to using Japanese when it was obvious that she was not understanding some important point. Overall, I think that she did quite well. She will be in a whole different world when she starts at her new school in Sapporo. I think the new environment will help her to see a bigger world out there. After all, Asahikawa is a rather small city, and doesn't really seem all that "international" in many ways. Good luck S.A.! Come back and see me sometime. I'm looking forward to hearing all about your new adventures, coming soon.

2007 February 14 Wednesday.

I know I don't need to tell this to anyone, because everybody already knows it, but today is Saint Valentine's Day. The photo that you can see on the left is of ONLY the hand-made gifts that I received. I was also lucky enough to receive many other "store bought" gifts as well. One item I received that was especially interesting to me, was the yellow and white candle, in the lower right-hand corner of this photo. It was made by a pair of young sisters, who live in Tomisawa, rather far away from my classroom, but they still make the effort to come here for their English lessons almost every week. What they did, was to take a real egg shell, fill it up with hot liquid wax and add a wick to it, making it into a real functional candle. The hard wax inside the egg shell is yellow and white, making it look like a freshly cracked-open egg. What a wonderful idea. The younger sister who brought this eggshell candle to me today, told me that I really can use it as a candle. I told her that I would rather not burn it, but instead, enjoy it, just the way it is, for a very long time to come. She agreed with me on this point. Over here in Japan, girls give gifts to boys on Valentine's Day. In the USA it is the other way around. The rub is that on March 14, they have a little thing over here, called White Day. This is payback time for the boys. They must give a small gift in return, to each and every girl who gave them a gift on Valentine's Day. In order not to forget, whom has given me what, I write a list in my Daily Reminder Book on the page for March 14. It is rather thoughtless to forget an act of kindness, no matter how big or small it may have been. Every good intention, attracts other good intentions. The opposite is also true. Let's keep it positive, at all times.

2007 February 13 Tuesday.

No classes until 16:00 today, so I had plenty of time to put together some more words and images on the PC for later printing and laminating into the kind of new flash cards that I wrote about in yesterday's blog. During my last class of the day, which started at 19:00, the topic of discussion turned to marriage and wedding preparations, because one of the students announced that her long time friend was going to get married this year. This student herself has just gotten married about one year ago, and in fact both she and the other lady in question, used to come to my classroom together every week, about 5 or 6 years ago. The discussion turned towards the custom of paying YuiNoo 結納 to the bride's family from the groom's family. I remember a word something like "dowery" but I can't find it in any dictionary. Nowadays they use the term "exchange betrothal gifts (money)" instead. The students asked me if this was the custom in the USA and I replied that it is much more common to have a Bridal Registry at some department store, somewhere. Then I explained to them, in brief, about how that system works. They all seemed to think that it was a very good idea. Maybe even better than the traditional Japanese YuiNoo system. By the way, speaking of weddings, my wife Ikuko and I were married right here in Asahikawa at the very well known 花月会館, in a traditional Japanese style wedding ceremony 神前式. See the photo on the left to form an image of what it looked like. Unfortunately, my parents and little sister didn't attend, even though they most certainly had the time and the money to do so. Why didn't they come? Read my blog of 2007 February 6, to get some idea about that decision of theirs. The photo you can see above, shows the actual wedding ceremony itself. After this was finished, there was a gorgeous banquet in another room of the same facility. I must say, that on that day, I felt so happy deep inside, that I thought I was going to explode, and burst into flames. I will never forget that feeling. It really was that wonderful. It was a family members only 身内だけ wedding party of about 35 people. It was a first class affair, where no expenses were spared, and no short-cuts taken. It was the real deal. After all, it is a once in a lifetime deal, to find a happy life together with your very own soul-mate. And I do mean that literally. Is it for LOVE, or MONEY? For us, it was for LOVE. Anything for love. Focus on LOVE, the prime mover of the universe, and everything else falls into place naturally. Including the "money" part of the equation. By the way, congratulations to any and all, newlywed or soon to be newlywed couples out there, who may be reading this blog right now. Focus on the love and everything else will be alright.

2007 February 12 Monday.

No classes today so I thought about what to do with my time. I briefly considered going to the Asahikawa Winter Festival, this being the last day of the event, but I decided instead to stay at home, and do something that I have been planning to do for a long time, but have never gotten around to doing yet. Making some new flash cards to replace the very old flash cards that I have been using for the past 10 years. See the photo on the left for details. The theme of these flash cards is USING VERBS. The small black and white ones that you can see in the left of the photo are the ones I made more than 10 years ago. At that time, I didn't even have a personal computer. They were all hand drawn and then pasted to a card and covered with a piece of heavy duty cellophane tape. I even had to cut the small cards themselves out of much larger sheets of cardboard. They worked well for many years. However, now that I have better equipment, including 2 laminating machines, I am able to make much bigger and more colorful flash cards than ever before. I will start using them tomorrow in various children's classes. The artwork on these new flash cards is not my own drawing. It is the clip art that came with my PhotoDraw and Publisher software suites. I can mix and match the images and even change the colors or add lines and other shapes to the images in anyway that I please. It is not difficult to make these cards, but it does take a lot of time. In fact, it took me all day just to make this first set of 34 flash cards. I will be making many more of these in the very near future. The good news is that once I have made the cards, I can use them over and over again for many many years. Give first, Receive later. It's a basic unchanging law of the universe, that works every time. No exceptions.

2007 February 11 Sunday.

Today is yet another National Holiday in Japan known as National Foundation Day 建国記念日. Because the holiday falls on a Sunday this year, tomorrow being Monday February 12, has been designated as the day of observance, and thus becomes, a day-off from work and/or school for most people living here, in Japan. It is also the last day of my sister-in-law's winter vacation. She came to visit her birthplace of Asahikawa, from Tokyo where she has lived and worked for more than 20 something years. She will be going back to the Big Gray City on an ANA flight that leaves at about 14:00 JST. It was nice to see you again Yuki, have a nice flight and take good care of that little runt, Kuma Chan. He ain't nothing, compared to BINGO, the Polar Bear from Lake Toya, but he can be a good companion, none the less. What a little wimp, that りらっくま is. He's cute, but when it comes to a crunch, he can't really do anything. Even to help himself. Much less, help others. What can this tiny little stuffed animal, really do to help someone out of a JAM? NOTHING, would be my guess. But then again, if you are JAMMING on some musical instruments, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE. Really! No, Kidding. I have seen it, and even DOne it for myself. It is just something that happens everyday. And spontaneously EVERY day. Live it NOW. There will never be a better TIME. DO it NOW. Now OR Never. It IS your choice. The TIME of your LIFE. What else IS there? Anything that YOU can IMAGINE. ABC 123 How SIMPLE and AUTOMATIC can you get? Think of a newly born baby, and imagine yourself again, at that very early stage of your BIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT. Here on this ROCK in the COSMOS that WE call earth. What else IS there? Much more. Anyway, I'm getting off track here 脱線しています. This National Holiday called National Foundation Day, was started in January of 1873 when Japan changed over from it's lunar/solar calendar to the Gregorian Calendar. In other words, they changed from something REAL to something FAKE. Maybe that was the price they had to pay in order to join the Western world, and become "modern". This new calendar system and especially the new National Holiday on February 11, were implemented by the Meiji Emperor in an attempt to directly link himself with the Emperor Jimmu as noted in the NihonShoKi 日本書記 and therefore establish a direct link to AmaTerasuOoMiKami 天照大神 the Sun Goddess herself. A pretty smart political move, in my opinion. Remember, it doesn't really matter if the link is true or not, all that matters is that the majority of the people BELIEVE that it is TRUE. It seems to have worked quite well considering what Japan became during the early 1900s.

2007 February 10 Saturday.

In my blog of last Wednesday, February 7th, I wrote that I was planning to go into central Asahikawa, and visit the Asahikawa Winter Festival, after dropping by the ShimaMura Musical Instruments store, in order to buy a finger slide for my 6 string electric guitar. I ended up, doing neither. The main reason for my change of plans was because my wife's younger sister, who lives and works in Tokyo, came back to Asahikawa for her somewhat delayed winter vacation. She was not much interested in seeing the sights at the local festival, so I too, decided not to go this year. I think this is the first time that I have NOT visited the Asahikawa Winter Festival in the 16 some years that I have lived here. I don't get to see my sister-in-law very often, so I thought that my time would be better spent with her and the other family members during this weekend. I was right. Although the Asahikawa Winter Festival is very much worthwhile in going to see, it is about the same, every year. If you are interested in seeing what it looks like, you can view the 3 auto-playing slideshows of the many photos that I have taken of it in 2006 by clicking here. Also you can see the photos I took in 2005 by clicking here. There are even a few photos that I took of it in 2001 , when I was rather new to using a digital camera. Well anyway, tonight was a stay-over night with family members only, in the Chuwa District of Asahikawa. Maybe I'll visit the Asahikawa Winter Festival next year, in 2008. At that time, with Charles and Family together. Wouldn't that be COOL. Or, rather somewhat COLD for a Texas dweller. Yep! It gets mighty cold up here in the NORTH Country 北の国. SNOW Country 雪国. But it doesn't last for one full year. It only takes up about 5 out of the 12 months, here in Asahikawa. Get used to it. It can become your best friend. In a Totally Refreshing kind of WAY.

2007 February 9 Friday.

My first gig of the day started off at 9:00 at the Dokan Nursing School 道立看護学院, which is right next door to the Asahikawa Medical College. As usual, I called a taxi because the school gives me taxi tickets that I can use only on those days when I have lessons at that school. I always call the same taxi company, and I often get drivers whom I have met many times before. Today was no exception. The driver remembered me and said; "I looked at your website the other day, and I must say that there is a lot to see there." I said; "Thank you for taking the time to visit my website." The taxi driver then went on to say that, he had shown my website to the other people who work at his company, and that because of this, the company has decided to start their own website, for the very first time! Oh, Really? I was very glad to hear this. I said to the driver that if a company nowadays doesn't have a website, they are missing a very big opportunity to advertise themselves to the public at large. He seemed to agree with me, on this point. I also told him that, not only do I teach my students useful English, but I further encourage the ones who are junior high school and high school students, to learn how to make a basic website for themselves. Once they learn the basics of building and maintaining a website, they will have many more employment opportunities than their classmates who may not be able to use English and/or make their own websites. I mean, if I had been able to learn how to do this when I was a teenager, I would certainly be much better at it than I am right now. Unfortunately for me, there were no PCs, nor internet services available to the general public, at that time. Take advantage of the existing Information Technology, use it towards your benefit, and also use it for the good of all humankind. After all, if you have a story to tell, or a product or a service to sell, the internet is a very good place to do it. Just do us all a favor, and keep the message POSITIVE. Spread LOVE not hate.

2007 February 8 Thursday.

This morning at about 8:30 as I was going outside to throw away some garbage, I saw a man who has lived here in this building for about 2 years, walking towards me. As we approached each other I said; "Ohayoo Gozaimasu." He replied; "Hi" in American English. I was surprised to hear this, so I let out a little laugh and said; "Hi". Then he said; "Where are you from?" I answered; "I am from Seattle, Washington in the USA." He then said; "I have been to the USA many times because I used to be in the Navy." I assume he meant that he had been in the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF), The same group of people whom I had spent about one year with, on the island of Iwo Jima during 1976, and I told him so. He went on to tell me that he had visited, San Francisco, San Diego and a few other west coast cities, along with one year spent in Chicago at a Missile Defense Technology School. Wow! What a big surprise to hear that! We were both in a hurry and we didn't have much time to talk any further, so I shook his hand and said "Nice to meet you sailor!" Then I saluted him, and turned around heading for the garbage pickup station to drop off the bags I was carrying. It sounds to me as if, he was an officer in the JMSDF whereas I was just an enlisted man in the USCG. You never know who you are going to meet, or where you are going to meet them. I hope I have a chance to talk with him again at more length, and hear some interesting stories about his time in the USA. Let's hope that we don't see any missiles from North Korea flying overhead in the meantime.

2007 February 7 Wednesday.

I don't know why, for sure, but since about 3 days ago, I have been hearing the music of Z Z TOP in my brain. I don't have any of their CDs, and I haven't heard any of their MUSIC on the radio either, for a very very long time. Why NOW? Well, I still don't know why for sure, but I went onto the internet and found some kick ass videos of LIVE performances throughout their years. One that I really liked in particular was this one from 2003, Just Got Paid. Click on the left to view the concert for yourself. This particular jam session shows in splendid fashion, how 3 guys; one on electric bass, one on electric guitar, and one beating away on the acoustic drum set, can create a WALL OF SOUND, that has real animating power. Just three guys. That little ol band from TEXAS. Kickin' ASS. I realize that many readers of this blog, who were not born and raised in the USA, may have some trouble appreciating this music, but if you have the time, and the patience to listen to the whole song, I think you may come to understand, yet another, small slice of American Culture. Although this type of guitar playing is not technically difficult, the combined effect of the three amigos, can really pulse into a very large vibe. Z Z TOP is one of the most successful home grown American Bands that I can clearly remember. A very straight forward, night in the ruts kind of rock and roll. The kind of stuff I used to play in a garage band. Great fun. Even more fun to play, than it is to listen to. That reminds me, I haven't picked up my Fender Telecaster for over 6 months. Let's see, there is a 3 day weekend coming up the day after tomorrow, which means that Monday is a holiday. Maybe I should stop in at the musical instruments store and buy a finger slide, while I am in town to see the Winter Festival on Saturday late afternoon and early evening. Then, I can rock it all day Sunday, and some more on Monday. Back to Basics. Three Chord Rock and Roll.

2007 February 6 Tuesday.

As it is with most every week on this day, it's Tuesday's with Mr. T. Today we talked about various things as we usually do, but in conjunction with yesterday's blog, I would like to talk about a discussion that we had about 3 or 4 months ago. It was a story from Mr. T.'s childhood that really rang a bell with me. He started the story by saying that he went to visit his sister one day, who also lives in Asahikawa. As they were talking about various things, the discussion came around to an incident where they had shouted some bad words at some Korean kids who were also living in the same neighborhood. When I asked him why they did that, he said that his parents would often talk badly about the Korean and Chinese immigrants to Hokkaido. Many of whom had been forcibly brought here by the Japanese Imperial Army, to be used as laborers in the coal mines, and also for digging railroad tunnels. This is an unfortunate and dark part of Hokkaido's history which I really know very little about. Anyway, because of the things that he heard his parents say, he believed that the Korean and Chinese people who lived in Hokkaido, were something less than human beings. Some lower form of life that was not up to the standards of the average Japanese. Why did his parents believe that themselves? Most likely they were "taught" the same things by their parents, and so on and so forth. When Mr. T. was reminded of this incident by his sister, he started crying. His thinking about this, is a lot different nowadays. Like I said, this story really rang a bell with me, because I can clearly remember my own parents talking badly about most other races of people, that were not German. My mother even used to talk badly about my father's, father, who was a second generation Irish immigrant. With so many people all around the world, and throughout the ages talking badly about each other all the time, is it any wonder why we can't seem to move forward spiritually and harmoniously as an animal species? When will all of this silly nonsense stop? How much longer will it be until everyone finally comes to understand the simple fact that we are all connected, because we are all merely droplets of the same conciseness. The consciousness that CREATES our mutual reality. We are constantly creating reality, merely by observing it. And also in many many other, more active ways as well. If you would like to see a world where there is no war and no hate, you need to start with yourself. You need to learn how to love yourself. When you have reached the apex of that first step, the next thing you need to learn how to do, is love everyone that you meet every day. If the vast majority of people don't learn how to do this, things will continue to spiral downwards in the negative manner, in which they are currently doing. Am I saying that people who hate other people, don't love themselves? Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. Well then Norman, why do so many people hate themselves in the first place? It is because they are constantly looking outside of themselves for happiness and gratification. They watch TV and see other people living lives of luxury and opulence, and they wonder why they too, can not have that kind of life. They see buff males and thin busty females in newspapers and magazines and they wonder why they can't look that way too. All of their attention is focused outside of themselves, and therefore they are hollow inside. When they try to look inside themselves, there is nothing to see, so again they turn on the TV to see what is REAL in this world. But what they think is real, is in fact an illusion created by other people. People who are happy with their lives because they are constantly looking within themselves to come up with new ideas and creating new things in the process. Things that other people who feel the need to use them, are willing to spend money for. In other words, they are actively doing what they really want to do. They KNOW what they want to do, because they spend a lot of time THINKING about it. They have magnetized their thinking in a very positive way. They don't have time to think negative thoughts. They love themselves and everybody with whom they come into contact, everyday. They KNOW that there is no beginning and no end to this conciseness. They know that it just IS. This is True Alchemy of the highest order.

2007 February 5 Monday.

My first gig of today was my last English Friendship Class at the Chestnut Tree Kindergarten for this school year. The photo you can see on the left was taken by the owner of the kindergarten, and it is only of ME and the 3rd year students who will be graduating next week. That's a lot of students! I am sitting in the front row center, and you can clearly see how much bigger I am than the rest of the little kids. Despite this fact, a few of the bigger boys in the group, came at me in an attempt to slap me on the head, or punch me in the stomach, or in some way, have a play-fight with me. I don't mind this at all, and I fight back gently using my much longer arms and legs as unbeatable weapons to fend off their attacks. This is nothing more than fun and games for me and the kids, and they always take their mini-defeat lying down on the floor, where I have gently placed them, using JUDO-like moves. I am very careful to make sure that nobody hits the ground too hard. The reason this kind of play-fighting happens in the first place, is because at the end of each and every 英語ふれあい class, all of the 200 and some students walk past me and shake my hand, and we say "Goodbye, see you next time." or some such short phrase. The owner of the kindergarten INSISTS that we all do this, EVERY TIME in order to teach the children that there is nothing to fear from another person, JUST BECAUSE they look different from the vast majority of people who also live in Japan. I couldn't agree more. When I was a very young child, I thought African Americans (Black People) were dirty, just because the color of their skin was so dark. Unfortunately, my openly racist parents encouraged me to think this way by constantly making disrespectful comments about Negroes, and Hispanics, and everyone else who wasn't from a White European heritage. When I was very young, I believed everything that my parents told me, because I didn't know anything else. I wasn't able to change my thinking about this, until much later, after I had graduated from high school and joined the U.S. Coast Guard in August of 1975. It was at the USCG basic training facility in Alameda California, that I first met other Americans from many different ethnic backgrounds and also from many different areas of the USA. Since we were all living, eating, training, and sleeping together in the same groups, I quickly REALIZED that the only real difference between us, was the way we looked and the way we talked. We thought TOGETHER as one, because that is what BASIC TRAINING at BOOT CAMP in the MILITARY is all about. From that time forward, I have never looked at any single RACE of PEOPLE as being either good or bad, or as something to be hated. Unfortunately for my mother and father, they died in their ignorance, both of them were filled with hate and prejudice towards many many people, until the day they died. They even had these same negative feelings towards myself and my Japanese wife, as well. I used the word IGNORANCE instead of the word STUPID, because my father was a dentist and my mother had a Masters Degree from Columbia University. Stupid people can't earn this level of credentials, no matter how hard they try. Here, WE CAN SEE the combination of NATURE and NURTURE. Both of them are EQUALLY important. Are their any differences between the various races and cultures? Of course their are. Isn't it obvious??? But to think or to say that "The Japanese are vicious." Or "The Negroes are lazy and stupid." Or "The Jews are PARASITES and therefore, the cause of all MISERY in the world TODAY." Or any such BLANKET STATEMENT about a certain group of people, is obviously false. There are smart people and stupid people, good and bad people, honest and dishonest people within every genetic family of human beings. I look at each and every person that I meet as being a unique individual with certain genetic and cultural "baggage" 荷物 that they must carry around for the rest of their lives, here on this Earth. But to summarize today's blog, I want to declare that, RACISM is NOT an IDEOLOGY. It is a Mental Illness.

2007 February 4 Sunday.

According to Japan Standard Time (JST) it is Sunday, but in the USA, it is still Saturday. What's going on in the good ole USA? Well, many many things are going on, but one of the most hyped events has to be the American Football Super Bowl. Every year at about this time, the NFL (National Football League) has its Big Championship Game between the two best teams in America. When I lived in the USA, I was in the habit of watching the Seattle Seahawks play on the gridiron every week. Usually on Sundays, but sometimes on Mondays. I really enjoyed watching American Football, in those days. However, even though the official playing time is broken up into 4 quarters of 15 minutes each, resulting in an official game time of exactly one hour, the reality on game day is that the time required to get everything over and done with, takes anywhere from 3 to 4 hours. That is a long time to sit down in front of a TV, and just passively observe something. Nowadays, I just can't sit still that long for only one event, anymore. It feels to me like a colossal waste of time. I guess I've changed over time, and that is a good thing. In fact, when I started thinking about my previous life in the USA, as compared to my present life here in Japan, I realized that a lot of things have changed. Especially since I first began using the internet every day, starting about 7 years ago. Not only was I amazed at the sheer volume of the content on the NET, but also the wide variety of subject matter that I could look at and listen to anytime I wanted to do so. Then, about 6 years ago, I made my first website. The URL is the same as it is today, but at that time my website was really bad. I mean, in a word, it sucked BIG TIME. At that time, my only intention was to advertise this little classroom better than the advertisement that I had purchased and placed in the local Yellow Pages (Town Pages). As I remember, the entire website had only about 20 pages or so, and a lot of broken links when it came to the photographs. Boy! Was I an internet illiterate, or what!?! I had no clue as to, what it was, that I was trying to do at that time, and IT was painfully obvious to anyone who looked at my website in those days. Finally, I wised up and bought a bunch of books from Amazon Dot Com, that told me in great detail how to make a much better website. Then, about five years ago, I completely re-designed this website, using FRAMES on the FRONT PAGE to make the navigation menu easier to use. Plus a lot of other improvements in the PHOTO GALLERY , as well as many other things along the way. Then again, about 2 years ago, I hit upon the bright idea of writing a blog, in English, everyday. Not only do I spend a lot of time writing this blog, but also because writing is an active endeavor, I have found myself spending less and less time watching TV and using other forms of passive entertainment, in general, and spending more and more time WRITING. My wife pointed out to me, the other day, that we have not sat down and watched a DVD together for more than one year! Has it really been that long? Yes, it has. Wow! I REALLY have changed a great deal since I moved from the USA to HOKKAIDO Japan, and along the way, my activities have become more and more meaningful, AND enjoyable. Please don't get me wrong, I am not RAGGING on all of the so-called COUCH POTATOES out there, everywhere, around the world, but there IS another way, NO! Many other ways, to spend your time. The TIME of your LIFE, that is. Make it Worth the EFFORT. And ENJOY it NOW!!!

2007 February 3 Saturday.

Every year on this day, most people in Japan celebrate SetsuBun 節分. Although it is not a national holiday, it is a popular occasion to throw some peanuts at the Ogre, and say "Out with the Bad Guys", In with Good Fortune," This may sound like political activism, but in fact, it is not. It is a very ancient custom in Japan dating back to as long as anyone can clearly remember. The real story behind this custom, seems to be as follows: According to the Lunar Calendar, 大寒 The Season of Severe Cold ends on or about this date. Not in Hokkaido it doesn't. It's just getting started. But in the rest of Japan, this is mostly true. It will start getting warmer down there. Not up here. In fact, the Asahikawa Winter Festival will start on February 8th and run thru the 12th. We are talking about snow sculptures and ice carvings, here. It ain't no bare foot walk through the park. It IS severe cold. Has to be. Otherwise the creations would melt. Return to their liquid form. Dry up and fly away. Anyway, back to the history of Setsubun in Japan. The Lunar Calendar and the Solar Calendar are interlinked in a very intimate way. To put it in a nutshell, If we didn't have the sun, we couldn't see the moon. The ritual of Setsubun started during the Muromachi Era (1392-1573) and seems to have had it's origins during the Ming Dynasty of China. Anyway, to make a long story short, it is essentially the same old story told over and over again. The SUN is REBORN. It is the START of another NEW YEAR. Let's get off to a good start before PLANTING SEASON begins, so our fields of crops, the SOURCE OF our FOOD, will flourish (flower) and be plentiful 豊富な. Who wants to starve to death. Nobody that I have ever met. But it IS what happens when there is no food. For whatever reason. The Planet of the Apes hasn't changed all that much since we all took it over just a brief time ago. Where is it all headed? Ask the 100th MONKEY. He has the KEY to the MON. The MON KEY. CLICK HERE to SEE what I am referring to. Thanks for the link Charlie! Most interesting. By the way, I was born in the year of the monkey, but I live in the DRAGON HEAD. See the image of Hokkaido at the top of this page, for further details. Click on it to go to the PHOTO GALLERY main menu page. You can SEE all you want to SEE there. Until next time, "See ya later, alligator. AND. In a while, crocodile." 1950s USA.

2007 February 2 Friday.

My first gig of the day started off at 9:00 at the Dokan Nursing School next door to the Asahikawa Medical College. As with last week, I had one half of the second year students, so I conducted the exact same lesson. As usual, I go down the name list and call each ande every student's name in turn, personally greet them, and then ask them a question of some kind. In this half of the class, there are two young men, together with the 16 young women. Also, as is usually the case, only one of the young men made it to class by the starting time of 9:00. When I had read off the names on the name list and arrived at the name of the young man who was still not in the classroom, I asked the other young man; "Where is K kun today?" He replied; "I don't know." Nothing new here. However today, I took it one step further. I said to the young man; "Call him up on his mobile phone, from your mobile phone." He looked shocked and said; "Really?" I said; "Yes, please. I want to talk to him." So, the young man who was present in the class, called his friend up on the mobile phone, and gave the phone to me while it was still ringing. When K kun answered the phone, I said in a low gruff voice, speaking very polite Japanese; " Is this K sama?" He replied "Yes, it is." I continued; "I am calling from Prime Minister Abe's office. You were scheduled to have a meeting with the Prime Minister this morning at 9:00 sharp. Where are you?" By now, K kun understood that the voice on the phone was me, and that I was just kidding. So, I changed my tone of voice and level of Japanese to that of a common street punk ちんぴら and started hurling gentle insults at him for the next 30 seconds or so. As you might imagine, everyone in the classroom was rolling on the floor with laughter. Then, I gave the mobile phone back to the other young man who was on time for today's class, and he said a few words to K kun. How's that for an American Style Joke? The style of comedy in Japan and the USA are completely different and are both funny in their own unique fashions. I like both, but I can deliver on the American style much better than on the J-style jokes. It's in my blood. Literally. When the class had returned to order from chaos, I said to all of the students in English; "Next time it could be you. So, don't be late for class." Message understood.

2007 February 1 Thursday.

This morning at about 10:30 I went to the campus of Asahikawa University to consult with professor S. about the final grades for our group of 35 students who are taking their required course in freshman English. Some of these students are "repeaters" meaning that they have failed the class the first time, or in a few cases, the second time as well. Because this English class is required of all first year students at the university, they must pass it in order to graduate from college. I fully realize that some of these students have no interest in learning English, because they feel that it will be of no use to them in their future lives. Maybe they are right. But, they still need to graduate and get a job in a few years, so whatever kind of work they are planning to engage in, is fine with me. Therefore, if a student makes the effort to come to my class every time, they will pass my final exam no matter how poorly they actually do on it. Why? Because, when they get out into the work-a-day world, they will soon discover that if they don't show up for work, they will lose their jobs. This is true even if (especially if) you are self-employed. Ya gotta do what you have promised to do, or nobody will have any confidence in you, that you can do your job, and do it well. It's a simple fact of life. This is THE LESSON that I want to teach each and every student, even if they don't like using the English Language. How do the students like my class? Well, according to the student surveys アンケート that the university office staff administers twice a year, the vast majority have very positive comments about it. The typical comments read like; Very enjoyable, looking forward to next semester, very useful, please speak less Japanese in class, I like English more than before, etc. etc. However this year, for the first time, I received the following comment; Face to face interaction using English, is much more effective than using a PC to learn it. I suspected as much, but this year, I saw it written in stone. eLearning is fine, and it has it's place. It is perfect for learning at home, on your own, at your pace, and it's available 24/7. I use it myself for learning how to use various software that I have already purchased. However, if I was a university student again, and was going to a campus to take a class with a professor, I would hope that the interaction time with that teacher would be at a maximum, and that the electronic distractions would be at a minimum. I mean, if someone is showing a DVD for every class, and then trying to have a discussion about it afterwards, I would be rather bored as a student. It's OK once in a while, but who needs a teacher to watch a DVD or use the internet. Almost nobody. Is it live, or is it memorex?