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

www.snowmanjapan.net

for October 2006

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

2006 October 31 Tuesday.

HALLOWEEN. Maybe even the curse of all hallowed's eve. I was not a happy camper this morning when I got up at 7:00. I had somehow managed to become afflicted with a fever. Not a high fever, but just enough to throw my main gyro off balance. In other words, I couldn't remain standing for such a long time. The only solution to the problem was to cancel ALL OF MY CLASSES for today. Therefore, I did so. I slept all day. Until about 19:45 when I finally stirred from my not too comfortable slumber. I don't even feel like eating all that much either. Something collided with my main gyro, and knocked me off balance. I need to identify the cause of that force and neutralize it as soon as possible. ASAP. When I finally did get back on my feet at about 20:45, I was pleased to discover 2 handwritten notes, written by two students in elementary school, who also come to my classroom on a weekly basis. I enjoy the fact that these two little ladies took the time to write a message to me, and then walk all the way over here, to put it in my front door's mail slot. You can see the little messages on the left. Thank you so much, little ladies! I appreciate the time and effort that you spent on making them and then delivering them to my door. You are very intelligent young ladies as well, because you can intrinsically feel in your hearts that, LOVE IS ACTION. You've got it! and at a very young age. Never forget it, from now on. Remember that forever, and you are on the right path. CLICK HERE to LISTEN

2006 October 30 Monday.

Asahikawa has a new mayor. No big surprise that it isn't me. It's Mr. Nishikawa. Nice to meet you sir. How's it goin', eh? I don't know for sure, but I think that I have not yet met Mr. Nishikawa in person. Mr. Bandoh and Mr. Sugawara both, I have met on several occasions. A mayor is a mayor is a mayor. It's a job that carries a lot of responsibility along with it. The headline closest to the photo of the new mayor says that at 37 years old, he is the youngest mayor in Hokkaido. He's only 37 years old, but that might be a good thing when looking at the situation from futuristic perspective. Anyway sir, do your best. For the people and the city. Our City. Asahikawa. After I looked at this morning's edition of the Hokkaido Newspaper, I made a strong pot of coffee, drank most of it, and got into a very hot bath to recharge my batteries for the teaching day ahead. When I first got up at about 9:00 I could feel the leftovers from last night's wild drinking party with Mr. T. He is a retired high school English teacher. I am a still working English teacher who must be back in the classroom by 13:00 today. I managed to get back into fighting shape before the first class at the 神楽公民館で英会話を楽しむ会. Again today, most of the members were present and we all talked about various things. I mentioned the fact that I had seen the Iwo Jima movie yesterday, and that I had also made my own poster for the mayoral election. Today, one of the fine ladies, Mrs. S. to be exact, was wearing a very big and beautiful TURQUOISE NECKLACE. I immediately recognized the high quality of the stones, so I asked her where she had purchased the necklace. She replied that she had bought it in Turkey, when she was on a tour of that country. I thought about the small turquoise necklace that I had lost last night and thought to myself, "Some day. Some where. I too will find a much better turquoise necklace than the one I lost last night. It is important to KEEP HOPE ALIVE. CLICK HERE to LISTEN

2006 October 29 Sunday.

Today, Mebae Kindergarten had their annual Oyuugi Kai. It is sort of a school arts festival. The photo on the left shows the exact same hall where I teach my English class to the kids. Today the hall was jam-packed with with many parents and grandparents using still cameras and movie cameras as well, to capture the precious moments for future viewing. In fact the hall was so jam-packed, that I had to stand outside the door to take this photo. I didn't really want to go inside the hall, because it was TOO HOT in there! You can even see the steam in the air from this photograph. I only stayed at Mebae for about 20 minutes before I drove over to HyakuMan Volts, and electronics store not far from my classroom to get some essential classroom supplies. Then, I came back to my classroom to do some more research into various things. At about 17:00, me my wife and Mr. T. got into my van and drove over to the Dinos Sugai Cinema Complex to watch the new movie "The Flags of our Fathers" written and directed by Clint Eastwood. The move started at 18:05 and lasted for over 2 hours. The island of Iwo Jima has a very special meaning for me, because I lived on that island from January 1976 until December of the same year, while I was in the United States Coast Guard. The entire island is only 8 square miles big, and I walked around just about every inch of the place, finding many leftovers from the horrendous battle that was fought there during February and March of 1945. The movie we saw today, was quite realistic and graphically shows what happens to the human body, when it comes into direct contact with pieces of metal, flying through the air at very high speeds. It is not pretty. It is not patriotic. It is insanity. Even the filming locations looked very similar to the actual island of Iwo Jima. I think some of the scenes were filmed in Iceland, where they have the same kind of volcanic ash black sand as does Iwo Jima. When the movie was finished at about 20:30, we drove back to Kagura and then walked over to Kamui to eat yakitori at とりせん. As usual, the food was very good, and as usual, Mr. T. and I drank too much and started getting loud and obnoxious. Sorry ToriSen!!! We will behave better next time. Please let us come back again. Finally at about midnight, we all got into a taxi and came back to Kagura, where Mr. T. lives also. When I got back into my classroom, I discovered that I had lost my turquoise necklace. Imagine that. I have no idea what happened to it. If I can't find it before the first snow falls, I will never see it again. Alcohol can sometimes cost more than just the sticker-price. CLICK HERE to LISTEN

2006 October 28 Saturday.

Tomorrow is the election for Asahikawa City Mayor. The five candidates can been seen in the photo on the left. The 6th poster, that I made of myself, never appeared on any of these poster boards. In fact not only can I not run for mayor, I can't even vote in the election tomorrow, because I am not a Japanese citizen. That's OK with me, but I did feel the need to make my own poster. It says "The Music Party Tastukawa Kitao, Music is 4 Everyone." When my wife saw what I had made, she couldn't stop laughing. I thought it was pretty funny myself. I took the photo of the poster board while I was out in the beautiful autumn sunshine taking a much needed walk. A walk that was interrupted several times by the very loud "sound cars" that the mayoral candidates have there staff members ride around in and shout a lot of meaningless slogans. You can see a photo of one of them in yesterday's blog. Today will be the last day that they can do this, and tomorrow will be the mayoral election. I wonder who the winner will be. I know it won't be me. CLICK HERE to LISTEN

2006 October 27 Friday.

Another cold and sunny morning. I need to get into a taxi and head on over to the Dokan Nursing school for an English class with 18 second year students. Everyone showed up for class today, and we rehearsed a one page dialogue about checking in at a hotel, where the guest had already made reservations. The guest wanted to check in at 13:00, but check in time doesn't start until 15:00, so the check in staff at the hotel take care of the guests luggage until check in, so that the guest can walk around the city and have some lunch before check in time. Most of the students were able to memorize the dialogue and perform it quite well. After that class was finished at 10:30, I walked on over to the MidoriGaOka shopping center to buy some water color felt-tipped pens at the 100 yen shop. You can get a pack of 18 colors for only 100 yen, so I bought 6 sets. I plan to use them in my classroom during children's' classes. In the past, I have used colored pencils to draw simple pictures together with the kids, who already know the names of the colors. We draw mostly natural scenery, and then learn how to write the words for such things as SKY, BIRD, TREE, FLOWER etc. The kids enjoy it, and so do I. I have always used color pencils for this is the past, and they work very well except for the fact that the pencil lead often breaks, and the students spend a lot of time at the electric pencil sharpener, grinding away on the pencils. Felt-tipped pens will prevent this problem, but the pictures will not have such a soft appearance. When I was finished shopping, I got into a taxi and rode back to my classroom to get ready for straight classes from 13:30 until 20:00. Tomorrow I have no classes to teach. Time to teach myself more about the internet and the Korean writing system. CLICK HERE to LISTEN

2006 October 26 Thursday.

Hey diddle diddle, the cow and the fiddle, the cat jumps over the moon. Or was it the other way around? The cat played the fiddle, and the cow jumped over the moon. I can't remember for sure. The last time I heard this song being performed, was a long, long, long time ago. Anyway, why is this photo here, in today's blog? It's because of my little sister, Sissy-O to all of you out there, and Smart Cookie von cafe de la creme, to me. She sent it to me by email today. She sent me a photo of her new cat, her second cat, another stray cat, another mouth to feed, another pan to clean. How many letters does it take to spell JOY. About 3. How many letters does it take to spell HEAVEN? About 6. Double the ante, the game is on. Her first stray cat is a female called Ollie. This new addition to the family is a male called Baby Boy. I prefer the name; Boy Gorge. NOT Boy George of Culture Club, but; Boy GORGE, as in EAT TOO MUCH. I mean, take a look for yourself, at the photo on the left. He's a FAT CAT. I did edit my sisters photo, which was a whopping 2.38 MEGABYTES jpeg file, into a less than 64 KILOBYTES jpeg file including the background photograph of a full moon that you can see behind the gray and white cat. Baby Boy. By the way, the background photograph was taken on June 22, 2002. It was a full moon fever night, and I was feeling spunky. Soooooo spunky in fact, that I got out my 2 year old digital camera, my very first digital camera, and took a bunch of photos from the HOMAC and SEIKYO parking lots, looking in the direction of the building that houses my classroom. None of the photos turned out to be very good. The one you can see above, is the best of the bunch. Nothing to brag about, but it gets the job done. The HUMUNGOUS jpeg photo, weighing in at a whopping 2.38 megabytes, that my sister took of her new cat, was a very good quality photo. In fact, it is a good thing that she sent me the best quality photo that she had of the fat critter, because it made my image-only cut-out operation go very smoothly. To erase the background around the cat, I used Macromedia Fireworks MX, and a tablet / pen hardware set, to isolate the image of the cat, onto a clear background. Then, I simply did a COPY and PASTE to put it on the top layer of the image you can see above. Fun with CG. It is a very economical and enchanting hobby. You should do more of it, and so should I.

2006 October 25 Wednesday.

Look at what Norman is having for brunch! You might ask yourself, "What is it?" It's called a DomBuri. It starts off with a big helping of brown rice, then a slap from 3 packets of natto. Followed by hot mustard and vinegar soy sauce. Then, an even coating of Ao Nori and finally, kimchi on top. It's yummy. Try it for yourself and feel the difference. Brown Rice, I mean. All things considered, I would have to say that beans and brown rice, are my staple diet. I eat natto and genmai rice every day. What ever else I eat or drink, goes along with that basic set. Other good things to pour into of a big bowl filled with rice and natto are: Curry Soup, Beef Stew, Chicken Soup, etc. etc. This simple food has became my main source of bio-fuel. The fuel everyone must have, in order to animate the physical human body. We gotta eat, my friends. No two ways about it. CLICK HERE to LISTEN

2006 October 24 Tuesday.

Tuesdays with Mr. T. The image you can see on the left, was photographed by me from a full-open one-page special article, in the Hokkaido Newspaper Evening Edition of October 7 （土）, entitled; The Written Languages of the World 世界の文字. This is only a small section of that page, but it shows how the Japanese "alphabet" would be rendered if the same sounds were written using the Korean Alphabet, HanGul. Mr. T and I had a very amusing time, writing Japanese words using the Korean Alphabet as our symbol system. Although Korean children do not learn their native alphabet from this same chart, for any person who is interested in learning some of the basic "letters" of the Korean Alphabet, and who can also read the Japanese KaNa, this chart is a very good quick-fire introduction to the HanGul writing system. After my fun filled lesson with Mr. T., I had straight classes until 20:00. Then, it was time to do some research on the internet. Oh, how I love the World Wide Web. Information, and misinformation and also a whole lot of disinformation, at your fingertips, for anyone to access at anytime, from almost anywhere on the planet. For those students of English who are not familiar with the two vocabulary items; misinformation and disinformation, let me take this brief opportunity to explain the difference in their meanings and common usages. Misinformation means that; I tell you some information, but I unintentionally make a mistake with the facts. For example, I might say; "The 1974 Winter Olympics were held in Sapporo." Clearly, I have my facts mixed up. First of all, there were no Olympic Games in 1974. It was an off year. There were Winter Olympics in 1972 and then again in 1976. Which one was the Sapporo Winter Olympics? Do a search on the internet for yourself, if you are not sure. On the other hand,..... Disinformation, means that; I know what I am telling you is not true, I know it is a lie, a complete fiction, but I tell it to you anyway in the hope that you will believe it, just long enough, so that I can achieve my hidden agenda. For example, if I tell you a fantastic story and say that; "19 Arab hijackers took over 4 civilian airliners inside the USA and, crashed two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and that the burning jet fuel weakened the steel core buildings so much that they completely collapsed into they very own footprints at ground level, and that the master mind control center of these terrorist attacks is located inside an ultra-modern, high-tech underground cave-system network, deep inside the mountains of AFGHANISTAN"., you might believe me for a few minutes or a few days, or a few weeks, or a few months, or maybe even a few years, but finally you would be able to figure out that this wild story is a complete work of fiction. It doesn't make any sense at all, and in fact, the story can be disproved by using the laws of physics and simple mathematics. You would then be able to recognize for yourself that, it is in fact, disinformation. Does everyone now understand the difference in the meanings and usages of the two words; MISINFORMATION and DISINFORMATION? Read and watch everything with a critical eye, and listen to everything with a critical ear. Use your brain. Thank you again, for coming here today. Class dismissed! CLICK HERE to LISTEN

2006 October 23 Monday.

Today was a very busy day that started off at 10:00 at the Young Buds Kindergarten めばえ幼稚園 in Kamui. Today, there were some ladies at the school, whom I was told were going to take photos of me while I was busy teaching my lessons, and then write a short article in a newsletter, or something like that. That is fine with me. Please take a lot of photos and use the best one! Today, I used the same A3 sized laminated flash cards that I had just made last week, and had also used for the first time, at Kurinoki Kindergarten on October 16. It is the "Farmer in the Dell" set of cards. Last Monday, I only had to do one performance of the "musical", but today, I had to do it 3 times! Once for each age group. By the time I was finished with the last group, my throat was feeling a bit ruff. No problem, anything for LOVE! When that song and dance was all finished at about 11:30, I came back to my classroom to eat brunch and clean the place up. Then, it was off to the 神楽公民館英会話を楽しむ会 which starts at 13:00. Almost everybody was in attendance today, and there was a lot to talk about on many and various subjects. One lady talked about how her mother had been stricken with Alzheimer's Disease since about 3 years ago. This was causing her to WORRY about getting the same disease herself. I asked her the question; "Does your family have a long history of Alzheimer's Disease?" She replied that as far as she knew, only her mother was affected by it. I told her that her chances of getting the same disease were probably very small. Then I told her the following; "Do not worry about getting any disease at all. Because thoughts are things. Things that magnetize your brain, and in fact your entire body in a very specific way. If you think negative thoughts, you will magnetize your whole body to be receptive to negative influences, and you will, in fact, draw that negative thing, a disease for example, to yourself, and that thought will manifest itself, into the physical reality of that thing (disease). Don't worry, be happy." She and everyone in the room listened to what I had to say, in complete silence. Some of the people seemed to understand exactly what I was saying, and some of them seemed to not understand. In order to break the silence, I started singing out-loud, that famous song "Don't Worry, Be Happy." Another man mentioned that everyone in his family, except him, had Alzheimer's Disease, and he was rather worried that he too, might be stricken by the disease. I told him; "You just might be the lucky one, and never get the disease at all. Please think about it in that way." He seemed to accept my advice with good humor. When that class was finished at 14:30, I walked back to my classroom to get ready for straight classes from 15:00 until 20:00. The lady who comes to my classroom every week on Mondays at 15:00, has just moved to Asahikawa in April of this year, from a much more southern part of Japan. She said she is starting to really feel the coldness of Hokkaido in recent days. Yes, it is getting much colder day by day, but it will get very much colder than it is now in the coming months. Take a long hot bath as often as you can. It helps me a lot. This lady has very advanced English skills, and she is currently writing her life story in English. When she comes to my classroom each week, she lets me read what she has written, and I will make a few corrections here and there, to ensure that her intended meaning is clearly expressed to other native speakers of the English language. I must say, that her life story is extremely interesting, and very much different from my own life story. However, we do share some common experiences. I will not tell her story to any of you, nor will I mention her name on my website, but I would like to say that her English ability is so good, that I don't need to do much rewriting. If I had to write about my own life story in Japanese, I don't think I could do such a good job of it as she is doing with her life story, as written in English. She is obviously spending a lot of time on this project. A project that is very important to her. Therefore, I will do everything I can to help her with this very big endeavor. I do so in the spirit of mutual understanding, without any judgment by me, of her life story. I will read and listen to her story with an open mind, and help her to achieve her goal, as best I can. She has been thru some very hard times, and so have I. I survived it all, and became a much stronger person, because of it all. She has too, and will continue to do so. As will I. GOD BLESS YOU. NEVER BE AFRAID of what other people think of you, or say about you. They don't know the whole story. They can't see the BIG PICTURE. In a word, phuck 'em.

2006 October 22 Sunday.

Another cold and windy day. I ain't plannin' to go nowhere. I've got some work to do on my PCs, writing new pages for various textbooks. Along the way, I think I'll play with GC software and make another visualization. I could also watch and listen to some stand-up comedians on Google Video. Oh by the way, speaking of GOOGLE, they just bought YOU-TUBE for some outrageous sum of money. A few days later, YOU-TUBE had a whole lot of very tacky pop-up ads on nearly every page. Yuck! That sucks guys! At least get some artistic sense if you MUST POST your phuckin' pop up money makers. Right now, they are a huge eye sore. Fortunately, the user can zoom up the video player window and loose the distractions. A long hot bath will also be in order on today's agenda. The colder the wind blows, the hotter I like my long soak in the tub. That's how I can survive in Hokkaido. The graphic on the left, is my visualization of a water drop, thrown up into the air, by a stone thrown into a still pool. By looking at the shape of the drop, I can't really tell if it is still going up, stopped at the apex of its journey, or coming back down to meet its maker. The only thing I know for sure is, it's still up in the air. A drop of water. I wonder how many H2O water molecules, it takes to make one single drop of water? Most likely, I can discover that information, if I just do an internet search. Well, I just did an internet search using the question; "How many H2O molecules are in one drop of water?" The answer came back as a link to this website. It said that there are trillions of H2O molecules in one drop of water. Trillions??? Let's see, one trillion is written like this; 1,000,000,000,000. So, trillions means this number multiplied by at least 2 or 3 or 4,.... I'm not sure how many times. That is a very very large number. I can't even visualize how much that is. Can you?

2006 October 21 Saturday.

A very cold, windy and rainy day in the morning, followed by an afternoon of sunshine and a calm sky. The evening was calm and temperate as well. Over all, a very good day. I did screw up a bit, however. Today was the 神楽小学校学びフェスター. An event that I have attended and enjoyed in years past. I also went again today, but on a very tight schedule. Reasons being, I had some new pages to write for a new textbook, and also I taught a private lesson here in my classroom from 11:20 until 12:20. I went to the school play at about 10:20, but the 3rd grade students that I went to see, had just finished their performance. I did get to meet my 3rd grade students as they were leaving the school however. The fourth, fifth and sixth grade students, I was unable to meet because of my private lesson and quick lunch break. The photo you can see on the left is one that I took at last year's event. I realize that a lot of work goes into this event, and it is a very big deal for all concerned. Of course, the parents and the grand parents all come with their home digital movie cameras and film their kids and grandkids while they are performing on stage. It will make for some good memories in the years ahead. Finally at about 20:00 after working most of the day on a new textbook for teaching phonics to elementary school students, I put on some neoprene booties instead of socks, then my sandals, and went for a long walk in the cold and misty night air. I haven't taken a walk like this in almost a week, so it felt good to get outdoors again and move around in the fresh air. I still refuse to wear regular socks, and will continue to wear my sandals until it starts snowing. Maybe even after that if I can. I couldn't see the stars very well tonight, and I didn't see any other lights in the sky either. After I got back home at about 22:00, it was time for a light dinner and then some sleep. Tomorrow, I will be back at work on my new phonics text book for young children. I'm looking forward to it.

2006 October 20 Friday.

A cold autumn morning. Perfect for a hot bath before heading off to work. At 9:00 I and Mr. Ikeda had 90 minutes of fun and games, with simultaneous English classes at the Dokan Nursing School. We both teach the same class of about 40, second year students. They have been divided up into 2 groups of about 20 students each. Before the start of today's lessons, Mr. Ikeda was telling me about 2 or 3 students in the "A" group, the group he had last week, and the group that I had today, who always look down, and seem to ignore the teacher. I immediately recognized, who he was talking about, so I told him my method for dealing with those type of students. I said; "Walk over to their desk. Squat down low with your head at about desk level, look up at the student with a BIG SMILE, a soft voice and say, 'Are you sleepy today? What time did you go to bed last night? Did you stay up late and watch TV? Did you study?' etc. etc." If the student can understand spoken English well, he or she will be paying attention to what you say. If the student can't understand what you are talking about, he or she will be looking around the classroom for the face of a student or students who do understand what the teacher is saying, and everyone will start laughing because of the target student's sudden panic. It works every time. Please fell free to try it for yourself. After today's class at Dokan was finished at 10:30, I came back to my classroom to eat brunch. When I turned on my connection to SKY PERFECT TV, I was delighted to see "Teacher's Pet" a 1958 black and white (color) movie starring Clark Gabel and Doris Day. This is a very good older movie. I enjoyed very much seeing it again. Just 2 minutes after the movie was finished at 13:25. the two lovely ladies who come every week at this time, arrived for fun and games with English Time. Today, they gave me a dubbed CD of songs sung by Hideaki Tokunaga. The reason being, that they had just seen him live in concert in Sapporo on Sunday, October 15. I first heard news of their plans during last week's lesson. Also, I gave the LUCKY LADY 2 CDs of 楽しく身に漬けるフランス語会話. I bought this 1 book and 2 CD set for myself about 9 months ago, and have enjoyed listening to the CDs while sitting in a hot tub, drinking cold green tea. Lucky Lady has a sister who lives in France and has done so for about 26 years. In fact, her sister and French husband were just visiting in Asahikawa recently. There seems to be some cultural differences in the manner of greeting people in France and Japan. The French are much more "touchy feely" it seems. It was an interesting story to listen to. Spoken in very good English. After that fun filled lesson was finished at 14:30, I had a few minutes to devote myself to the practice of writing short sentences in Korean. I'm loving it. Then, it was straight classes until 19:00. Whew! What a whirlwind tour. Time to sit down and play with computer graphics. I found enough time to make the dark sphere floating in cyberspace that you can see above. This is my visualization of the New Moon. The next New Moon will be on October 22 at 05:14 Universal Time. You won't be able to see it unless you have some high powered visual magnifiers. If it's cloudy in your area at that time, then you're just shit out of luck. You can stare at the one I made, for as long as you like, and for free. FLY ME TO THE MOON.

2006 October 19 Thursday.

I was invited by several of my younger students to come and see them perform music at the Taisetsu Crystal Hall this morning at an event called the Kagura Music Festival. The photo on the left was taken last year at this time. The music starts at 9:00 in the morning, but unfortunately this year, I slept in until 11:30 a.m. and I missed my chance to see the event. The young students who invited me are all attending the Kagura Elementary School. I have gone to this event almost every year in the past, but today I was just too sleepy to get up on time, and walk over to the venue. The photo you can see on the left is of the opening act. They are all senior citizens of 65 years or older. They perform a few songs first, and then the children take the stage and perform their songs in groups according to their year in school. When my first class of the day started at 15:00, the girls asked me if I had come to see them this morning at the Music Festa. They said that they had looked for me in the hall, but were unable to see me. I explained to them that I had slept in late, and didn't wake up until 11:30. They seemed to be a bit disappointed. Then they asked me to be sure and come to the Kagura Elementary School on Saturday morning and watch them perform in the School Arts Festival. I told them that I have a private lesson from 11:00 until 12:00 on that day, but that I would do my best to hurry over to the school after my lesson was finished so that I could watch their performance on stage. I hope I can get there in time.

2006 October 18 Wednesday.

The little guy and his mother who come to my classroom every Wednesday at 15:00 had some big news for me today. They had been telling me since several months ago that they (her husband) will be getting a job transfer 転勤 soon. Today, they told us that they will be moving to Sapporo at the end of this month, and that today will be their final lesson at my classroom. I was sad to hear that I won't be meeting them again for quite a while, but also very happy to hear that they will be starting a new life in a very nice city, Sapporo. The mother also brought me a gift. You can see of photo of it on the left. It uses three watch batteries to create a blue light that fades in and out. Now I have yet another snowman image to add to my collection. Thank you so much. After that class was finished at 15:55, it was straight classes until 20:00. Then it was time for dinner and some more research on the internet. I love the internet. It is like a huge library at my fingertips. I think that it will get even better and better as the years go by. It's only just getting started. And so is this website.

2006 October 17 Tuesday.

A dark windy and rainy day. It made my drive over to Asahikawa University all that more slow and somewhat dangerous. Driving in the rain, especially at night, is my least favorite of all driving conditions. It is just to difficult to see clearly in front of and all around you. When I lived in Seattle, it rained a lot, and as a consequence, I did a lot of driving in the rain. Fortunately, I never had a traffic accident while I lived there. By the way, it very rarely snows in Seattle. Even if it does snow, it will only stay on the ground for a few days at the most. In Asahikawa, the city is completely covered in snow for about 5 months of the year every year. How do I like driving in the snow? I like just fine. Especially at night when it is very easy to see the roads and other traffic on the roads. The only thing to keep in mind is that you must drive more slowly than during the season of no-snow. Don't get me wrong, it is very easy to drive fast on snow covered roads, and it can even be fun. The problem comes when you try to stop. It takes a lot more distance to come to a complete stop and especially at intersections, which tend to get very very slick and slippery because of all the cars that stop and start there. The auto insurance companies are very busy during each winter, processing the claims of many a "fender bender", meaning a very slow speed collision. Anyway, today's class at the university was very interesting and enjoyable as it always is. Today I used page two of an original textbook that I am writing called; Q&A, meaning question and answer. The instructions at the top of each page read; Ask a Question, Listen to the Answer, Write down what you Hear. The rest of each page has a list of 30 questions, divided into 6 groups of 5 questions each. All of the questions start with a 6W1H interrogative word 疑問詞. Most of the questions are quite easy for the students to answer in English, but some of them are more difficult such as; Why is it dark at night? Why does the wind blow? Why do rivers run to the sea? etc. Of course, most of the students can answer such questions in Japanese, but many do not know how to explain it in English. As a result, they ask me how to say it, or they simply answer "I don't know." Either way is OK. When that class was finished at about 12:10, I went back up to professor Sugawa's office for a cup of green tea before leaving the campus. There was a 4th year university student in his office, who had a thick packet of papers that he was studying. Mr. Sugawa explained to me that it was a sample test, for seeking employment at the Asahi Newspaper branch office, here in Asahikawa. I took a look at the pages and was overwhelmed by the complexity of the questions. If you don't keep up with the mass media news, you would have no hope of correctly answering any of these questions. There was even a section in English. I took a look at this too, and was disappointed to discover that the news in English had been deliberately rewritten to make it as twisted and convoluted as possible. What a crock of shit. Reporters in the real world use the simplest language and sentence structure that they can get away with, and still accurately report the news. This is also true of Japanese language newspapers. I know because I can read Japanese language newspapers much more easily than any other type of Japanese language publication. However, newspaper editorials and commentaries are much more time consuming for me to read, because the vocabulary and sentence structure are much more complex. Therefore, I don't try to read them very often, unless I am extremely interested in a particular topic. At about 12:40, I left the campus of Asahikawa University and drove back to my classroom to eat lunch and get ready for straight classes from 15:00 until 20:00. At 15:00, Mr. T., the retired high school English teacher came for coffee and conversation. Today, we both drank tea. He told me about a junior high school class reunion 中学校の同期会 that he attended last Thursday. The event was held at the Higashi Kagura Shinrin Koen 東神楽森林公園 Mori no Yu Hana Kagura 森の湯花神楽　Hot Spring Spa Resort Hotel. Mr. T. mentioned how interesting it was to see and talk with his former classmates, most of which he has not seen for many many years. They all agreed to meet again like this, in another two years.

2006 October 16 Monday.

My first gig of the day was at KuRiNoKi Kindergarten. Today, I get to try out the new A3 sized laminated flash cards that I made during the weekend. I arrived at the kindergarten at 10:00 and was on stage in front of 220 kids by 10:10. I went through each round of the song "The Farmer in the Dell" very slowly the first time. Most of the kids remember the chorus "Hi Ho the Dairy Oh" the first time around. The second time I did it, some of the kids were remembering the other lines in the song such as "The farmer takes a wife" and "The wife takes a child" etc. The third time, I did it at normal speed, without pausing between pictures. A few of the kids were able to follow along, mostly. I also sang the songs "Old MacDonald's Farm" and "BINGO the dog". The kids and I both had a great time, and I could feel again that taking the many hours to make these new flash cards, had been well worth the effort. When that gig was finished at about 11:00, I drove back to my classroom to use the vacuum cleaner and mop the floor. A clean classroom is a happy classroom. Then I had time to eat some brown rice and natto before heading over to my next gig at the Kagura Citizens' Hall 神楽公民館で英会話を楽しむ会 which starts at 13:00. Today, there was a very interesting story, told by one of the ladies who has joined our group just recently. She told the story or how she and her husband, and a lot of her relatives, had all gone to Sapporo to attend the wedding of yet another relative. After the wedding ceremony and reception were finished, she and her husband, and a few of their relatives had decided to go to a Ramen Shop. They chose one that is very close to the STV (Sapporo TeleVision) broadcasting station. They arrived at the Ramen Shop at about 15:00. When they entered the shop, they saw that there were no other customers there, so they hesitated to sit down and order their food. However, the shop owners who were busy cleaning up said; "It's OK. Please take a seat and decide on your order." A very nice thing for the owners to do. After they had ordered and started to eat their Ramen, they began talking about the wedding that they all had just attended, using the names of the bride and groom, as well as the names of a lot of other family members. Suddenly, the wife of the Ramen shop owner yelled out; OOOさん???? I know OOOさん!　　The customers who were eating Ramen and talking were very surprised to hear this. As they started talking to the Ramen shop's owner and his wife, they discovered that the wife of the owner and they, are in fact distant relatives, that haven't seen each other in about 30 years!!! What are the chances of that??? 万が一のこともあります！　　It really is strange how people and places seem to be all connected at times. What an interesting story! Thank you for telling us about it Mrs. S!!! Maybe you should write an essay about this. It really is a story worth reading, by many other people. Other people talked about various things and soon it had already become 14:30. I walked back to my classroom for straight classes from 16:00 until 20:00. After that, my wife Ikuko and I went for another one of our many long walks along the river banks and under the night sky. It was a bit cold, but the sky was mostly clear with a bit of haze. As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, today is our 12th wedding anniversary. So, after we got home, we drank some sweet red wine in celebration, and talked about many things. I must say that I am a Happy Camper. Am I a good provider? Yes. Am I a good husband? Yes, but I do get angry from time to time. Not often. Am I a good father? Can't say for sure because, we don't have any children of our own. Wish we did but,.... so far, it's just not in the cards. But to all of those happily married couples out there, around the world, who have a happy family life, and put their family life above and beyond their "working life", I would like to say; SALUTE! You've got a lot more living to do. And, a lot more loving too.

2006 October 15 Sunday.

Return to the gentle weather. A good day to be out and about. But I didn't get out until about 19:00. That's when me and the wife thing, went for a long walk around the riverbanks before ending up at とりせん in Kamui, for a wonderful dinner of yakitori. Along the way, Ikuko had to use the restroom at pachinko parlor Alfa, which is just below the Ryojin Bashi on the Kagura side of the Biei River. I too, stepped inside the door and was instantly overcome with the most noxious noise and smell sensation, I have had in a long long time. Yeeeeuck! I spent a total of about 25 seconds in that stench filled nuthouse, observing that it was more than half full of gamblers, before making a quick exit back out into the more natural world. When Ikuko came out of the place I asked her; "Why do people come to this place and stay such a long time?" She said; "Because they can win money sometimes." Yeah right. The fools gold dream of Something for Nothing. You might get struck by lightning. We walked on to とりせん and had a delicious dinner there, and a few beers as well. You see, tomorrow is our 12th wedding anniversary, so we are celebrating tonight. After a fine dinner, we walked back across the Ryojin Bridge and down into Kagura. Destination, home sweet home. But, before all of that, I spent the entire morning and afternoon on finishing up one set of giant A3 sized laminated flash cards, and then started working on a completely new set of 10 cards for the song "The green grass grew all around", a rather long song that gets longer in the chorus as you get closer to the end. I will print and laminate these 10 new flash cards on another day. Yesterday and today I spent a total of about 8 hours making these new flash cards. I will be using the "Farmer in the Dell" set, tomorrow morning at Kurinoki Kindergarten. I will be using this set again, many more times, in the coming years. Spend a little more time up front, get more free time and joy later on. Pay now, buy later. Pay it forward. You MUST give first.

2006 October 14 Saturday.

Ho Hum. A fairly nice and sunny day. I think I'll take a walk in the early afternoon, during the warmest part of the day. I never got around to it. I had many things to do indoors. The most urgent of which is to make some huge new flash cards for use at Kuri no Ki Kindergarten on Monday. They will be A3 size, printed in color and laminated to perfection. This series will be for singing the song; "The Farmer in the Dell." I have done this song several times before, but the flash cards I had been using were A4 sized and hand-drawn with colored felt tipped markers. They worked OK, but it's time to take a step up to the next level of presentation. So, I got to work making them. You can see the first slide on the left. I didn't draw this stuff myself. I merely used the clip art that came with my software. This picture is actually a compilation of 3 different clip art images. The farmer and the brown field, the red barn, and the hills and mountains background. Plus, I made a brown patch to extend the length of the field to the right about 10 cm. Nothing fancy, but it works. The kids will love it, because it gives them something to focus their attention on while they are learning the words of the song.

2006 October 13 Friday.

Oh No!!! It's Friday the Thirteenth. Yeah, So What? My first gig of the day started at 9:00 at the Dokan Nursing School. Only one student was absent today. We did group work in pairs. I was the odd man in, so I got to sit down with Yuko and do the Q&A thing. I enjoyed it as much as she did. Her level of spoken English is quite good. After that was all finished, I went back to my classroom to eat lunch and get ready for straight classes from 14:30 until 20:00. After that, it was time to go for a short walk, to the supermarket. Brrrr, it is cold and damp. I only felt that way because I hadn't dressed properly for talking a long walk in the autumn damp. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow.

2006 October 12 Thursday.

Cold, wet, rainy and nasty. Despite these adverse weather conditions, everybody came to their classes today. They had to make an extra effort. So, I did as well. When all lessons were finished at 20:00, I wanted to go for a walk, but some how it just didn't feel right. Maybe tomorrow.

2006 October 11 Wednesday.

A cold rainy and very windy day. Nasty. Don't want to go outside for a walk today. My first lesson of the day at 15:00 was with a little guy of 8 years old, who used to live in Houston Texas USA for about 2 years. That was more than 4 years ago, but he has had early exposure to the English language at kindergarten and so on. Today, I used a stack of about 30 cards that have words of opposite meanings on the opposite sides. Such as; hot/cold salt/pepper stop/go north/south plus/minus and so on. We used these cards for reading and writing practice today, and I spoke English to him over 95% of the time. He understands what I am saying, and answers me in Japanese! Sometimes. After his lesson, it was 4 more lessons until 20:00. Then, it was time for some beers and conversation with the wife-thing (Wild Thing). Followed by some music on the telecaster, unplugged. She has a day off from HOMAC tomorrow, so she can enjoy staying up late, and then sleeping until about 13:00 tomorrow. I plan to do the same thing too. Oh by the way, the photo you see on the left was taken from the Tuesday October 10 evening edition of the Hokkaido Newspaper. What caught my eye was not just the pretty face of this actress Takahashi Yumiko, but the caption underneath the photo as well. If you can't see it very well it says; 「お酒を飲むのが毎日の楽しみ。私にとってのガソリンなんですよ」と話す高橋由美子＝東京都江東区のスタジオ I would render it in English as; "Drinking booze, is an every day pleasure. For me, it is like gasoline." Hey, I myself have said that exact same thing many times to many people as well. Most recently just yesterday morning when I was talking with Professor Sugawa in his office just after I finished my class at Asahikawa University. It's true. I know a lot of people who smoke tobacco for the same reason. It gives them a stimulus and makes them feel more active and energetic. In my case, tobacco makes me feel sleepy and confused. It must be a difference in body chemistry. What else could it be? By the way Yumiko Takahashi, if you ever come to Asahikawa, give me a call. Let's go drink some booze together. I know some really interesting places in this city. We will have a great time, believe me. My phone number is on the Top Page of this website. Please leave a message if I am not at home. Thanks!

2006 October 10 Tuesday.

It started out as a nice sunny day, but much later in the evening and then into the wee hours of the morning, there was a huge thunder and lighting storm. Today, I had straight classes from 10:40 until 20:00 with a 2 hour lunch break in between. After my 20:00 class was finished, I ate dinner and went to bed at about 22:00. Very early for me. I was very tired and slept well until about 03:15 on Wednesday morning. About 30 minutes after I got up, the lightning started flashing, very very brightly. And the thunder followed after about 5 or 6 seconds. As the thunder storm moved from west to east, it varied in its intensity of light, sound and amount of rain. It was a monster storm. I really enjoyed it. At about 7:00, it seemed to be mostly over, and I had become sleepy again after reading many things on the internet, so I decided to go back to bed until about 12:00 noon. Just a few moments after I went back to bed at about 7:20, there was a huge explosion!!! It was so big that it shook the entire building!!! I didn't see any flash of lighting before the bang, so for a few seconds, I was wondering if it was a bomb or a gas tank explosion or something like that. However, there were no follow up sounds of fire trucks racing to the scene, so it must have been thunder. The loudest thunder I have ever heard. And I have heard some very loud thunder during my life here in Hokkaido. A lot of the time, it will have a very high-pitched CRACK, type of sound, similar to a high powered rifle shot. But the one that shook this 11 story building this morning was a huge BOOM, type of sound. Rather frightening. Thank god it was only thunder. Or was it the sonic boom of a high altitude jet airplane? I report, You decide. The photo you can see above left, is one of the many photos that I tried to take of the Science Center SaiPal last night. As you can see, it was a miserable failure. Notice the two strands of nylon rope hanging in front of the image? That's what happens when you use a very short tripod. I could edit the ropes out with Fireworks or PhotoDraw, but this photo is just not worth the effort. I'll bring my regular tripod next time and do a much better job.

2006 October 9 Monday.

Today is yet again, another National Holiday in Japan called TaiIku no Hi 体育の日 or Physical Education Day or P.E. Day, or, I just call it Sports Day. And, in fact, the weather was nice enough today to enjoy some type of outdoor activity. I chose to stay inside until just after sunset, and spend a lot more time learning how to read and write Korean. Speaking of Korean, when I took a break at about 14:00 to eat some lunch, and watch the news on TV, I heard that North Korea may have conducted a test detonation of a nuclear weapon. Oh my god!!! ******* Wait a minute, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is in South Korea today! The exact same day, the test happened. And if I remember correctly, he was in China just a few days ago, as well. Hmmmmm,.... Is this just a coincidence? Use your brain, think about it for more than just a nano-second. Also, even though North Korea is claiming to have set off a nuclear weapon, the seismic reading for the vibration was only about 4. Not even big enough to be considered as a serious earthquake. Could it be that North Korea didn't really explode a nuclear device at all, but just a huge cache of dynamite or some other military grade high explosive? Remember, as of today, there is no verification of any radiation leaking into the atmosphere as a result of this huge explosion. It could be nothing more than, just a big bluff. And then again, maybe it is something else. As usual, the real scoop, the real facts, will come out in the not too distant future. I wish I could read Korean better, so I could read the DPRK.com and other North Korean websites, and form my own opinions more accurately. I'm working on it. ********* Just after sunset, I took a long walk along the banks of the Chubetsu River. This evening, I brought along my camera because I knew that an almost full moon would be rising just above the Science Center SaiPal サイパル at about 18:15. Of course, I also brought along a very short and compact tripod 三脚 to use during my nighttime photo session. As I was approaching the Old Kagura Bridge 旧神楽橋 I could see a big orange moon coming up from behind SaiPal. I was still too far away to take any photos, so I started walking faster. When I finally got to a good location to take some pictures, the moon had already risen high enough so that is looked smaller and whiter. Yeah well, anyway, since I am already here, I'll take a bunch of photos. And that's what I did. I will look at the results tomorrow.

2006 October 8 Sunday.

Nasty, nasty weather today. Strong winds and very cold rain. Yuck! Not a good day to be outside or even taking a drive. I think I'll stay at home and study Korean among other things. The photo on the left was taken yesterday outside of The Sun Kurodo. They have about 16 or so, Jack-o-Lanterns placed along the outside edges of the big stone building that are lit up by electric light bulbs when it gets dark. A rather interesting ambiance at night. If I can find a good pumpkin at a reasonable price, I may make one myself again this year. I really love the smell of the burnt pumpkin flesh that is produced by putting a candle inside for illumination. It brings back a flood of childhood memories.

2006 October 7 Saturday.

It seems that the wind and rain are coming this way. I can see it in the sky, and also read about it in the Hokkaido Newspaper. I don't think I will be doing much traveling around today. However, the wife and I went to her mother and auntie's house for a while after first visiting a very famous confectionary maker that is located in the KaguraOka district of this city. It is a place called The Sun Kurodo and is very popular both among the local people, and tourists from overseas as well. You can see that the welcome sign in the photograph on the left is written in four different languages. It appears to be five languages, but there are two different forms of Chinese written on the sign. I am proud to say, that I can read all of the greetings. This store is housed in a very large stone building that has a rather long history. When I first came to Asahikawa about 16 years ago, it was a beer restaurant called Classic Hills. After they went out of business under rather strange circumstances, it sat empty for a while before becoming what it is today. The snowman in the picture is, unfortunately, no relation to me or my school. Maybe we should team up and start something new. This snowman has met a lot of people from all over the world. He has connections.

2006 October 6 Friday.

No classes until 15:00 today, so I had a lot of time to sit down and learn how to read and write some more Korean. I have been listening to the CDs a lot recently, so the sounds are firmly planted in my mind. Now, when I sit down with the textbook open and a pencil in my hand, it is quite easy to learn how to read and write the sounds that I already know very well. One thing that I really like about the Korean language, is that it uses an alphabet called HanGul to write the sounds of the spoken language. Once you learn the basics of the alphabet, you can make rapid progress in learning to read and write the language. In fact, because HanGul was only invented and made public in about 1446, it is a relatively new writing system and may be the newest in common use on such a wide scale. Not only that, but the shapes of the 10 basic vowels and 14 basic consonants still in use today, are all based upon the shapes and/or positions of the mouth, tongue, teeth, lips and throat when producing those sounds. A very logical formulation. Anyway, the shapes of the letters are very simple and easy to write, making it an ideal language for young children to learn very easily. After I was finished teaching straight classes of spoken and written English from 15:00 until 20:00, I went out for another walk along the river banks. Tonight the air was full of the smoke from fires that the farmers had set to burn off the chaff from their harvests in their fields. Not only was the air a bit foggy looking, but it smelled wonderful. This is the true feeling of autumn. Enjoy it while it lasts.

2006 October 5 Thursday.

The coloration of the autumn leaves is progressing nicely. Even down here in the lowlands. One of the first trees to turn red and gold is the Mountain Ash ななかまど, which is also the official tree of Asahikawa City. The birds have a field day gorging themselves on the bright red berries. All they can eat, and for free! However, the trees have a hidden agenda in letting the birds eat all of their fruit. When the birds excrete their poop, they also deposit the seeds all over the place. This ensures that the trees will live on forever and never become extinct. Ah, the wisdom of nature.

2006 October 4 Wednesday.

Look what Norman is having for breakfast. Yum yum. Natto on brown rice with hot mustard, UmeShiso, vinegar soy sauce, and some spicy red oil 辣油. Later on, I also added some kimchi. If I have time to eat breakfast at all, this is what I eat. My first class of the day started at 15:00 and my last class was finished at 20:00. After that, Ikuko and I went for a long walk along the river banks and ended up crossing the Ryojin Bridge into Kamui and having dinner at a yakitori place called とりせん. We have been here many times before and always enjoy a good meal. Tonight, there was a show on TV at the restaurant called Monster Box. It showed an athletic competition among about 10 men aged from 20 years old, all the way up to 53 years old. They were competing to see who could vault over a 3 meter high stack of 跳び箱. I don't watch regular TV anymore, so for me this was a special treat, and rather amusing. Finally, at about 11:20 we finished eating and walked back home in the cool night air, with an almost full moon lighting the way.

2006 October 3 Tuesday.

Tuesdays with Mr. T. I have mentioned before, that Mr. T. has slimed down and lost a lot of weight. I started calling him Slim Jim a few weeks ago. Today, he came to class wearing a brand new pair of blue jeans. I was impressed. Lookin' good! He has now become, James Dean. I myself have many pairs of Levi 501 button up jeans in a variety of colors. I haven't been able to wear them in almost 9 years because I am too damn fat now. Will I ever give up my dream of slimming down, and throw away or sell my precious Levi 501s? No way, Jose! I will hold on to my dream that maybe once again, someday, somewhere over the rainbow, I will wear my 501 jeans. After my class with Mr. T., I had straight lessons until 20:00. Then, it was time to take another brisk walk in the cool night air along the riverbanks on the cycling roads.

2006 October 2 Monday.

The photo you can see on the left was taken yesterday at about 19:00. I was out walking around again yesterday evening, and I ended up on the other side of the Chubetsu River. The side where the Asahikawa JR main station is. The new bridge they are building from the center of town into Kagura, and the cycling road that runs beneath it on the city side of the river, are not quite finished yet, so it is a less than totally smooth walking area. Not to mention very dark as well. Since I was already at the train station, I decided to wait around until the short train stopped at the platform, left for Furano. I was hoping to get some interesting photos of the train as it speed past in front of me, from my left to my right. The only photo worth showing you, is the one you can see on the left. It is what we call a "blur" in English. This word "blur" applies not only to photographs of this type, but also to memories of an event, that are not quite clear. For example, a big year end party 忘年会 where you may have had the good fortune to drink too much. My first gig of the day started off at 13:00 at the 神楽公民館英会話を楽しむ会. To my surprise and delight, 3 of the 4 ladies who came to take a look at this class last week, decided to become members this week. In addition, there was another lady who came to take a look at the class this week. This class has been going on every week since more than 10 years ago. Originally, it was a 60 minutes class. Then about 5 months ago, I voluntarily extended it to 90 minutes without any further monetary compensation, because the increase in the number of members, had resulted in less time for each member to speak on their own. Even now at 90 minutes, the class will run overtime on some days. Today however, it was exactly 90 minutes. When that class was finished at 14:30, it was back to my classroom for straight classes from 15:00 to 20:00. Then it was time to take another walk in the cool night air. What a beautiful autumn in Hokkaido.

2006 October 1 Sunday.

O is for October. O is for Oxygen. O is also for Organize, as in "Get Organized!" I took this message to heart when I tried to look for a certain book that I had purchased in the USA more than 12 years ago. It is a book entitled; "Basic Electronics Theory". A quick check of the two big bookshelves in my classroom, did not reveal the whereabouts of this book, so I ended up taking EVERY BOOK off of its self and doing a complete rearrangement of the contents. As a result, I was able to find the book that I had been looking for. I have been interested in electronics for a long time. When I was a kid, I used to get these electronic kits from Radio Shack, and put them together by myself at home. I made simple things such as, an AM radio receiver, and various switches for lights and so on. After I graduated from high school, I joined the United States Coast Guard. During that time I received 8 months of training in aviation electronics, also known as avionics. I got the highest marks in the school and spent the remainder of my 2 and one half years at Coast Guard Air Station, Kodiak Alaska. Unfortunately, I spent more time flying around the Bering Sea in HC-130s as a radioman/navigator than I did working on electronic circuits. Anyway, I wanted to get out my big fat reference book and remind myself of the nature and the design of electric components. As I started reading the book, I started to remember various things that I haven't thought about for a very long time. Electronics is everywhere all around us. Using a PC? Mobile telephone? Microwave oven? You can thank the engineers who designed and built it. I wasn't one of them, but I do appreciate their efforts and successes. Thanks to them, I can have my own website in a very convenient manner. I can create my visualization of an oxygen atom as you can see above left. The possibilities are endless. It's an electric universe.