www.snowmanjapan.net

Asahikawa American English Conversation School

Snowman Japan Web Log

for November 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 November 30 Wednesday.

No classes until 15:00 today, so I had a lot of time to take a hot bath, relax and do some reading.  I can't make any money if I don't have classes, but having enough free time during the week, to do what I want to do, is a treasure in and of itself. The freedom of choice as to how you want to spend the time you have in this life, is for me, the greatest freedom of all.  What do you think?  Maybe someday, I too, will have the freedom to give away expensive gifts, and not be affected by the loss of hard assets.  Maybe someday.   Anyway, the first lesson of the day at 15:00 every Wednesday, is with a first grade elementary school student.  This little guy is only 7 years old, but he has advanced up to page 8 of my original textbook American English Conversation for Elementary School Students　小学生で学ぶ米会話.   This textbook is totally conversation based and starts out on page 1,   like this:  Hello!  How are you today?   I am fine thank you, and you?  I am fine too, thank you.  My name is _____.  It is nice to meet you.  It is nice to meet you too.  My name is_____.  Where do you go to school?    I go to ________ elementary school.   What grade are you in?   I am in _____ grade.  Who is your teacher?   My teacher is Mr. Ms. (circle one) ___________.   That is the entire contents of the first page.  You might say;  How can your students read such English, at such an early age?  My reply:  They can't read it.  They can only listen to my voice, and imitate what they hear.  Listen and Repeat.  Listen and Repeat.  Listen and Repeat.  It works.   You might ask; But why do you have a print at all?  Simple.  Above all of the English words in the textbook, are Katakana カタカナ pronunciation 発音 hints ヒント.　 When I first started teaching American English to Japanese students, I was adamantly opposed to this method.  But now, 15 years later, I can see the usefulness of using this "artificial" method of getting the youngest students into the speaking of useful words and phrases as fast as possible.  It works.  In fact, once they remember what is written on the printed page, they never need to look at it again.  It is etched in their minds.    That is precisely the goal I had in mind when I made this new textbook only two years ago.  It has been a big success.  The students like it, and compete with each other to see who can learn (memorize) their lines the fastest.   Of course, using this textbook only is not enough.  They will not be able to read and write real English with this alone.  I agree.  That is why, I also teach them Phonics (Fonix) フォ二ックス　during alternating lesson times.  English is now, and always has been written by using an ALPHABET.   Japanese doesn't have an ALPHABET.  Not even one.  The closest thing that the Japanese Language has to an ALPHABET are the mere 5 Vowels that exist in the language.   All other phonetic symbols in Japanese are a combination of one vowel sound and one consonant sound.  In fact, these two phonetic writing systems called Hiragana ひらがな and Katakana カタカナ are not really phonetic at all because they were made by simplifying Chinese ideographs 漢字 that had a similar sound attached to them!  Therefore, there is no way to say that this part of the symbol represents the consonant sound, and this part represents the vowel sound.  Every written symbol needs to be remembered as a unique example in and of itself.   So, one of my hardest tasks is to get the children to learn the distinct difference between letters that are vowels only, and letters that are consonants only, and how to combine these sounds into words.  The younger the kids start, the better they will learn this.   When my last class was finished at 20:00, it was time for dinner and reading.  Lights out at 24:00.

2005 November 29 Tuesday.

Tuesday's with Mr. T.   Mister T. came again today, but he was almost one hour late.  He explained to me that just as he was about to leave his room and come to my place, he got a phone call from his Subaru Dealer.  It seems that they had just finished changing the summer tires to winter tires on his truck, and that they were bringing it back over to his home within the next 30 or 40 minutes.  So, they asked him to wait at home until they arrived.  He waited for them, they came, and he got his truck back.    Ready for winter driving.  Then he came to my classroom at about 15:50.  So, we only had one hour to talk instead of the usual two hours.   One of the things he talked about today was a book called The Strawberry Season, which he had used as a high school English textbook in years past.  I replied that I had never heard of this book.  Later, I looked it up at amazon.com, and sure enough there it was.  Click on the hyperlink above to visit that web page.   After our lesson was finished at 17:10, I had about 50 minutes to eat dinner and then have two more lessons between 18:00 and 20:00.  Of course, this morning I also had two classes at Asahikawa University AU.   Again today, we used one of my original textbooks entitled Using Interrogatives 疑問詞を使いこなす。Some of the students are still on page 2, but one student has advanced to page 7.  Everybody else is somewhere in between.  Also today, about 15 minutes before the end of each class, an office worker of the university came into the classroom to administer a questionnaire to the students.  In the questionnaire, the students were supposed to evaluate me, the teacher.  AU has been doing this every semester for the past 3 years now.  I think it is a good idea.  In years past, I have always gotten positive evaluations.  I wonder if this year will be the same?   I certainly hope so.   At the end of the day when all classes were finished, it was time to relax, drink a few beers and play the folk guitar for a while.    Lights out at 24:00.

2005 November 28 Monday.

My first class of the day was at  13:30 at the Kagura Citizens' Hall, Let's Enjoy English Conversation Club 神楽公民館英会話を楽しむ会.   Today, the first person to speak was Mrs. S who has just recently joined our class.  Before the start of today's class, she had written a mini essay about her home town of Kanagawa.  In her essay, she described how much different Kanagawa looks today as compared to when she lived there as a child in the days just after World War II.  She also said that the only thing which looked the same was the Tama River.  It was a very well written essay, I must say.  I took a look at her notebook and made few word changes here and there, but other than that, it was very easy to understand, and with a good flow of words.   The next lady to speak, described the how and why of the fact that she had given an old diamond ring to someone as a gift.  A gift worth between $700 and $1,500.  She explained her reasoning behind the decision and I could understand her feelings and intentions.  I wonder if the recipient of the gift can do so as well?    The next man talked about those portable heart re-starter machines known as Defibrillators.    A defibrillator is an electrical device with two paddles that are placed on a person's chest.  The defibrillator can then discharge electricity through the person's heart when a lethal rhythm is present.  The goal of this operation is to shock the heart back to its normal rhythm.   The point of his talk was to say that in the USA, about 60% of people in need of this emergency medical service survive the ordeal, and in Japan, only 3% survive.  The main reason he suggested, is due to the fact that there are not enough of these portable life-saving machines in Japan, and, as a consequence,  not enough people trained in how to use them.   I had not known about this disparity before.  Thanks for the useful information Mr. M!    The rest of the students talked about various other things until the class was over at 14:30.   After that,  I came back to my classroom for a quick lunch, followed by classes from 15:00 until 20:00.   When that was all finished, it was dinner time and study time, as well.  Lights out at 24:00.

2005 November 27 Sunday.

Today is raw music day with that California Guy who looks like an eggplant.  See the photo on the left.  We usually do this on Saturdays, but this week he had other things to do on the big Sat, so here we did it on Sunday.  Last week when we were finished with our jam session, he let me borrow one of his cassette tapes entitled John Prine, The Missing Years.    I had never heard of John Prine before, (yeah, I know, I must be living on another planet).   Anyway, I took the cassette tape home and immediately dubbed it onto an MD for easier playing.  While I was listening to it, I realized that I had been missing out on something special.  Although the melodies are not anything complicated nor truly unique,  the lyrics are.  This singer-songwriter is a very funny guy.  And the words that he puts in his songs are truly unique.  That's what grabbed my attention.  Plus, he has a low, mellow and easy to listen to voice.  So today, when I gave the tape back to the California Guy, I sat down and played the first song on the album using my folk guitar and trying to sing the lyrics, but I couldn't remember all of the words.  However, the music was easy to remember and very easy to play.    Again today, we practiced our set of 9 songs, plus we came up with a few new original songs as well.  Something about a blue toupe if I remember correctly.  It was a fruitful 3 hours.  When that was finished, I drove back to my apartment to unload my guitars, and then pick up my electric guitar amplifier, that had been recently broken by a stupid mishap that I perpetuated upon myself.  One evening while playing the electric six-string, I accidentally pulled it off of its stand, and it crashed to the floor.  As a result, the electrical connector on the back (made out of plastic) was broken.  Bummer.  I can't use it this way, so I took it back to Shimamura Music on the 6th floor of the EXC! building in downtown Asahikawa.  I rode the escalator up to the 6th floor, and dropped off my broken amp for repair.  The guy behind the counter, was the same guy whom I had bought the amp from about 3 years ago.  Service with a smile.  I'll be back soon. On my way out of the EXC! building, I stopped by friend's watch store on the second floor and said HELLO!.  He too, is a big country music fan, and in fact sent me an excellent CD with C&W Xmas Songs by many artists.  I have enjoyed listening to, and also playing along with the music on my acoustic guitar, many times in the very recent past.  Thanks Kuni!   Anyway, after that was all taken care of, I spent about an hour walking up and down 買物公園 the outdoor shopping mall, the first of its kind in Japan by the way, to see what was new.  I saw some new things, and some old things.  I like both of them.  An old thing was that there are many vacant buildings along the shopping mall.  A new and wonderful thing, is there are many new, log house style, outdoor stores that sell everything from food and drinks, to gifts from Hokkaido.  This is a really good idea.  Any attraction that can pull in customers to the center of the city, is a PLUS.  Go for it.  Rock and Roll.   I wanna help in any way that I can.  Anybody for RAW MUSIC?  I'll be there.  Lights out at 27:00. 

2005 November 26 Saturday.

A cold but rather sunny day.  I read on the internet where Pat Morita, the Japanese-American actor who is famous for, among other things, The Karate Kid films has passed away on November 24.   He was the Karate Sensei who taught the young Anglo-American kid, played by Ralph Macchio,  the fine art of self-defense, the empty-hand way 空手道.  You can read about Pat Morita's life, by clicking here.   You can read about his career by clicking here..   He was one of the very few Asian-American actors who has been able to break the stereo-type of playing the bad guy roles in Hollywood.  I have enjoyed watching his many appearances in various movies and TV shows.   さようなら。 また会おうね。    I spent most of the day learning how to make computer graphics using Macromedia FreeHand MX.  A drawing software program similar to Adobe Illustrator and every bit as good.  I was able to make a 3D looking snowman with a cute face, but I was having some difficultly designing his hat and muffler.  I will keep trying.  Also, I watched half of another classic movie on DVD called The Sound of Music サウンド・オブ・ミュージック.  Another blast from the past.  I first saw this movie in 1965 at a Drive-In-Theater, with my family when I was about 9 years old.  I have also seen it several times since then on TV and at an indoor movie theater.  My parents even bought the movie sound track on an LP vinyl record, so I am familiar with most of the songs in the movie.   It is a rather long movie of 175 minutes, and I got sleepy about half way through watching it.  I'll see the rest of it later.  I mentioned, Drive-In-Theater above.  To see what I am talking about, click here.   These used to be very popular in the USA and Canada.  Nowadays, with VCRs and DVDs, there are not as many of these huge outdoor movie screens around as before, but I have many fond memories of going to them during my pre-high school and high school days.  Why did I go during my high school days?  Because, I had my own car and a girlfriend, that's why.  Can you imagine the fun of sitting in your own car, eating popcorn and watching a movie on a big outdoor screen during a warm summer's night?  It was a blast.  I wonder if they have any of these in Japan or not?  I don't remember having ever seen any over here.    Well anyway, after watching about half of The Sound of Music, while eating my dinner of beef stew, it was sleepy time.   Lights out at 24:00.  Tomorrow is raw music day with The California Guy.  Hee Haw!

2005 November 25 Friday.

My first class of the day was a private lesson at 13:30 with the two lovely ladies who come every week at this time.  Today, I started off the conversation by showing them the DVD jacket of the The Wizard of Oz オズの魔法使 and asking them if they had ever seen the movie.  They both responded that they had heard of it before, but they had never seen it.  I said; "This is a must see 必見 movie. Here, I will lend it to you."  And so, I lent them my DVD in order that they too could see this wonderful classic movie.  I think they will like it.  Especially because this DVD has both English and Japanese subtitles 字幕.  This makes it a very good study aide for spoken English.  Enjoy it ladies!    My next lesson started at 15:00 with four elementary school students.  While that lesson was in progress, two men from NTT stopped by my classroom to install the hardware for a fiber optic internet connection 光ファイバー.  This was my wife's idea.  Up to now, we have been using an ADSL connection and it was plenty fast enough for me.  However, the wife thing likes to download a lot of music and videos, and she often times leaves her PC on for 24 hours or longer in order to download all that stuff.  She thinks that the fiber optic connection will speed up the download time.  Yes, it will, if, most of the routes along which the data travels are also using fiber optic cable.  Maybe in the future it will be more common, but right now, it is still rather rare.  My website is hosted on a server in Canada, and when I tested the new fiber optic system with my slowest loading web pages, most notably those on Snow TV,  I really couldn't see any difference.   Maybe my ISP will update their equipment in the near future.   At 20:00, I had another private lesson with the university student that had come here on several occasions to study for the Eiken Examination 英検２級.  Today, he brought with him the results of the test that he had taken two weeks ago.  His missed passing the exam for level 2 by only two points!  おし！ Oh!  that was sooooooo close.  He said he will try again next year.  Today, he wanted intense training in English Conversation, so we used the first two pages of my original textbook American English for All Occasions 日常表現.   This textbook starts right at the beginning with:  Hello, it is nice to meet you.  My name is ______.  Where are you from?  etc. and evolves into a decision by the two people in the story to go and see a concert together in Sapporo.  It contains 3 typical telephone dialogues where the two people are talking about arranging the time and place to get together again.  Then, when they decide to meet at the JR train station in Asahikawa, they confirm that they both have train tickets, and concert tickets before they get on the train that goes to Sapporo.  After getting off of the train at Sapporo station, they decide to go and to have lunch at a Mexican restaurant, which they need to look up in a phone book.  After deciding that a taxi is the best way to get to the restaurant, they hail a cab and go to the restaurant for lunch.  After that is finished, they decide to walk around Odori Park 大通公園 and after that,  finally take the subway and bus to the Makomanai Ice Area  for the Inoue Yosui concert.   It is in essence, a serial drama script book.  It is also my most advanced conversation textbook, to date.  Only a few of my students have been able to master the entire script.  I think this university student might be able to do it also.  We shall see.   After that lesson was over at 21:10, I tried to call the California Guy and make an appointment for playing raw music either tomorrow or on Sunday, but nobody answered the phone.  Maybe he was asleep.   I will try again tomorrow morning at about 10:00.    After all of that was out of the way, it was time for some cold beer and a bit of guitar picking.    Pickin' and a Grinnin'.    Hee  Haw!!   Lights out at 24:00.

2005 November 24 Thursday.

Today is a National Holiday in the USA.  It is called Thanksgiving Day 感謝の日 and it is always celebrated on the 4th Thursday in November.  This year, that day is the 24th.  Today.  This holiday is usually celebrated by having as many family members gather together for a splendid dinner.  Other features of a modern  American Thanksgiving Day celebration are Parades and Football games.  Thanksgiving day parades are noted for their use of very large inflated balloons in the shapes of various cartoon characters and the like.  These parades are really splendid to watch on TV.  The one that I remember the most is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade broadcast live from NYC.  A truly wonderful production.     I mentioned Football Games.  Yes, of course.  We are talking about  America here.  What would we do if we didn't have our football to watch every week?  American Football games usually last for about 3 or 4 hours, even though the actual game clock runs for only one hour.  Now, do you know why football games are so important in American life???$$$.       Exactly.       Being a National Holiday, many people take time out from their busy work-a-day lives to actually cook a meal for themselves, instead of buying frozen, pre-processed fast foods.   A big roast turkey dinner is traditional and still very popular.  Personally, I like turkey meat very much, but it is not a common grocery store item in most of Japan.  It is a very delicious low fat meat that is easy to bake (if you have a big oven) and then carve up into slices for both immediate and delayed consumption.   In fact, turkeys are so big that it takes a family of 4 about one week to eat all of the meat and stuffings that have resulted from the original dinner.  Turkey sandwiches are a popular lunch box item during this time of year.    The roots of this Thanksgiving Day if taken back to the most basic level will show that it is indeed a Harvest Festival.  That being said, there is a Traditional American Story about this custom which started on an occasion about 385 years ago.   The story goes as follows:   In the year 1621, Northern Europeans who had just arrived in this new world during the previous spring and summer, were now facing the end of autumn and the beginning of winter.   Being from a different continent, they were unfamiliar with many of the plants and animals that are native to this new world on the North American Continent, so they asked the local people for help.   The local people called themselves the Wampanoag.  The white people from Northern Europe called them Indians.  The photo you can see above is that of a drawing by  the artist Jean Louis Gerome Ferris (1863 - 1930).  It is his version of what took place on that day of the first Thanksgiving Feast (Harvest Feast).  It is a very good drawing, but is it accurate?     I will never know.     And neither will most of you.    Over here in Hokkaido Japan, it is a regular work day and I can't have my roast turkey dinner!   Bummer  残念.  However, I believe that I can watch the Football Games on satellite TV, if I really want to.   I could watch 'em, but I won't.  Thanks anyway, but I have other stuff to do.    Lights out at 24:00. 

2005 November 23 Wednesday.

Today is a National Holiday in Japan, nowadays called KinRoKanSha no Hi    勤労感謝の日, maybe it is called Labor Thanksgiving Day in English.   Therefore no classes to teach today and a nice smooth flow of free time to use in anyway I choose.  One thing I decided to do was to watch a very old movie that I haven't seen in more than 30 years.  This movie was made in 1939 and was one of the first color movies to be shown to the public at large.  Can you guess the name of the movie?   It is called The Wizard of Oz オズの魔法使.  I found a DVD of it at the Big House Store in Pulp Town yesterday.  It only cost 500 yen.  In fact there are a whole collection of these old movies, all for the same price, in a series called 水野晴郎のＤＶＤで観る世界名作映画.  They have them at HOMAC and other stores as well.  If you like old movies, this is a good way to start your very own collection.  The other one I bought recently was All Quiet on the Western Front.  Another classic.  The rest of the day I spent by reading books and articles on the internet.  I even played the guitar for a few hours.  Lights out at 24:00.

2005 November 22 Tuesday.

Tuesdays with Mr. T.  aka Justin Highfield.   More about that later.  My teaching day started off at 9:00 at Asahikawa University AU.   Again today, we used one of my original textbooks entitled Using Interrogatives 疑問詞を使いこなす。Some of the students are still on page 2, but one student has advanced to page 6.  Everybody else is somewhere in between.  You might ask me; "But how can you teach a class when the students are on different pages of the same textbook?"   Simple.  I walk around the room and practice the conversations, one on one, face to face, with each and every student.  Maybe I should call it, 回転英会話。A few of the students are able to memorize their lines in my textbook so fast, that I had to give them a new challenge, or let them out of class early.    So, after they had memorized their lines for 1 of the short conversations, I told them to write a Japanese translation of that conversation on the back of the print.  This has two purposes.  First, I wanted to make sure that they really understood what the conversation was all about, and also I needed to take up more of their time so they would not have to sit around in the classroom with nothing new to learn.  Fortunately for me, I can read Japanese.  Otherwise, this assignment for the students would not be possible.  In fact, when I came around again to their seats in the classroom, I would look at their written translations and read it back to them out loud.  One student made a mistake by writing the word 足　instead of the correct word 兄.  When I read the part he had written incorrectly, just the way he wrote it, he said "No, sensei, that's not right."  I said, "Yeah I know, but that's the way you wrote it."  Then I showed it to him. He was a bit embarrassed, and rewrote it immediately but it was the only mistake that he made during the entire lesson.  I was impressed.   We are all human and everybody makes mistakes from time to time.  Me too.        When those two classes were finished, I went back to the teacher's lounge to check my mail box and then drive back to my classroom.  One of the things that I found in my mail box was a rather lengthy questionnaire that all of the teachers are being asked to fill out.  I took a quick look at it right then and there, and discovered that the main purpose of this survey was to get idea's and opinions from the people who actually teach the classes every day, as to how the university can change its way of doing things in order to survive in this era of low birth rates in Japan.  This is where Mr. T was able to help me today.  As you may know from reading this blog in the past, Mr. T is a retired high school English teacher with more than 40 years of experience.  When he came again today for his 2 hour lesson, we talked about various things.  Mostly about what I had written in my blog of November 17 (see below).  After he was satisfied with my detailed explanation of that day some 15 years ago, he said, "Do you have any topics?"  I said,  "Yes, I do.  Could you please help me read and reply to this questionnaire that I have received from Asahikawa University just today?"  He replied, "Of course I will!"  Thank you Mr. T.   So, for about 40 minutes, he and I looked at the rather lengthy questionnaire  while I read it out loud in the original Japanese.  As expected, there were some words and phrases that I could not read correctly, and he taught me the proper reading and meaning of the passages.  The questionnaire is quite extensive and also asks for some written opinions about this or that, or anything at all.  I still have one month, until December 24 to complete and return this survey.  I have some very specific opinions and ideas regarding various ways to increase the new student enrollments at Asahikawa University AU,   and I will write them down in greater detail later.   I have worked as a part time instructor at AU for about 14 years, and I have come to know many of the other fulltime professors and most of the office staff.  These folk are good people.   Very good people.    I like them all very much.  It would be a shame,    no,      a disaster,  if this school were unable to stay in operation.    I don't want that to happen, and a lot of other, much more influential people than little old me, don't want that to happen either.  I will do everything I can to help, but my ideas and opinions that I will be sure write down on this questionnaire will be frank and to the point.  I will express my true opinion 本音, with absolutely no bullshit.  That's just the way I am.  Take it, or leave it.   When my two hours with Mr. T were finished, I had about 40 minutes to eat dinner, and then teach two more classes from 18:00 until 20:00.  After that, it was music time with more guitar practice in the C&W country and western mode.   Lights out at 26:00.

2005 November 21 Monday.

First order of business today was the English Friendship Class at the Chestnut Tree Kindergarten 英語ふれあい＠くりの木幼稚園.  As you may already know, this school has built a brand new building out in Nagayama Cho.  See the photo gallery by clicking here.  It now as about 195 students total.  I'm impressed.  In this age of low birth rates in Japan, the number of new students, for any school, is decreasing.  In order to survive, they must attract as many of the available children as possible.  This means that the school, any  school, must have some special features that many students want to make use of.  Thinking of the student's needs comes first.  Everything else, must be decided from there.  The Chestnut Tree Kindergarten is one such school.   If you look at my photo gallery that I took on opening day, you can see how everything is barrier free.  Wide open spaces.  A good view of the mountains, etc.  A great environment for children.   Anyway, I had to teach all 195 students at the same time so, I brought along my folk guitar, and 55 big, colorful flash cards.  We sang songs like ABCDEFG,....  BINGO (One of my favs) Old McDonald's Farm(One of the kids' favs) and a couple of my original numbers about facial expressions and feelings, plus the weather words.  It was an hour performance which the children enjoyed as much as I did.  When that was finished, I drove back to my classroom to eat lunch, and get ready for my next class starting at 13:30 at the Kagura Citizens Hall 神楽公民館英会話を楽しむ会.   Today again, there were many topics of discussion.  One lady told the story of how she lost her wallet, but then found it again 3 hours later.  No money was missing.  A small miracle in today's world.  Another lady told the story of how her water pump was old and not working well anymore, so she had to buy a new one from a not so friendly man.  Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.   A man described a new system being developed to communicate using only images and not any written or spoken words.  I'm interested, tell me more.  Another man talked about a newspaper article that was about a new product called ゆきわら納豆.  Natto is a food product made from fermented soy beans that is popular in many areas of Japan, mostly eastern Japan and Hokkaido.   It is said that most people in the Kansai area, won't eat it.  Anyway, this particular type of Natto is made with the natural bacteria from rice plant stalks.  Most of the Natto on the market today is made from bacteria that has been cultured in a laboratory.  I'm not sure which is better for your health, but my guess would be that, natural is best.  Personally, I like Natto very much.  Well, I do now.  Before I came to live in Japan, I had seen Natto in the USA on several occasions.  My first impression?  Not good.  For one, it smells really bad to the uninitiated.  The odor is similar to that of dirty socks.  Sorry, I had to say it.  Nobody wants to put a dirty sock into their mouth.  At least nobody that I know.   However, after I started living in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, Japan, I started eating Natto as well.  Even thought the first impression of the smell may be unpleasant, the wide variety of recipes in which Natto can be used is encouraging.    Think about this for a moment.  How many Japanese people do you know who like Blue Cheese?  I know of a few, but not many.  In the same way, many Americans, as well as Europeans, may not be initially attracted to Natto because of,...... you guessed it, the smell.   I also love Blue Cheese, by the way.  I eat it with saltine crackers, and red wine, every Christmas.  It is truly delicious, but most Japanese people might be repelled by the smell, at first sight.   Exactly.  That was my first impression of Natto.   I like in now, and in fact I eat it often.     After that class at the Kagura Citizens Hall 神楽公民館英会話を楽しむ会 was finished, I hurried back to my classroom for straight classes from 15:00 until 19:00.   After that was finished, I had to look at and grade the final examination that I had given to the first year students who attend the Kosei Nursing School ＪＡ旭川厚生看護専門学校.  It took me about one hour to finish this job.  They sent me an envelope with the Black Cat Delivery Service クロネコ宅急便 paid on delivery envelope that they sent me.   So, my wife and I walked over the the KuroNeko office here in Kagura to delivery the package.  It was a rather cold walk and I was glad to get back inside my classroom and warm up.  Then it was time for dinner and some music.  Lights out at 24:00.

2005 November 20 Sunday.

Another cold and snowy day.  The photo you see on the left is of a gift that my wife's younger sister (my sister-in-law) who lives in Tokyo sent to us on Friday.  It is a moving, flashing, totally enchanting snowman decoration.  Thank you so much Yuki!  I will proudly display it in my classroom.  I know that it will be a big hit with all of my students, both young and old.  I have a lot of snowman decorations in my classroom, more that 200 of them, but this one is by far the coolest.    It takes the cake.    Speaking of winter decorations, my wife and I went for a drive at about 17:00 to see what is new this year at the toy stores and such.  One stop we made was at Omocha no Yoshida おもちゃのヨシダ.  This place may be the best toy store in Asahikawa.  They have a ton of really cool illumination displays.  This year they have even more than ever before.  Some absolutely beautiful designs, like a huge Pegasus in blue-white lights.  It was stunning.  They even had this same snowman at their store!  Therefore, I could see how much it must have cost my sister-in-law to buy and send it to me.   Not cheap.  Very nice.   Another place we went to was Toys R Us.   Didn't find anything we wanted to buy so, we moved on.  As we were driving, it started to snow big time.  Big beautiful fluffy flakes of crystal wonder.  Makes driving a bit difficult at times.  We even saw an accident scene on one of the main streets.  DRIVE SLOW.  Please!  I say it all the time but some people never listen.  Driving too fast is the major cause of most serious fender benders.  Take your time.  Drive slowly.  You will get were you are going.  Or maybe you will get to a place where you had not intended to go.    We are all going somewhere all the time.    Lights out at 26:00.

2005 November 19 Saturday.

Raw music day.  No lessons today so I drove to my friend's house in Tomisawa to practice music with that California Guy who looks like an eggplant. (see photos for November 5 and 11).   I brought my acoustic six string and electric bass guitars.  I leave my big bass amplifier at his place to lighten the load.   Again today, we practiced the same 6 songs that we did last week, and added 3 more songs to the list today.  Half of them are his original songs and lyrics.   We played music for about 3 hours, and I was able to lay down a better bass line than last week.  It sounded pretty good.  After that was finished at about 15:00, I drove back to my place to eat some lunch update this blog for the previous two days.  At about 19:00, I decided to go for a walk on the cycling road that runs along the Biei River, and the Chubetsu River near my home.  It was rather cold and damp, but not windy, so it was pleasant enough.  There were a few icy patches on the ground here and there, so I had to walk with caution.  The last thing I need is to fall down and break a bone.  When that was finished, I came back inside and did some more reading.  Lights out at 26:00.

2005 November 18 Friday.

No classes until 13:30 today, so I had some time to do some reading and other things.  Last night at about 21:00, I got a call from Nora Masako のらまさこ.  She and I did a radio show at FM Rivier ＦＭりべーる83.7MHZ together about 10 years ago.  The program was called 国際ラジオ・ゼミナール.   After that, she then worked at Asahikawa Cable TV   ポテト　旭川ケーブル・テレビ　for a long time, and now she works at FIT as a writer.  They publish a monthly magazine that comes with the Hokkaido Newspaper at the end of each month.  During the phone conversation, she told me that the magazine was doing a special edition about English Conversations Schools and other such classrooms in Asahikawa.  She wanted to know if she could come to my classroom today at about 15:30 to take some photos, and interview the students and parents.  I said OK and she came, right on time.  I haven't seen her for several years, but she hasn't changed much.  She hasn't gained any weight either.  How does she do that?  Anyway, it was nice to see her again.  She stayed for about 40 minutes collecting information to use in her article, and then left.  She said that the article will appear in the December Issue of FIT.  I'm looking forward to it.   After all of my classes were finished at 20:00, I spent some time playing the folk guitar.  Lights out at 24:00.

2005 November 17 Thursday.

Today is the 15th anniversary of the day when I first met my wife.  I met her right here in this city.  At a dance party, as a matter of fact.  Why were we both at this dance party?  That's a long story, but I will take the time to show it to you anyway.      The dance party in question, was held at a disco in downtown Asahikawa called Krypton,....    or was it Argon,.....?   I'm not quite sure anymore, and I have no photos from that night to refresh my memory.     Anyway, to make a long story short, the American University that I was working for, at that time, had just opened up a sister school right here in Asahikawa that same year in April of 1990.     That is the only reason why I would have had an opportunity to come to this city in the first place.   This event tonight was, their first big party for the teachers and students, as well as many of the students' friends.     The reason my wife-to-be was there that evening is because one of her friends was a student in my class.  This student, invited my wife-to-be to this dance party where I met her for the first time, on this date, 15 years ago.   Actually, it is an even more complex twist of fate that brought us together on that night.    My future wife was planning to go to a Chage & Aska concert in Sapporo on that very same night, but she was unable to get tickets.  So, she decided to come to this dance party instead.    Lucky for me, eh?     The party was being held at a disco, so naturally there were music and dancing.    I love to dance, and I was doing a lot of dancing that night.  Until,.......  my right knee got a bad twist and I broke the ACL (The Anterior Cruciate Ligament) in it.  I couldn't hear the telltale popping sound that comes with it, because the music was so loud.  I didn't feel much pain from it either, because I had consumed a fair amount of alcohol.   When the ACL snapped, my ass hit the floor, and I was momentarily put out of action.    However, not knowing the true severity of my injury, I got back up and continued dancing.  But not for long.   About 15 seconds later, my ass hit the deck again.   This was my first clue that there was something seriously wrong with my right knee.   Being unable to keep on dancing, I hobbled off of the the dance floor and took a chair at a table full of young ladies.  One of the lovely ladies went and got me a drink, as if  needed another drink.    I didn't.   But I said thank you and drank it anyway.   As the night grew longer, I noticed that my right knee was swelling up bigger and bigger.  I put my leg up on a chair and pulled back the right leg of my trousers.     It was swollen, red and purple and looking nasty.  One of the pretty young girls at my table went to the bar, and got a big bag of ice wrapped in a towel, to put on my swollen knee.    It was a very smart thing to do, considering what I would learn later of my serious injury.   After another 2 hours, everyone decided to go to a Pub Restaurant 居酒屋 and have some food.  I was hungry too, so I went along with the group of mostly young women.  On the way out of the building in which the disco was housed, my right knee collapsed again as I was trying to walk down the stairs.   Again, my skinny ass hit the cold sidewalk hard, and I then knew, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that I had a serious problem with my right knee.   Two of the nice young gentlemen who were in the group, pulled me up to my feet, and let me use them as living crutches, so that I could walk all the way to the pub restaurant.   Along the way, we passed by a pharmacy, and one of the fine young ladies suggested that we stop in and buy compresses to put on my knee.   We did just that, and then proceeded on to the pub restaurant.   When we finally got to the eating place, I made a trip to the toilet, so I could put the compress medicine patches on my right knee.   After that, I went back to the room with the low tables on tatami mats, to eat some food and, yeah, you guessed it, drink more alcohol.    While the dinner was in progress, I started talking with some of the lovely ladies that were sitting close to me.    A habit that I very much enjoy.    One of them was my wife of today.  Her name is Ikuko.  We exchanged addresses and telephone numbers and the rest, as they often say, is history.    That evening of November 17, 1990, was a moment in time, that has changed my life forever.   And changed it in a very good way.     A veeeeeeeeeeeeery good way.   Enough for now.  Lights out at 24:00.

2005 November 16 Wednesday.

No classes until 15:00 today so I spent some time reading about how to use computer graphics software.  When all lessons were finished at 19:00, I went for a short walk to get some fresh air and much needed exercise.  It is very cold at night nowadays, but there is still no snow cover on the ground, so walking is easy to do.  Just wait until everything is covered in white, and then just walking will be a dangerous adventure.  Every year, dozens of people injure themselves when they slip and fall down on icy streets and sidewalks.  Some even die from hitting their heads too hard on the ice.  Life is a gamble when stepping outdoors during the snowy season.  But that season is still about one month away.  Enjoy it while you can.    However, even now, there are some icy patches here and there where a careless person could slip and take a dive.  Be careful.        After that brief but refreshing walk, I stopped by the Seikyo Supermarket to see if they had any good foods left at 50% off.    I found a few items and also bought some Sapporo Yebisu All Malt Beer.  This beer is truly tasty, and a bit more expensive than Sapporo Classic which is also 100% malt.  However, unlike Sapporo Classic which is only available in Hokkaido, Sapporo Yebisu is available nationwide, and indeed all around the world.  No MSG in this stuff.  This is real beer.  Real food with nutritional value.  Barely malt, water, hops and yeast.  That's the ingredients.  That's all there is in it.  You can see for yourself, the rich golden color of the beer in the photo on the left.  Recently, something called HappouShuu 発泡酒 has been making big sales in the beer market.  This stuff looks lot like beer, but by law, it can contain no more that 25% barley malt.  As a result, other things such a sugars and flavorings are added to it to make it taste more like beer.  How does it taste?    It tastes absolutely terrible!!!    How can I describe it.     When you first open the can and take a swig, it seems like beer.  Then when you swallow it, you notice right away, that none of the rich beer flavor remains.  In fact, the ephemeral flavor is  hollow, and leaves a rather nasty aftertaste.   I won't drink it.    But many people do.  Why is that?  Because it costs about 50% less than real beer, that's why.  Some people who drink it regularly, say that they now prefer HappouShuu to real beer!  Have they become addicted to the chemicals contained within the brew?    Is there MSG in this stuff???     If you read the label on the cans (they don't sell it in bottles), you will see all kinds of stuff like "sugar types" or "flavoring types" written on it.  What is this stuff really?  I want no part of it.  Thanks anyway.    After writing this blog, with a few Yebisu All Malt Beers under my belt, I sat down to play the six string folk guitar for a few hours.  Lights out at 24:00.

2005 November 15 Tuesday.

My teaching day started out at 9:00 at Asahikawa University AU.   Another  three hours spent guiding the students through conversation simulations.  As usual, some of the students tried very hard to learn their lines, and some didn't try at all.  Fine with me.  It's your choice.  After all of that was finished at 12:10, I drove a back to my classroom, but along the way, I stopped by the drive-thru for KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) to get some "food" because I had some discount coupons.  The reason I put the word "food" in quotation marks, is because I seriously doubt the nutritional value of these products.  Not just KFC, but all fast food restaurants.  Most of the stuff that places like this sell is; high in calories and low in nutrition.  Yeah, I know, it tastes good at first, but after a while, it seems that it doesn't digest very well and then a few days later, you get a craving for more of the same.  Do these "food" products contain some kind of an addictive drug?  Well, yes.  Actually they do.  It is known as MSG.  Ever heard of it?  Read the ingredients label on any processed "food" that you might see in the supermarket.  If the term MSG isn't written on it, it might be called something else, such as "flavorings" or something similar to that.  It is truly amazing how much of this chemical called MSG (Mono Sodium Glutamate) is used in the modern food chain.  Some people have a violent allergic reaction to this stuff, but most people hardly notice the bad side effects that ingesting this crap can produce.   Have you ever eaten Instant Ramen, or Cup of Noodle, or some such similar product?  The soup base of these so called "foods" is full of MSG as well as other "flavorings".  It is not real food, folks.  It is junk food that makes you feel satisfied for only a short time.  Then, a few days later, you get the craving for more of the same.  You might experience; A Big Mac Attack, or a sudden craving for KFC or some type of spicy and greasy sausage, etc.   Why am I talking about this???  Because I have been there and done that and I am still in the grip of the fast food addiction that is sweeping most if not all, technologically advanced first world countries.  The reason this is important is because, consuming a large amount of this "food" leads to obesity 肥満.   I see more and more of this in Japan nowadays, but the USA is probably the worst when it comes to total number of very fat people.  And I do mean fat.  Not fat and strong like a Sumo Wrestler, but fat and lazy like and overweight couch potato.   I myself am very overweight.  Not because I eat a lot of processed foods, I don't.  But because my work is such that I spend a lot of time sitting down, or standing in front of a classroom, talking to students.  A severe lack of exercise, is my biggest health problem.   Ironically, the high calorie, low nutrition, fast food (junk food) craze has spawned many other multi-billion dollar industries.  One of them being, the DIET industry.  You have seen them on late night TV as well as in newspapers and magazines of all types.  Lose weight!  Look beautiful again!   Yeah, right.  I used to be very slim, and strong.  That was between the ages of 1 and 37. Then, I got married, and my lifestyle changed dramatically.  Lots of good food, and not much reason to exercise.  The formula for gaining and/or losing weight is very very simple.  It is no big mystery, and it is not a secret either.  It is as follows:  Eat more calories than you burn off each day and you become fat.  Eat less calories than you burn off each day, and you become slim.  It is really that simple.  Of course there a some cases where a disease or an illness can throw an extra monkey wrench into the works, but those are special cases.  In other words, if you want to lose weight, eat less and exercise more.  Not complicated when written down as a theory, but rather difficult to implement as a lifestyle.  There it is.  I have said it.  Lifestyle is the most basic of all factors that determine anything about your life.   I could go on about this forever, and never get slim again, so I will leave it at this for now.      Getting back to today's lessons, today is Tuesday, and it is another day of 2 hours with Mr. T.  You remember Mr. T., don't you?  He is the retired high school English teacher who has never spent such a long time living in an English speaking country, but none the less, can speak very good English on a wide variety of subjects.   Today Mr. T said: "I didn't read your blog for today, so I have no topics to talk about today.     Yeah, right Mr. T.        So, being forced to take the lead in the conversation, I asked him a standard question.  "Mr T., Do you have an English Name?   He paused and thought for a moment, then he replied;  "No, I don't."  The reason that I asked this particular question, is because I have encountered several Japanese men who have adopted and English first name to attach to their traditional Japanese last name.  I know a person named Frank Oda.  He is an English teacher.   Now retired, living in Asahikawa.  Also a few other people with English first names.  So, I said to Mr. T., "I will make an English first name and last name for you by directly translating your Japanese name into English."  The name I came up with was Justin Highfield.    Sounds pretty good don't you think?   After that lesson was over at 17:00, I had a one hour break, and then two more lessons between 18:00 and 20:00.  When all lessons were finished, I did some reading on the internet.  Lights out at 24:00

2005 November 14 Monday.

My first class of the day started at 13:30 at the 神楽公民館英会話を楽しむ会.   The first order of business today, was some hot green tea with どら焼き that one of the students brought with her to the classroom today.  The green tea was very tasty, and so was the DoraYaki!  Thank you so much.  The reason she had these items, is because on Sunday was held the observance of the 7th anniversary of her mother-in-law's death 七周忌　 (see my blog of 2005 October 2, for an explanation about what this means in Japanese Society).   She further went on to explain that she had lived with her mother-in-law, in the same house, for more than thirty years.  Wow!  That must take a lot of patience.  I have heard some first hand accounts from my wife's older sister about what it is like to live with a mother-in-law.  It is really tough on the new bride.     In Japan, when a woman and a man get married, there are many occasions where the new bride will go to live with her husband's family.  In such a case, the new bride becomes, in fact, the newest member of the family.  Therefore, she is subjected to all kinds of demands and requests from the husband's parents.  As well as any brothers and sisters that her husband might have.  A rather unenviable position, to say the least.  In order to keep your cool and survive the situation, you have to keep your mouth shut, and your eyes and ears open.   That, is a tuff row to hoe.  If you can handle it, you might have an easier life later on.  Another student talked about a TV show they had seen about an old woman who lived by herself in a small village at Shiretoko.  Another person talked about how the Hokkaido Government was bankrupt and as a result, all government employees were given a 10% pay cut.  Wonderful news.  After that class was finished at 14:45, I was hurrying out of the building when the 館長　stopped me and asked me if I could play Santa Claus at a children's on Tuesday, November 29.  Unfortunately, I have two classes at Asahikawa University on that day and at that time, so I had to say no.  Which is too bad because I have done this before, and I rather enjoy it.     Back to my classroom for my next class at 15:00.  Today, all of my classes were finished by 18:00.  A rather unusual occurrence.  So, I walked over to the the Taisetsu Arena 大雪アリーナ in order to take advantage of the free indoor walking course.  This is another nice service that anyone can take advantage of.  If there are no special events scheduled, the corridor that circles the arena on the second floor can be used as a walking or jogging track.  I used it for a walking track today.  On the ice below, there were about 10 young girls and two older women conducting an ice skating lesson.  Some of these girls are really good figure skaters.  I enjoyed watching them as I walked around the ice rink.  It is rather cold in there, but at least there is no ice on the ground to slip on and fall down.    I think I should do this more often.  After that, it was dinner time.  Tonight, homemade pizza Hawaiian Style.  Yummy.  I even found the time to play the guitar for about an hour.  Lights out at 24:00.

2005 November 13 Sunday.

No appointments today, but I did a proofreading 校正 for a client who translated a pamphlet about Shiretoko 知床 from Japanese into English.  She  sends these jobs to me as  WORD files attached to an email.  I will check the original Japanese against her English translation, make any changes to the English as necessary, and then send it back to her by email.  We have known each other for many years.    She has come to my classroom many times in the past when she was studying to get her qualification in English Proficiency Exam Level 1 英検一級.   She passed the exam. She is the only one that I know personally who has that level of qualification.     Anyway, as usual, her translation contained no mistakes.   But a few sentences I rearranged and used some different vocabulary items of the same meaning, to make it read more smoothly in the eyes of a native speaker.   After about one hour, I finished that, and then I got down to designing my New Years Card 年賀状 for 2006.  It will be the Year of the Dog 戌年.  The photo that you see on the left, is the handsome dog of one of my friends.  The dog's name is Denzel.  A good looking guy, don't you think?   His image will be a part of my New Years Card for 2006.  I enjoy doing graphics work on the computer, but as you can image, it takes a lot of time.  No problem there, all I have is time.  Twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.  And so does everybody else.  How we use our time determines the quality of our lives.  I want to be as creative as possible with the time I have left.  Lights out at 24:00.

2005 November 12 Saturday.

Raw music day.  Starts at 11:00 and ends about 3 hours later when my fingers get tired and when his vocal chords get rough.  Then it's time to take a break.   The photo on the left was taken from Tomisawa Elementary School 富沢小学校 and pretty much sums up the weather today.  Cold and damp, with occasional fallings of huge white and fluffy snowflakes.  Really beautiful.  It will be about another month until a significant amount of snow piles up on the ground.  Then it will be a silent crystal world.  After our music session, in which we actually got some work done, by rehearsing a set of 6 songs, I came back to my classroom to eat some grub and then play a little more guitar.  Lights out at 24:00.

2005 November 11 Friday.

No classes until 13:30 today, so I had plenty of time to relax and do some reading.  I even had time to take a long hot bath and warm up enough to stave off the cold winter chill that now permeates the air.    Even though it has snowed, and will continue to do so for the next 5 months, it is not yet freezing cold 24 hours a day, every day.  This means, among other things, that the air is COLD and DAMP.  The kind of cold that penetrates to the bone.  That is why, a hot tub, a la Japanese, is the perfect remedy for such weather conditions.   So that's what I did.   After the recharge 充電 it was back to work with lessons from 13:30 until 20:00.  At about 18:00 I made a phone call to my friend's house in Tomisawa 富沢.  He answered the phone and we set up a time frame to get together and play some music, real time and raw.    As I mentioned in last week's blog for Saturday, me and this California Guy (who looks a lot like an eggplant, with blue eyes).   like to play music on our guitars, and that is what we will do tomorrow.   A bit of 6 sting music before bedtime, and a real rehearsal tomorrow morning. Lights out at 26:00.

2005 November 10 Thursday.

I had no classes until 15:00 today, but I got up at about 9:00 to wait for the nice people from my Toyota dealer to come pick up my car for the reasons mentioned in yesterday's blog.  They rang my doorbell at about 9:30, and I gave them the keys to my van.  They drove it back to their shop in Suehiro 末広, which is rather far from where I live here in Kagura 神楽.  Then at about 17:30, they brought my car back to me here at the classroom.  They had changed the tires from summer to winter tires, repaired the parking brake system, replaced some worn parts and washed the car both inside and outside, right down to the rubber floor mats.  All for about $80.  Very good service at a reasonable price.  With my first class starting at 15:00 and my last class ending at 20:00, I had a very short work day.  Enough time to do some reading and research.  Not much else to talk about today.  Lights out at 24:00.

2005 November 9 Wednesday.

First snow 初雪 in the city.   Here we go again.  Another 6 months of cold and nasty weather.  It's not all bad.  It is better than the constant drizzle of rain.  Of course, it has been snowing in the mountains for many weeks already, but today it hit the city streets for the first time.  Fortunately for me, my friendly Toyota dealer will come  all the way over to my classroom tomorrow morning to pick up my NOAH, and take it back to their shop for the first annual safety inspection, to replace a faulty part in the parking brake system and to change my tires from summer to winter tires.  Is that good service or what?  Of course, it will cost me a bit of money, but not that much.  Then, when they have finished all of the maintenance, they will bring my van back here to me, on the same day in the late afternoon.  They will probably have given my rig a good washing as well.  Am I a satisfied customer?  You bet I am.  They take good care of my car and they make my life a lot easier in the process.   When I lived in the USA, I used to do all of the repair work on my cars by myself.  Sometimes with the help of a friend or two.  I had a big garage and a lot of tools.   That made it possible for me to do it myself.    DIY    In fact, many people living in the USA do their own automotive repairs.  For some people, it is a hobby that they enjoy doing as often as possible.  For others, it is simply a way of saving money.  Car parts can be expensive, but the cost of the mechanic's labor is much more expensive.  In my case, I did my own car repairs for the second reason as  stated above.    To save money.     I never really enjoyed working on cars that much.  I am not very skillful working with my hands on anything, and if you have ever worked on a car or a truck before, you know what I mean when I say that you have to work on parts of the car that are hard to reach, greasy and dirty, at strange angles, all the while being in contorted  body positions.  Not to mention the knuckle bangers and the pain that comes with them.    I am so glad that I don't have to fool around with that stuff anymore.   By the way, the photo that you see at the top-left of today's blog was taken by a person who works at the The California Institute of Technology.    This type of photography must be very difficult.  I mean how much time do you have available to take a photo like this?  Mere seconds would be my guess.  The person who took this photo has also visited Asahikawa!   You can read about it on his website by clicking here.  He comments on how good the quality of the snow is here in this area known as the Kamikawa Basin 上川盆地.  And he is right.  A lot of skiers and snowboarders go very far out of their way to come to this city and the surrounding areas just because the snow is so light and fluffy.  Not only am I  talking  about people from other parts of Japan, but also from many other foreign countries as well.  One of the most numerous of the many groups being Australians.  The folks from Down Under have even purchased some real estate here in the Niseko ニセコ area, and are running ski resorts that cater mainly to fellow Aussies.  Is that cool or what?   And it is not only people who enjoy winter sports that come to visit Asahikawa and some other places in Hokkaido.  There are also many people from Taiwan and other countries in temperate zones, who come here to experience the Snow World that is Hokkaido, for the first time in their lives.   Yes, snow is beautiful.  It is magical.  It is all around us during this time of year.  I was born and raised in Snow Country.  Spokane Washington in the USA to be exact.  Therefore, my first winter in Asahikawa some 15 years ago was not a  big shock.    In fact, it was a pleasant surprise.  Strangely enough, I never tried any winter sports until I came to Asahikawa!  Any person who was born and raised in Asahikawa would not believe me if I had said that to them.  What?!?  You have never skied before?!?  No, I haven't.  My parents wouldn't let me because, they were afraid that I would break my legs and have to go to a hospital, and therefore cost them a lot of money.  So, I was not allowed to ski.  Living in FEAR.  A negative view of life.  Of course, being a young child I had no money of my own so, I couldn't go skiing, even if I had wanted to, more than anything else.   Finally, at the age of 33, I had my first experience on a chair lift at a ski slope.    It was not skis that I was wearing on my feet, but rather a snowboard.  I still am not able to ride on skies.  The only kind of skiing that I do is cross-country skiing 歩くスキー.   Yeah, I'm a loser, and I know it.  But I still have a fully enjoyable winter riding the snowboard only.  It is a really mellow sport.  Something beautiful like a bird in flight.  If you have never tried it, I suggest that you should.  Have you ever had a dream where you are flying through the sky like a free bird?  I have, on many occasions.  That is exactly what snowboarding in virgin powder snow feels like.  Free Bird.  Fly away.  Enough for today.  Lights out at 24:00.

2005 November 8 Tuesday.

Tuesdays with Mr. T.   Today is that day.  More about that later.     My teaching day started off at 9:00 at Asahikawa University AU.  Again today, we spent the entire class doing conversation practice using a textbook that I wrote myself called Using Interrogatives 疑問詞を使いこなす.   The objective of this original textbook is to give the student a working knowledge of the Question Words in English which can be summarized as the 6W1H words.  What, When, Where, Who, Why, How and Which.  Page 1 of the textbook starts out with the most basic uses of each word, followed by a typical short conversation using these words in simple sentences that are commonly used in real conversations.  For example:  What is your name?  When is your birthday?  Where were you born?  Who is that big fat guy standing over there?  Why doesn't this radio work?  How do you spell スキー in English.  Which do you like better, coffee or tea?  And then the continuing pages start over with WHAT, and go around again.  When the simpler questions become less and less, I change to the more idiomatic uses of the interrogatives, which are also very common in daily speech, but require the use of both spoken and written Japanese in order to adequately explain the true meanings of these phrases to the students in my class.  Some of them enjoy my grueling lesson very much, and some don't like it at all.  Sorry guys!  It's a required course for you 必修科目.  If it was only an elective course 選択科目, I wonder how many students would come to my class.  They need the 2 credits that I can give them if they "PASS" my class, in order to graduate.  But many of them do not see English as a necessity in their daily lives, either now or in the future.  That's OK with me because that is their prerogative.   Do what you want to with your life.    It's your choice, your freedom of choice.    Use your privilege and make the most of your UNIVERSITY OPPORTUNITY.      After that class was over, it was back to my classroom for some lunch and then straight classes from 15:00 until 20:00.  As I said at the start of today's blog, today is Tuesday with Mr T.  For 2 hours, we talked about a variety of things, but spent a good deal of time talking about the English education system in Japan.  Our question was: Why is it that soooooooo many people in Japan are unable to speak English, even though they have all spent at least 6 years in school studying it?  We both have various ideas as to why this is, but we both came to the same basic conclusion that the English education starts too late.  In Japan, English is a required subject starting in the first year of junior high school when the student is about 12 years old.   Everybody in the world can speak a language.  Some language.  Any language.  Why is this?  Because they listened to their parents speaking a language, and mimicked the sounds.   Listen and Repeat.  Listen and Repeat.  Do it again, and again.  Pretty damn simple, isn't it.   The younger you start learning a language, any language, the easier it is to learn and the better you will be able to speak it for the rest of your life.   ABC 123.   Could this be the solution to the English Language Education Dilemma in Japan?   Nah!  That's too simple!   Remember, Mr. T is a retired high school English teacher with over 40 years of experience in teaching English to high school students.  In his opinion, high school English should be an elective!  Not a required course.  His reasoning?  By the time a kid gets to high school, they already know if they want to continue to study English or not.  Let them decide for themselves.   In order to make sure that the students get a full 6 years of required English education, I proposed that they start teaching English during the 3rd year of elementary school.   Start with simple greetings, questions and common vocabulary.  Introduce the English Alphabet and teach the kids Phonics.  Make it fun.  Make it interesting.  The kids will absorb it like a sponge.  More of them will become able to speak English for the rest of their lives.  Have we done it?  Have two old English teachers solved the problem of why soooooooo few people in Japan can really speak English?????  The only way to find out is to try it and see.  I guess we will have to go to the Education Board of Asahikawa 教育委員会 and set down a proposal.  Will they listen to us?  I wonder.  Well anyway, after that two hours of solving one of the world's problems, I had a one hour break with no students so, I ate dinner.   Then it was back to work from 18:00 until 20:00.  When all of that was finished, I played the guitar for a few hours.  Lights out at 24:00.

2005 November 7 Monday.

My teaching day started out at 10:00 at the Little Buds Kindergarten めばえ幼稚園.  I go there to conduct the English Friendship Class 英語ふれあい.   At this place, they divide all of the children into 3 groups according to their school year.  So, I have three separate lessons during my one hour or so visit to this school.  With the student body divided into three groups, I can adjust the level of each lesson to more closely meet the needs of the children.  Also today, there were many parents at the kindergarten, who had come with their children to take a look at the place.  This is because the school is now accepting applications for next year's new students.  Several of the mothers and their children came by to see my class.  They seemed to enjoy it.  This kindergarten uses a photo of me conducting the English Friendship Classes, as a small part of its advertising campaign to get new students.  As you may know, the birthrate in Japan is very low, and the number of new children coming into the system gets less and less each year.  Therefore, schools at all levels of education have to compete ferociously to get enough new students each year, to keep their schools open.  Having an English class at a kindergarten is a rare occasion in Asahikawa.  Therefore, it becomes a calling card for increased enrollment.  It's good for the children, it's good for the kindergarten, and it's good for me as well.  Oh!  Did I mention that it is one heck of a lot of FUN.  Do I really get paid to do this?  Yeah, a bit.   After that gig was finished at 12:00 (2 hours later), I drove back to my classroom to eat some lunch and get the place ship-shape for the coming lessons of today.  The next lesson started at 13:30 at the 神楽公民館英会話を楽しむ会.   Again today, a wide range of subject matter was talked about.  One man told about seeing his new granddaughter for the first time.  Another person talked about how much he enjoyed studying the Russian Language.  A subject that I know absolutely nothing about.  It sounds like a very difficult and complicated language.  Another woman had a very interesting photo book of Rome, which showed the difference in the way it looks today, from the way it looked when it was at the height of The Roman Empire.  And what a difference it was.  The way the book was put together, is as follows:  Of every scene, there were 2 pages.  The page on the bottom is a photograph of the buildings as they look today.  On top of that page, there is a clear plastic page with an artist's color drawing of what the same place looked like 2000 years ago.  What an amazing difference.  Some of the old buildings are completely gone now, and some of them remain only partially.  Rome must have been a fantastic world in its heyday.  After that lesson was finished at 14:45, I rushed back to my classroom for straight classes from 15:00 until 20:00.  After that some reading and even some guitar playing.  Lights out at 24:00.

2005 November 6 Sunday.

Cooler and less sunny than yesterday.  More leaves have fallen from the trees.  When the next big wind and rain storm comes along, the trees will be bare.  Nothing very pretty about that.  It will be the time between then, and the first snow that is the least beautiful of all the seasons here in Asahikawa.  A busy time of year to be sure, but not such a pretty scene.   I sat around the house reading and doing some research on the internet until about 19:00 when I ventured over to HOMAC Home Amenity Center, to buy some back up ink tanks for my ink jet printer.  Why today?   Well, I will be printing out several hundred New Years Cards 年賀状 in the very near future and I don't want get stalled out in the middle of the operation because I ran out of some vital supply.  Colored inks being one of them.  The other vital supply being the post cards themselves.  Already purchased from the soon to become privatized Post Office System.  I also stopped by the Seikyo supermarket to pick up the necessary ingredients to make Taco Salad.  Yeah, I'm cooking tonight.  While I was at HOMAC, I found a DVD of the classic 1930 anti war movie All Quiet on the Western Front for 500 yen, so I bought the last copy.  I watched the movie twice while I was preparing and eating dinner.  Some things never change do they.  How do you get people to become soldiers and fight in a big war?  Tell them they are being attacked and must defend the Fatherland.  If you don't, you're unpatriotic.  It's that simple.  It works in any country, at any time during the course of human history.  Amazingly scary stuff.  The herd mentality.  No time for music today so I went to bed a bit early at about 23:00.  Waiting for the next big rain.

2005 November 5 Saturday.

I had a private lesson from 11:15 until 12:15 with a high school girl.  The lesson was scheduled to start at 11:00, but the girl made a mistake with the bus system.  Today, she rode the number 27 bus from her home near downtown Asahikawa.  What she forgot was that bus number 27 does not turn left onto Route 237 and stop in front of the Taisetsu Arena.  Instead it continues over the Ryojin Bridge 両神橋 and down into Kamui 神居.  So she had to walk back across the bridge to Kagura 神楽.  A rather long distance.  The fact that she was only 15 minutes late, was amazing in itself.  I myself have made this same mistake before.  The closest stop #27 makes to my classroom is near the Kagura Citizens' Hall 神楽公民館.  If you don't get off there, you end up on the other side of the Biei River 美瑛川 in Kamui.   After that lesson was finished, I ate some lunch and then packed up my bass guitar, amplifier and six string acoustic guitar and drove over to a friend's house in Tomisawa 富沢.  This friend has a very close connection to this building Taiyo no Sato 太陽の郷 where I live and work.   Anyway, our mutual friend who now lives in California, (see his photo on the left) has come back to stay in Asahikawa for several months, and like me, he loves to play music, so that's what we did for about 3 hours today.  He has even written some original songs that are very good.  He did most of the singing and guitar playing while I tried to lay down the bass line.  We had a great time.  Because our friend who lives in Tomisawa has a house that is not very near to any other house, we can turn up the volume and really play it right.  Here, where I live,  I have to keep the volume low or other people will complain about the noise (music).    The weather today was warm and sunny, and the scenery in Tomisawa was absolutely beautiful.    When that was finished at about 17:00, I came back to my classroom to eat dinner and spend a little more time playing the six string.  Then I studied some more about how to make computer graphics.  Finally, I decided to relax and see if there were any good free movies on Sky Perfect TV.  I got lucky and was able to watch most of JFK, a movie that I have seen twice before.  If you have never seen this movie before, I highly recommend it.    It is much closer to the truth of what really happened on that day, November 22, 1962,  than most people would like to believe.   Lights out at 27:00.

2005 November 4 Friday.

A really busy teaching day with classes from 9:00 until 21:00.  Hey!  Wait a minute.  That's the same schedule I had last week on this day!   Fortunately, I had a three hour break from 10:30 until 13:30, after I finished the first class of the day at the Hokkaido Nursing Academy of Asahikawa 北海道立旭川高等看護学院.    Again today instead of doing conversation practice, I gave a 40 minute presentation about the origins of and current customs associated with Halloween.  I talked about the same things I wrote about in the Halloween Essay on this website.  I did not give the students a printed copy of the essay, so they had to listen with their ears and read my writings on the blackboard and, observe my gestures.  Most of them enjoyed it,  and nobody was dozing off today.    After that we watched a very old animation video entitled: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  This animation is about 40 years old but still rather amusing.  When that class was finished at 10:30, I came back to my classroom to eat and watch some TV news.  Then it was back to work at 13:30 with the two lovely ladies who come for their private lesson every week at this time.  Another fun filled conversation time learning useful English.  I can see definite signs of language learning progress in these two ladies.  They are able ask questions, and make meaningful comments to my replies.  Also, they are unconsciously able to use different phrases of the same meaning interchangeably.  This is a sign that, English has become a part of their brains' operating system.  Practice makes performance automatic.  And not not only with languages.  With every thing from music to acting to sports, you name it.  Repetition is the mother of all basic learning.  Mastery of basic learning leads to creativity and original productions.  Don't read about it, do it!   After that class was finished at 14:30 I had about 20 minutes of free time before my next lesson at 15:00.  Then it was straight lessons until 21:00.  The last lesson of the day, from 20:00 until 21:00 was with the same university student that came last week at this time.  This same student also came here about 6 months ago to study for the Eiken pre-level 2   準2級.  　　He passed it on the first try.  Another satisfied customer, back for the next level.  　This time is trying for level two 英検2級.  Our one hour class was 100% pronunciation and intonation speaking practice.  　It is tough work for the student. 　 After that lesson ended, it was time to sit down and relax with a cold boy.  And so, I did. 　 I even felt inspired enough to pull out the old six-string and played it for about 2 hours.   Another very busy but thoroughly enjoyable day.     Lights out at 26:00.

2005 November 3 Thursday.

Today is a National Holiday called Bunka no Hi 文化の日 meaning Culture Day.  Unfortunately, it's on a Thursday this year instead of a Friday or a Monday which would have made it a three day weekend.  Anyway, my classroom is closed today, as well as a lot of other schools and government offices.  That is why I have put the graphic of the National Flag on this page.  It is called the Hi no Maru 日の丸　meaning (maybe) the Circle of the Sun.  Personally, I like the simple elegance of this design.  On National Holidays, many buildings and taxi cabs will display this flag.   As I was saying, I didn't have any classes today so I went down to the coffee shop on the first floor.  A place called Soleil.  Which strangely enough means SUN in French.  This is because the building that I live in where the coffee shop is also located is called, Taiyo no Sato 太陽の郷 meaning something like, Home of the Sun (House of the rising sun???).  I talked to the owner and her visiting artist for about an hour.  This coffee shop is only open when there is some kind of exhibition of original art works.  This week, it is an exhibition of hand made mufflers and sweaters.  When I say hand made, I mean hand made.  This lady gets raw wool, combs it out, spins it into thread, and then weaves it into cloth!!!  How many people in the world today can do that?  And the quality of her products is very good.  I asked her if she had a website for her products and she said; "No, I don't even have a Personal Computer."   I almost fell over.  I can think of a lot of people who would want to buy her creations, if they only knew about it.  If I had the time, I would make a website for her.   Speaking of time, I spent most of today learning how to make computer graphics using Macromedia Fireworks.  I decided to use the pen and tablet hardware that I had bought about 7 years ago, but discovered that I doesn't work with Windows XP and Fireworks MX, so at about 19:00, the wife and I drove over to One Million Volts (100万ボルト)  To buy an new, more up to date interface.  I was able to find one and brought it home with me.  After installing the drivers and such, I was drawing all kinds of really bad art on my PC.  For me to be able to create professional and original artwork, I will have to spend many long hours learning and practicing it.  There is another long winter coming our way, so I will be indoors most of the time.   Fortunately, I will always have something interesting to do.  Lights out at 26:00.

2005 November 2 Wednesday.

I didn't have any classes until 15:00 today, so I spent some time reading about making and modifying vector graphics using Macromedia Fireworks software.  I still have a lot to learn, but that's what makes it interesting and challenging.  I always want to learn something new, every day if possible.   The young lady who comes to my 19:00 class every week, recently went to Korea for a short holiday, and today, she brought me some souvenir gifts.   One of them you can see in the photo on the left.   Ye,  you know the rest of the story.  It is a box of chocolates promoting the very famous Korean TV drama, Winter Sonata 冬のソナタ.  I realize that this Korean drama, as well as many other Korean dramas and movies are very popular in Japan right now, but I must confess that I have never watched any of them.  Of course, I was glad to receive the gift from my friend and student Ms. KH, but I have absolutely no interest in the show itself.   Also, the main male character in the drama, known as Yon Sama ヨン様, is not to my liking.  He seems to be too soft and tender. Not at all a tough guy image.  I realize that he has a lot of fans, but I simply don't understand why.    When all classes were finished for the day, it was dinner time and then about an hour spent playing the guitar.  Lights out at 25:00.

2005 November 1 Tuesday.

My first class of the day started at 9:00 at Asahikawa University AU.   Today, I started out each class by saying Happy New Year!!!   The students who were awake, looked at me like I was crazy.  I then explained that yesterday was Halloween, and for the Celtic People, today was New Years Day.  Then I spent about 30 minutes explaining about the history of Halloween and current customs associated with the occasion.  It was a summary of the information I wrote about in my Halloween Essay.  Then we went back into conversation practice for the rest of the class time.   After those two classes were finished at 12:10, I drove back to my classroom, had lunch and got ready for the rest of my classes from 15:00 until 20:00.   Starting at about  15:00, I had a two hour conversation with Mr. T.   I must say that out of all of the students that come to my classroom, Mr. T can talk about a wider range of subjects than anyone else.  He has a wide ranging knowledge of history, politics and current events.  Plus a lot of interesting stories about his childhood and his 40 plus years working as a high school English teacher here in the Kamikawa Area of Hokkaido.     I don't really teach this class, I participate in it.   Mr. T is also a regular reader of this blog, and sometimes he will ask me questions about certain words or phrases that I write here.   This blog is not really written English, it is conversational English that has been written down.   It is sort of like I am talking to myself and letting the whole world read about it.   I realize that most people in the world have never seen my website, and that's OK with me.   But it is enjoyable for me to know that many people in Asahikawa and in a few other locations, do read my blog on a regular basis because it does help them with their study of English.  Just like it says right at the top of this page in red letters.      When all classes for the day were finished, I sat down and put the final touches on my new BGM slide show called Autumn Leaves.  You can watch it by clicking here.   Not only did I finish the new show, but I also completely remade the menu bar at the top of the Snow TV pages.   Before, I had used a component known as hover buttons, but I discovered that many times these buttons would not display properly on the internet.  Therefore I made some new and original buttons that are simple gif files and download quickly.   After that, I played the guitar for about 90 minutes.  Lights out at 24:00.

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