Asahikawa American English Conversation School
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
2010 January 29 Friday thru January 31 Sunday.
Closing
out the first month of 2010, and heading into February, the coldest month of the
year, here in Asahikawa. When I say cold, I mean low temperatures of about
minus 15 degrees to minus 20 degrees Celsius. That is plenty cold enough
for me, in fact it is right at the edge of what I can tolerate for any length of
time.
The old timers who have lived here for 60 or more years, tell me that it is not as cold now, as it used to be. In fact, it was common in the old days to have low temperatures of minus 30 degrees during this time of the year.
They tell me stories from their childhood when they remember waking up in the morning with ice crystals all over their bedding where the moisture in their breath had frozen during the night. That's cold!
Nowadays, the quality of housing in Hokkaido is much better and life is very comfortable here. Most housing here is constructed with double windows, whereas in other parts of Japan, it is not. People who have lived in other parts of Japan, as well as in Hokkaido, tell me that the houses in Honshu and other areas outside of Hokkaido, feel colder inside than the houses in Hokkaido. There must be a lot of outside air seeping through the walls and windows in those houses. Considering how much houses cost, that is rather unforgivable.
Starting on Saturday February 6 and running through Thursday February 11, will be the Asahikawa Winter Festival. I will be going on Sunday afternoon and evening to take a lot of photos with my new DSLR Canon X3 camera. I hope the sun is out and the wind in not blowing. I know it will be cold, so I'll have plenty of those chemical hot pads with me to keep my hands warm enough to operate the camera. Hope to see you all there, too.
2010 January 18 Monday thru January 28 Thursday.
Another
week of heavy snows. Look at the photo on the left. This is a
picture of the inner court yard on the second floor of the condo where I live.
In fact, this scene is just right outside my door, so I see it every day while
going from or coming back to my classroom.
I can't remember ever seeing it quite this full of snow before. This photo was taken on January 27.
On Tuesday January 26, I drove out to Asahikawa University at about 8:15 a.m., and it took me about 15 minutes longer than usual to get there. The reason being, it was snowing so hard, and the big trucks were kicking up so much snow dust off of the roads, that I couldn't see more than about 50 meters in front of me, at the most.
Therefore, I drove extra slowly with my headlights on. Everybody should have had their headlights on, but wouldn't you just know it, some people are too unaware, to turn the switch. Especially white colored cars are hard to see in the snow, without their headlights on. Some of those people who were running without their headlights turned on, may have been doing so in the mistaken belief that they were saving money on gasoline, by not using the extra electrical load to the system. That's real smart! How much is your miserable life worth anyway?
On January 21, I received the DVD for Captivate 4, so I could officially update my software from Captivate 1. After I reinstalled the PATCH from Adobe to fix the sound recording function, I thought that all would be smooth sailing towards the completion of Lesson 12 for my eLearning website. Little did I know that there was still one more problem ahead.
The file that I was using to make Lesson 11, had originally been made with Captivate 1. When I opened that file up in Captivate 4 to add the audio track and change the question slides, I discovered to my horror, that I could not edit the question slides in Captivate 4. What to do? Only one possible solution. I had to erase the old question slides and completely remake all 18 of them inside Captivate 4. As a result, I didn't have enough time to make a printed handout quiz to go along with this lesson. The students had an easy lesson on Tuesday January 26, because they only had to do the 18 questions inside the eLearning lesson.
Also, I tried the password protection function when I published the lesson to the internet, and found that it works just fine. I will need to use this password protection for the Final Exam, which will also be taken over the internet, along with a test paper that the students must fill out, while taking the final exam via the PC.
One more class next week, and then it's the final exam. After that, I will have more time to make lessons for children on my eLearning website. I am really looking forward to it.
2010 January 12 Tuesday thru January 17 Sunday.
This
was the first week of back to school, since the end of winter vacation. On
Tuesday, I had two classes at Asahikawa University where less than 50% of the
students showed up for class. So, I used the class time for them to review
Lessons 6 thru 10 on
my eLearning website.
The previous day, while I was finishing up Lesson 11, I made a horrifying discovery. While using Captivate 1 on my new Windows 7, 64 bit operating system, everything went smoothly UNTIL, I tried to record my voice onto the slides of the Captivate Movie. The recording function didn't work!!! YIKES! So, I went to the Adobe website and downloaded a 1 month free trial version of Captivate 4, in order to complete Lesson 11. To my astonishment and utter dismay, the audio recording function on this version of Captivate didn't work either!!!
You must be kidding?!?!? So, I started searching the internet with GOOGLE using the keywords "using Captivate with Windows 7". It wasn't long until I discovered several websites, including the Microsoft website, that said Captivate doesn't work with the new 64 bit operating system, BUT Adobe has made a PATCH that will allow all of the functions of the software to work properly.
So, I followed the link to the patch on the Adobe website and installed it. Thank Gawd it works! Now all I have to do is purchase a users license for and upgrade to Captivate 4, and everything will be A-OK. Right? Let's hope so.
On another subject, it has been snowing a lot this past week, with big dumps of beautiful powder snow. Skiers and snowboarders must be in heaven. I went snowboarding a total of one time last season. After only 4 or 5 runs, I was completely exhausted. Why? Because I am too damn fat! Obese to be exact. Speaking of which, I went to see my doctor recently for a regular physical exam. He gave me a blood test and a urine test, along with all the other normal procedures. When the results of the blood and urine tests came back, the doctor told me that; I have a fatty liver, and excess cholesterol in my blood. He told me that I should stop drinking alcohol, or my liver would be damaged beyond repair and I would die much sooner than I normally should.
I hear you loud and clear, doc. There are still a whole lot of things that I want to do in this life, and if drinking alcohol means that I will not be around long enough to do the things that I really want to do, then alcohol is completely out of my life. Just think of all the money I can save that would otherwise be spent to buy beer. Also, if I'm not consuming a lot of empty calories in the form of alcohol, the chances that I will lose weight are greatly increased!!! Everything to gain and nothing to lose. This decision is a no brainer.
On another note, Toby and Maiko who have just finished building a new house in the; straw bale mud plaster style of eco friendly construction, held an open house on Saturday, January 16 starting at 15:00. I had this event written down in my calendar book and was very much looking forward to attending it. Unfortunately for me, after my private lessons for the day were finished, and I ate my lunch, I became very sleepy and had to lay down and take a one hour nap at about 14:30. I didn't wake up again until 20:00. I guess I needed the sleep in order to carry on with my work. Hopefully there will be another chance to visit their new house, sometime this year.
The photo in today's blog is of Kamikawa Shrine 上川神社, taken on January 11, 2010.
2010 January 10 Sunday and January 11 Monday.
The
second Monday in January is an annual National Holiday in Japan known as Coming
of Age Day 成人の日. In this country, a person is considered to be an adult,
when they turn 20 years old.
For all of those young people who have reached the age of majority between April 1 of the previous year, or will reach the age by March 31 of the current year, there are ceremonies held at the local prefectural and city offices throughout Japan.
Many of the women wear traditional Furisode kimonos, and some of the men wear traditional Hakama, but most of the men wear business suits, or some other types of flashy clothing with wild hair styles.
The coming of age has been celebrated in Japan since at least 714 AD, when a young emperor put on new robes and had his hair styled in order to mark his passage into adulthood.
However, the National Holiday was only first established in 1948 to be held on January 15. Several years ago, it was changed to the second Monday in January to make sure it was always a 3 day weekend. A very good idea indeed.
Ikuko and I went to Kamikawa Shrine in order to burn our year end decorations in a ceremony known as DonDo Yaki どんど焼き.
You can see a photo of the fire on the left.
The first time I did this about 15 years ago, I thought to myself; "What a waste! もったいない, I should send these beautiful decorations to my sister in Seattle!"
However, this is a custom here, and it is considered lucky to get some of the smoke from the fire on your face and body while you are watching your bag of beautiful stuff burn.
While we were there, we met one of my long time former students, who now lives in Sapporo with her husband and 5 months old daughter. They were in Asahikawa to visit her mother, and it was just by a stroke of synchronicity that we were able to meet again today, for the first time in about 2 years.
After Ikuko and I left the Kamikawa Shrine, we went for a drive around the city where I managed to take some more interesting photos. You can see all of the best photos that I took today on my FLICKR account, by clicking here.
Tomorrow, it's back to school. I'm looking forward to it.
2010 January 6 Wednesday thru January 9 Saturday.
Ikuko
and I took a short trip to SoUnKyo Hot Spring Spa Resort 層雲峡温泉 in Kamikawa Town,
for two nights on Wednesday and Thursday. We stayed at the ChoYo Resort
Hotel 朝陽リゾートホテル.
Click here to visit their official website.
For 7,000 yen per person per night, we got; a free bus from Asahikawa JR Station to the Hotel and back again, breakfast and dinner, both in the buffet style, and both with excellent food.
The spa here is 100% natural with a slight sulfur smell, and a very smooth feel to the skin.
I especially liked the all wooden hot tubs in the open air bath area. You can see them in the lower right corner of today's photo. These tubs are hand made from Japanese White Cedar Wood, they are warm and smooth to the touch, not to mention the excellent smell.
This type of wooden hot tub, is not all that common at hot spring resorts, unless you get a room with a private open air bath attached, for a price.
During the daylight hours on Thursday, Ikuko and I went for a walk along the main road, in order to get some exercise and take some photographs. The best photos that I took on that day, can be seen on my FLICKR account by clicking here.
2010 January 2 Saturday thru January 5 Tuesday.
It's
hard for me to believe this, but it is true. My 3 week winter vacation has
only one more week to go until it is back to my regular schedule of teaching
classes 6 days per week, every week.
I'm not complaining. I love meeting my all of my students, and talking with them face to face. Even the students that I teach outside of my own classroom.
I am thinking especially of the 18 to 22 year old kids, that go to Asahikawa University, The JA Kosei Nursing School and the Hokkaido Prefecture Asahikawa Nursing School.
There are many times during classes at these schools, when the students are NOT LISTENING to me AT ALL, but rather talking with their classmates about this, that, and whatever.
Although I don't like it when they do that, I DO NOT TAKE IT PERSONALLY. They have their own interests and issues. Just like I did, when I was their age.
If I really need to get their attention for a moment, in order to explain how to use the learning materials that I have just given them, I will use some sort of sarcastic humor to get their attention. Most of the students don't understand the double meaning of what I am saying, while using the sarcastic humor, but a few of them do.
These are the students that I pay closer attention to, because they will explain the humor to their classmates, in perfect Japanese. Plus, they are more fluent in English and are willing to learn more. I love them! They are the most likely to become the Japanese people who will actually use the English Language in their daily lives as a TOOL to get and give important information, about their daily lives and daily work.
LANGUAGE IS A TOOL FOR the SENDING AND RECEIVING INFORMATION. That's ALL IT IS.
If the intended meaning of the speaker is understood by the listener, AND if the intended meaning of of the WRITER is understood by the READER, then COMMUNICATION has taken place, in REAL TIME.
Mistakes in grammar, mistakes in spelling???? They are IMPORTANT, ONLY IF, the intended meaning of the SENDER, is not clear to the RECEIVER.
On a different subject. One of my readers sent me an email pointing out that my information about Susan Boyle in my previous post was all wrong. She is not a housewife and claims to have never been kissed. In fact, I found the following information about her on msn.com;
BOYLE IS LOOKING FOR LOVE
Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle will dedicate 2010 to finding herself a boyfriend. The single 48 year old, who claims never to have been kissed, shot to fame last year and subsequently turned down the chance to look for love on a TV dating show, following a string of offers from producers. But Boyle admits she is determined to fill the new year with romance, and will spend her time searching for her perfect companion. She tells Britain's News of the World newspaper, "I now dream about the perfect man. Women just want the security of a nice man and somebody to love you." When asked what she is looking for in a partner, Boyle admits she has a liking for her "Britain's Got Talent" mentor, Simon Cowell. She adds, "I owe so much to him. He knows I have a soft spot for him. Simon is my kind of man."
All I can say is; GOOD LUCK SUSAN.
2010 January 1 Friday.
Happy New Year everyone! If you live in a nation
of Western Culture, you may have spent the final minutes of the count down to
2010, at some loud and rowdy party, or a least watching such an event on the TV
from a tavern or from the comfort of your own home.
Here in Japan, the final minutes towards the countdown to the new year, are observed with a much more solemn and serious frame of mind.
The last day of the year is called Oomisoka 大晦日 in Japanese, and family members from far and wide gather together to eat good food at home, while watching the very popular KouHaku 紅白 (Red and White Teams) Musical New Year Countdown on NHK television.
As usual, Ikuko and I stayed at home and had a nice meal of sushi and soba, while watching the Kouhaku TV show, as well as snippets of other TV shows, that were broadcasting live, at the same time.
This year, Kouhaku invited Susan Boyle, the not so pretty housewife from England, who can sing like an angel. She moved the audience to tears with her beautiful voice.
Fifteen minutes before midnight, we started watching other TV channels, as they showed scenes from various parts of Japan, where many people had gathered at Buddhist Temples and Shinto Shrines, for the ringing of the Joya no Kane 除夜の鐘. The ringing of the giant temple bell, 108 times, makes a wonderful sound in the black night air.
Ikuko and I hope that all of you, in Hokkaido, throughout Japan, and all around the rest of the world have a hopeful and peaceful new year in 2010.
2009 December 31 Thursday.
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Countdown to the new year of 2010. 5 4 3 2 1 Happy New Year Everybody!!!
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2009 December 26 Saturday thru December 30 Wednesday.
Tis
(this is) the night, before the night, of the end of the year 2009, and the snow
continues to fall. The local ski grounds have opened and many people are
getting out and onto the snowy slopes for a good time of sliding and gliding.
Ikuko and I have been relaxing and watching some rental DVDs, something we almost never do, except during this time of the year.
We watched a total of 4 movies, two of them were very good, one of them just OK, and one of them was not worth watching until the end.
The one not worth watching to the end was "The Lady Killers", staring Tom Hanks of all people. It was full of profanity and silly jokes. What a bore.
The two good movies were "No Country for Old Men" and "The Good Shepard" both of which are suspense dramas.
The movie that was just OK was "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Click on the movie titles above, to read more about them.
We rented the DVDs from the GEO store here in Kagura, so at about 16:30 this evening, I walked on over to the store to return the discs.
As I was walking along the sidewalks, I could not help but notice the thousands and thousands of very noisy crows sitting on the top of the Taisetsu Arena and all of the power lines in the area, and flying around in huge dark clouds of feathered furry. Everybody else who was out walking around was noticing it too, and making comments such as "This is scary!"
It is scary. Crows will attack people without warning, and attempt to peck them on the head. Since about 4 or 5 years ago, I have been noticing a huge increase in the number of crows here in the Kagura District. During this same time, there has been a large decrease in the number of sparrows.
I'm not sure if there is any connection between these two trends, but I do know for sure that all of the red berries on all of the Nanakamado Trees in this area, are all gone. Years before, the Nanakamado Trees always had some red berries on them, even during the middle of winter. Not any more. The crows have eaten everything and completely taken over this part of town.
2009 December 25 Friday.
Merry
Xmas Everyone!
Although today was not a National Holiday in Japan, and Ikuko had to work at HOMAC until about 13:30, we still had enough daylight left to take a drive thru Biei, Shibinai, all the way up to the base of Asahidake Mountain and back home again through Higashikawa Town.
For the past several days it has been snowing hard, and the sun was hidden behind thick clouds. Finally, again today, the clouds parted enough to allow some beautiful sunlight to hit the ground. I wanted to use this opportunity to get out and take some photos with my DSLR Canon Kiss X3 digital camera.
I was able to get some good photos, including the one in today's blog.
You can see all of the best photos that I took today, on my FLICKR account by clicking here.
The photo on the left was taken at a house in Higashikawa Town. I found this house, purely by chance, as I was driving slowly down the main highway back towards Asahikawa City from Asahidake Mountain.
I also took two other photos of this house's Xmas Lights, as well as other pictures at various locations during today's drive.
Now, it's time to get busy hand writing messages on our New Year's Cards for 2010. That will take a good bit of time.
2009 December 24 Thursday.
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T'was the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care. In hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there. The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads; And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap, Had just settled down for a long winter's nap, When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below, When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer, With a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick. More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name; "Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen! To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall! Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!" | |
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As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky, So up to the house-top the coursers they flew, With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too. And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof The prancing and pawing of each little hoof. As I drew in my hand, and was turning around, Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound. He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot; A bundle of toys he had flung on his back, And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack. His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry! His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow, And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow; The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath; He had a broad face and a little round belly, That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly. He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself; A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread; He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk, And laying his finger aside of his nose, And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose; He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle. But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight, "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night." Poem by Clement Clarke Moore Reading Voice by Norman Delaney Piano Music by Liz Story CLICK HERE to LISTEN Reading Voice recorded on 2006 December 24 |
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2009 December 23 Wednesday.
Today
is a National Holiday in Japan. It is the
Emperor's Birthday
天皇誕生日 to be exact. Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko came to
Asahikawa on July 4, 2003 for the first time in more than 30 years. The
Royal Couple were on a tour of Hokkaido that year, and they traveled around this
beautiful island by motorcade. One of the events on their schedule
was to have a Luncheon Banquet at the
Taisetsu Crystal Hall which is right across the street from my classroom.
Because I knew the schedule of events on that day, I waited outside on the
street along the route of the motorcade as it left the Luncheon Banquet at about
15:00. I was in a big crowd of people, but lucky for me, I am taller than
most of the other people, so I could raise up my
one-shot-at-a-time digital camera over my head in an attempt to take a
photo of the Emperor as he and the Empress passed by on their way to their next
event. Even though I couldn't use the viewfinder so as to be sure that I
got a good photo, I got lucky none the less. As you can see from the photo
on the left, this was a very lucky photo indeed, because I only had one chance.
The one and only chance in my lifetime perhaps. As a result, I
nailed it. Later that same day, during the evening, there was
another large gathering of people, this time in front of the Asahikawa City Hall
to wave up at the Royal Couple as they waved back down to the crowd below from a 15th
floor window in the Asahikawa Grand Hotel. I was able to take some very
interesting photos of the occasion and you can see the photo gallery for that
day by
clicking here. You can
also read the very short essay I wrote about
it by
clicking here. As I said at the start of today's blog, today is a
National Holiday so I had no classes to teach. With about 3 weeks of
winter vacation in front of me, I began to think of all of the things that I
must do, and most of the other things that I want to do. It is a rather
long list.
2009 December 22 Tuesday.
Here
we are again at the WINTER SOLSTICE. On this day, in the Northern
Hemisphere, the SUN stops its descent towards the SOUTH, and appears to STOP for
about 3 days, before it begins its ascent towards the NORTH again, until it
reaches the SUMMER SOLSTICE on about June 21.
If the word SOLSTICE looks difficult to non native speakers of the English Language, don't feel bad.
The word SOLSTICE in not really English at all, it is LATIN.
The word SOL means SUN, and the word STICE means, STOP.
So, just like I wrote above, the SUN STOPs its descent towards the south, and appears to rest for about 3 days before it begins its ascent back towards the north on about December 25.
Where have I heard this story before???
Oh! By the way! There was a huge dump of BIG POWDER SNOW last night in the city of Asahikawa, and also in the surrounding areas.
After the last lesson for yesterday was finished at about 20.00, Ikuko and I went for a short drive to CHOICE Kaiten Sushi to eat dinner, and after that, went for a longer drive to look for Xmas Illuminations in and around the city.
We were not able to find a large number of Xmas Lights, but we were able to enjoy watching the big flakes of light powder snow, falling slowly out of the the pitch black night sky.
It was gorgeous! I only wish, that I had brought, either my video camera, or my new Canon DSLR camera with me, to record the event.
There will be more opportunities in the very near future to observe and record this wonderful phenomenon of nature.
Big beautiful, light and airy, snowflakes, of frozen water, drifting slowly from high above, down to Earth, and making no noise at all.
Words cannot describe it. That is why I need to make a digital recording of it, and post it here, on the internet, for all to see
Snow Country is were the true beauty of LIFE can be seen, it its full glory, without any of the B.S. that is omnipresent in the much of the rest of the world, today.
2009 December 1 Tuesday thru December 21 Monday.
The
last month of this year, and I have been too busy with my new Windows 7 PC to
spend any time here on my neglected notebook PC running Windows XP on a 1.73 GHz
Pentium M740, with only 512MB of main memory. That's right, only 512MB.
Talk about slooooooooooow!
Most of my time on the new Windows 7 PC has been spent making ANIME illustrations using Fireworks MX and FreeHand 11, that will be used for children's lessons on my new eLearning website.
I have been getting much better at using the software especially the PEN TOOL. This is a very powerful drawing tool that allows you to make perfectly smooth curves, of any angle, as well as many other useful drawing features.
I was able to use the Fireworks MX pen tool, to make the best looking New Year's Card ever for the Year of the Tiger. I was proud of myself for making such a cute little tiger-looking critter. I will post a copy of it in this blog on January 1, 2010.
During the last week of classes, every year, I have a small Xmas Party for each and every class, during that last week.
You can get an idea of what that looks like from the photo above. We have many easy to eat snacks and healthy drinks for my students, of all ages.
Instead of a regular lesson, we solve hidden picture puzzles for the kids, and word puzzles for the adults and older children.
All lessons for this year will end on December 22 at my classroom. Winter vacation will be from December 23 thru January 11, 2010.
Regular classes will start again on Tuesday, January 12, 2010.
During my 3 week winter vacation, I will be spending a lot of time making more lessons for my new eLearning website at;
In the near future there will be lessons for children, and also for those persons who would like to take the TOEIC test.
Stay tuned, a lot more coming soon.
2009 November 24 Tuesday thru November 30 Monday.
There's
a New Kid in Town.
After about 6 years of using this SONY VAIO laptop PC model type F VGN-FS70B, I decided it was time to upgrade my hardware and get the newest and most powerful SONY VAIO available, as of late October.
Since late August of this year, I have been putting together an eLearning website using Macromedia Captivate and Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004. The software is wonderful, but with bigger file sizes coming out of Captivate, the time it takes to create, save to disk and upload to the internet was very slow with my notebook PC.
Therefore, I got a real hotrod of a desktop PC, in order to kick things into high gear. Getting into SPECS of the machine itself which is model number VPCLAFJ; it has 12GB of main memory, a hard disk of 2TB, 2GB of memory for working with videos, a 2.83GHz Intel Core2 Duo CPU, OS is Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, Blue Ray disc drive, Bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse. The display is a huge 24 inch Full HD 1080.
In other words, it does everything very quickly, making my workflow much smoother.
Also, I will be upgrading some software, hopefully the next upgrade of the Adobe eLearning Suite will come out early next year. Until then, I will continue to use Captivate 1, and Macromedia Studio MX 2004. It gets the job done, for now.
2009 November 9 Monday thru November 23 Monday.
These
past two weeks have been really busy for me, and the weather has been everything
from snow storms to warm and sunny days with almost no snow on the ground.
November is a confused month.
It is a non-season, between autumn and winter. It's not autumn because all of the leaves have already fallen, and it's not winter because there is no constant snow cover on the ground.
Monday November 23 was a National Holiday in Japan called Labor Thanks Giving Day 勤労感謝の日. I used the entire day to finish up Lesson 9 about The Earth for my new eLearning website.
I also spent some time learning how to draw ANIME characters using Adobe Fireworks. I will be putting some ANIME characters on my eLearning website early next year, for use in the lessons that I will be making for young children, and other true beginners.
Also, later on in the coming year, there will be some conversation based lessons on the website along with some lessons to help people who are studying for the TOEIC examination.
Stay tuned. More to come soon. Including the big snows.
2009 November 1 Sunday thru November 8 Sunday.
I
woke up on Sunday morning November 1, to discover a big dump of snow on the
ground. Oooops! I was planning to change to my winter tires on
Wednesday, November 4. I won't be doing any driving until this first snowfall inside the city, melts. And of course it did, starting the very
next day.
In fact, by Sunday November 8, it was about 20 degrees Celsius, and there was almost no snow left, anywhere in the city. Except for those shady spots in the gardens. As you can see from the photo in today's blog, the few autumn leaves that remain on the branches, are showing signs of frost bite and not looking as beautiful as they did, just one short week ago.
With such warm weather on Sunday, November 8, a lot of people, including myself, were out walking around by the river banks of the Chubetsu River between Twin Harps Bridge and the irrigation dam just upstream from there.
I managed to take a few interesting photographs today, which I uploaded to my FLICKR account. You can see those photos by clicking here.
Today may have been the very last day of warm weather for many months to come. More snow will be on the way soon. Much more!
2009 October 25 Sunday thru October 31 Saturday.
Another
long week of classes and cold night time temperatures. Today is Halloween.
I don't have a Halloween Party at my classroom, but I do give everybody who
comes to my classroom a treat during the last week of October, leading up to
Halloween.
In the photo on the left, you can see me with just two of the beautiful young ladies who come to my classroom on a regular basis. The treats are in the plastic Jack-o-Lantern on the table. Just some simple hard candies of many flavors.
The girl on the right is wearing a Jack-o-Lantern Hat, which I found at Toys R Us, the other day. Believe it or not, the hat is big enough to fit over my entire head and make me look like an orange and black monster.
Many, if not most, of the English Conversation Classrooms in Japan, make it a point to have an annual Halloween Party. They like to put photos of it on the top page of their website. I choose not to. I realize that the students will bring their friends and that their friends might also become students at my classroom in the future, but I'm not interested in that type of marketing.
The purpose of my classroom is NOT to have many fun "Events" throughout the year, but to have an enjoyable and informative lesson, each and every time, when the many students come to my classroom. I love learning new things everyday, and so do my students.
Instead of a Halloween Party, I have an ESSAY about the history of Halloween, and how Halloween is celebrated today, with a PODCAST of me reading the text. This is for adults. You can read the essay, while listening to me read it out loud, by clicking here.
Also, I have a fun Fun Musical Animation of the song, MONSTER MASH, that I made for children. You can watch and listen to it by clicking here.
Both of them are available at any time, and can be enjoyed right within the comfort of your own home.
ENJOY!
2009 October 18 Sunday thru October 24 Saturday.
Influenza
Week! About one half of my students cancelled their lessons this week
because of bad colds and/or influenza. I myself cancelled my first two
lessons on Monday. First was the Chestnut Tree Kindergarten starting at
10:00 and the second was the 神楽公民館英会話を楽しむ会 which usually starts at 13:00.
I was somewhat ready to start lessons at my classroom from 15:00 on Monday, but only 3 people showed up all day.
I myself still wasn't in tip top shape when I went to Asahikawa University on Tuesday morning for 2 classes with the first year students. In fact, because of my practicing the guitar all last week to get ready for my big gig on Saturday, I didn't have time to make Lesson 6 for my eLearning website.
What to do???
No problem. Tuesday became a Review Day for lessons 1 thru 5, with computer quizzes only. For those students who have missed classes in the past, I gave them full attendance credit for the classes they missed, if they also did the paper quiz for each lesson that they haven't done yet. The students were very happy with my proposal.
However, I need to make lesson 6 for next Tuesday and I may have to stay up late a few nights to get it finished.
On Saturday, the weather was so nice, I just had to get out on the road along with my new Canon EOS X3 DSLR, and take as many photos as I could, in order to figure out how to use the camera correctly. I took a total of 284 photos, and only a few of them came out really well.
We drove all the way from Asahikawa to the Mt. Tokachi Observation Area, and I took photos at various points all along the way. Probably the worst photos I took were from the Tokachi Observation Area. The exposure settings were all wrong. Everything came out too pale. I have a lot to learn about using my new camera. But for now, I will show you one of the better photos I took today, in the upper left corner of today's blog. This photo was taken in a small park in Kita Saito across the street from the Science Pavilion, SaiPal. I have done nothing at all to the photo except to reduce its size for this web page. Not even any adjustment for brightness or contrast. The original photo was 4.32 MB in size, so I edited it in Fireworks to bring the size down to 1.2 MB and 660 X 440 pixels. I think it really captures the feeling of this season. You can see some more of the best photos that I took today on my FLICKR PHOTOSTREAM by clicking here.
Well anyway, I gotta get back to work on Lesson 6 for my Internet Classroom.
2009 October 17 Saturday.
Oktober
Fest Live was a big success. Thank you to all of the people who came to
see Liberty, The Radiators and me perform live music. All in all, about 50
people showed up for the the 3 hour event. To be honest, most of the people
who came, were my students or former students. I made sure that all of
them knew about this event by telling them in person, or sending them a letter
in the mail, or sending them an email. The webmaster of the
LiBERTY
website, told me that he had a big increase in unique visitors coming to look at
his website. Most of them came there via this website. After all, I
did study Marketing at Washington State University. I guess I really did
learn something in college.
My wife told me that my guitar playing sounded excellent. It's the same guitar playing that I do at home, but MokuZouKan has wonderful acoustics, and that makes a big difference in the way music sounds.
I hope I have the opportunity to play here again some day. It's the perfect venue for live music. If you could not come to the show, you can still see Music Videos of all the songs I played by Clicking Here.
It's hard to believe that there was some talk of tearing this building down some years ago, when the Forestry Management Agency 営林局 moved out of the big building next door. Tear this building down??? What a ridiculous idea!!! I wonder who had that brain fart.
2009 October 13 Tuesday thru October 16 Friday.
Cold
and Rainy is the name of this season. In Germany, they are having a big
beer bash called Oktoberfest. I wish I could be there, because I just love
German Beer.
Here in Asahikawa, we are going to have our own Oktober Fest Live Music Concert at MokuZouKan 木造館. MokuZouKan is right across the street from the Taisetsu Crystal Hall and the Taisetsu Arena here in Kagura. It is a beautiful concert hall with room for about 100 people to sit an enjoy live music.
Three bands will be playing there on Saturday October 17, starting at 18:00. The three bands are, LiBERTY, The Radiators, and me, Snowman Japan. LiBERTY and the The Radiators play the Groups Sounds Music of the late 1960s, for example THE VENTURES type of guitar sounds. I will be playing 14 of my favorite (there are a lot more than that) Gordon Lightfoot songs, by myself as a solo act, on acoustic guitar.
If you have time, please come and enjoy the music. The concert is absolutely FREE. Click Here For More Details.
Doors open at 17:30, so get there a bit early and be sure to get a seat.
Hope to see you all there.
2009 October 5 Monday thru October 12 Monday.
Another
long week of teaching lessons, including public, group and private. Again
on Tuesday, I used my new eLearning website with the students at Asahikawa
University. This time, we did Lesson 4 about the tallest waterfalls in the
world. Again, as before, the students told me how much they enjoy using
this website, and that they feel as if they are improving their English
abilities, with every lesson. The other professor who teaches these same
students on Wednesdays, also mentioned to me about how much the students like
using my new website. I am so glad to hear that. I have been
planning this website since about 5 years ago. At that time I knew exactly
what I wanted to make, but I had no clue as to how to make it. After
buying new software and many books about creating eLearning websites, I was
finally able to put it all together, and launch Lesson 1 on
www.snowmanjapan.com about 5 weeks ago. Since then, I
have been adding a new lesson to the website every week. It takes a lot of
time, but it is well worth it, considering the rave reviews I have received so
far.
Another thing that I have been considering for about 18 months, is the purchase of my first SLR Digital Camera, that has the capabilities to take really professional quality photographs. At first, I was considering an Olympus SLR digital Camera, because I have a very old Olympus OM1 film camera. I thought that the lenses I already have, might fit onto the new digital camera, but they don't. So I put off buying my first SLR digital camera, until I could do more market research into the subject.
Finally about 4 weeks ago, when I went to The Chestnut Tree Kindergarten くりの木幼稚園, I noticed that there were a lot of really professional looking photographs of the kids on the walls. So, I asked the owner if he had bought a new camera recently. He said; "Yes, I did". I asked him what brand and model he had purchased. He replied; "The Canon Kiss X2". I also asked him if that was the newest model, and he said that it was the model just before the newest model.
Having seen the excellent photos, renewed my interest in getting my first SLR digital camera, so I started looking around on the internet. I found the newest Canon Kiss model, the X3, and really liked what I read about it.
About 3 days ago, I decided to walk on over to Camera Kitamura, which is right next to my classroom, and inquire about the price of the new camera, and how much money I could get for selling some of my old cameras. After a few minutes of negotiations, I told the store clerk that I could by this camera on the internet for just under 80,000 yen. Even with selling my old cameras, the best price they could offer me was 86,000 yen.
I asked if they could sell it to me for 80,000 yen, and they said "No". Good job bone head, you just lost a sale. That person must have an MBA. Master of Business Administration really means, "Mental Block Always".
I went back home after that negotiation, and bought it from Amazon co jp, using my wife's affiliate link, to make the purchase. In the age of the World Wide Web, businesses selling identical products need to understand that the customer will buy from the place that offers the lowest price. Plain and simple. Small profit margins require a Big volume of sales. Just ask any grocery store owner.
2009 October 1 Thursday thru October 4 Sunday.
On
Saturday evening, I had the chance to listen to some rather unusual music.
In the photo on the left, you can see Three Giant Jazz Trio. On the piano,
渋谷 毅, born in Tokyo 1939. On the saxophone, 峰 厚介, born in Tokyo 1944, and
on the DIDGERIDOO, 荒井 ABO 誠 who moved to 北海道当別町 in April of 2007. If you
are wondering what a DIDGERIDOO is, it is a musical instrument invented by the
Aboriginal Peoples of Australia.
Click here, to read more about it on Wikipedia.
The sound of the didgeridoo is rather difficult to describe, other than to say that it is a low drone type of sound that is very mesmerizing. The very small camera that I brought with me to this event, also has a microphone sound recording function, so I made a short recording of the didgeridoo, which I can share with my readers. Click here to open the audio file in a player of your choice.
The musical performance lasted from 19:00 until 21:30, with a very long intermission, in between the first and second sets.
The location of the performance was at JAZZ POINT COFFEE SHOP ABERU, which is located between 4 Jodori and 5 Jodori at 20 Chome.
The building itself is a completely remodeled two floor apartment building, that used to have either 4 or 8 apartments in it. The interior is very nicely done with different types of recycled wood, and it has a very warm and pleasant feeling.
For more information, give them a call at ジャズ喫茶アベル ０１６６−３２−２９７７ あさひかわ新聞の記事はこちらへ
2009 September 24 Thursday thru September 30 Wednesday.
Tis
the season of the colored leaves. Such a beautiful sight, but for only a
short time. Enjoy it while you can.
Heading into October, we will be getting more rainy days than sunny days. After all of the colored leaves have fallen to the ground and turned brown, it will be a season between seasons, before the snowfall starts. Not a very pretty time of year.
Well, that's OK with me. I've got a lot of work to do indoors. Besides, I can't control the weather anyway.
Speaking of working indoors, I have been spending a lot of time on my new eLearning website. On average, it takes me about 20 - 24 hours of work over a period of 5 or 6 days, just to make one new lesson for the website.
It is most certainly worth the effort, however. The first year students at Asahikawa University whom I have in my two classes this year, enjoy using it. In fact, none of them goes off surfing on other websites, during the lesson time. They all finish the lesson and then they look at other websites, if they have any time remaining in class.
I remember in previous years, when we were using the other eLearning software made by a big company, that the students got bored with the lessons in less than 5 minutes, and would be off onto other websites, not learning any English at all. With my new website, all of that has changed.
The students take the lesson and the multiple choice quizzes that are embedded between the lesson slides, until they get a test score of 90% or better. Then I give them a piece or two of paper, that has the same text as that which appeared on the lesson slides, only the paper test has some of the words missing. So, the students have to go back through the lesson again, and fill in all of the blanks on the paper test.
A really good student will only have to take the lesson two times, but most of the students have to take the lesson between 3 and 5 times to get 90% or better, and to fill in all the blanks on the paper test.
Before you know it, the 90 minute class time is all used up.
Why is it that just one guy, like me, working alone, can make a better eLearning website than a big fat over staffed corporation can? Maybe the big corporation has too many meetings that waste time, and compromise everybody's ideas, until they find the lowest common denominator that everyone can agree on. YUCK! Small is Beautiful. Try out my new Lesson 4, by clicking here, and see for yourself.
2009 September 23 Wednesday.
Today
is the Autumn Equinox, and another National Holiday here in Japan.
Unlike yesterday, I did not go for a bicycle ride in the warm afternoon sun. Instead, I got up before dawn, and took a walk along the quiet streets, while looking up at the beautiful star filled sky.
The planet Venus in the eastern sky was so bright, I thought for a moment that it was Jupiter.
From now on until the Winter Solstice, the days will get shorter, the nights will get longer, and both will get colder. Much colder.
That's just the way it IS.
By the way, I finished Lesson 3 for my new eLearning website. It is about the deserts of the world. You can try it for yourself by clicking here.
This lesson file is a bit large and the download time is a bit slower than Lesson 1 or Lesson 2.
I need to make some adjustments as to how I put these lessons together. Learn by doing.
2009 September 21 Monday and September 22 Tuesday.
Yesterday,
today and tomorrow are consecutive holidays, known as Silver Week.
That is because Monday is an annual National Holiday called 敬老の日, Respect for
the Aged Day. People over 65 years of age, can get a "Silver
Discount" on various shopping items.
Today is a holiday, just because tomorrow is the Spring Equinox, which is also an annual National Holiday. Might as well make it 3 in a row, including the weekend, that makes 5 holidays in a row. A great chance to take a trip, even overseas.
I have been spending a lot of time in front of my PC, making new lessons for my eLearning website, which is very interesting for me, because I learn new things too, as I put the lessons together.
However, I need to get outdoors and stretch my legs big time, so I took advantage of the excellent weather today, and went for a ride on my mountain bike, for the first time in about, 16 months! YIKES! No wonder I am so damn obese.
I took an easy route today, along the cycling roads of the Biei River and Chubetsu River.
A lot of other people were out and about also, walking, running, cycling, standing around. The sun was hot and the air was cool. Perfect for outdoor exercise. When the sun goes down, it will get very cold, especially if you are up in the higher elevations. Bring warm clothes with you if you go out for an excursion these days. The first frost of the season, is not all that far away.
2009 September 15 Tuesday thru September 20 Sunday.
A
very busy week of teaching classes, including 3 private lessons on Saturday.
Saturdays have become a regular work day, until about 14:00, then I have some
free time.
On Sunday, I walked across the street to Taisetsu Crystal Hall, to see the last part of the 第２３回 旭川市公民館合唱サークル.
In total, there were 16 different groups that sang about 2 or 3 songs each, plus a rousing finale combining the last two groups, and everyone in the audience, for a big sing along.
One of the students who comes to my classroom every week, is a member of the last group to sing before the big finale.
She is a member of the chorus group それいゆ or Soleir, which means Sunflowers. The first song they sang is one of my all time favorites that I have known since I was just a little kid. It is a Negro Spiritual entitled; "Sometimes I feel like a motherless child." They did a beautiful job of singing it.
The other song they sang was another all time favorite; "Amazing Grace".
I also brought along my video camera and tripod, so that I could make a Memorial DVD of the performance, and give it to my student as a gift. Today, was their last concert of this year. I look forward to seeing them again next year.
2009 September 13 Sunday and September 14 Monday.
On
Sunday, I was invited to go out and see a music festival at Kitoushi Park, where
the Canmore Ski Village is located, but I couldn't go because I had not
yet completed Lesson 2, for my new eLearning webite. I finally finished it
at about 22:00 on Sunday night.
You can try Lesson 2 for yourself, by clicking here.
I was out on Saturday night until about 02:00, because I was playing and enjoying music at Live House Good Luck since about 19:00 that evening. While I was there, I met a young lady whose father is Japanese and mother is American. She speaks both perfect English and perfect Japanese. A pleasure to talk with. Just before closing time, as she left with her Japanese boyfriend, I suddenly realized that I know her mother! It's a small world.
The photograph in today's blog, is of the front cover of the evening edition of the Hokkaido Newspaper.
Even if you can't read Japanese, you can probably guess what it says.
ICHIRO gets 200 safe hits for the 9th straight year in a row, breaking a baseball record that has stood for 108 years.
Mr. Baseball. Ichiro Suzuki. He is only 35 years old.
He gets to the ball park 3 hours before the start of each and every game just to stretch out and practice the basics.
Then, he plays a full game. Dedication. Hard Work. Commitment to the Game. Professionalism all the way.
I can't wait to see what he does next.
ROCK ON ICHIRO!!!
2009 September 7 Monday thru September 12 Saturday.
A
very busy week, with 6 new students signing up to start taking lessons at my
classroom. Six new students in one week may be a new record for me.
On Tuesday, I went out to Asahikawa University to teach my two freshman classes. This semester, I am using the computer lab and my new eLearning website with the students. Today, we did Lesson 1, about mountains of the world. Some of the students finished the computer course and the paper test in 40 minutes. Some of them needed the full 90 minutes.
I asked the students how they liked using my new website, and they said it was interesting and enjoyable. Glad to hear that. Next Tuesday we will do a new lesson, about rivers of the world.
As you can see from the photo in today's blog, I have an Acoustic Guitar Live gig tonight.
YIKES! I haven't had any time to practice for it this week.
So, I'm going to finish up this blog really quickly and get into some guitar playing right now.
Click here to see my SET LIST for tonight.
If you have time, come on by and enjoy the music.
2009 September 1 Tuesday thru September 6 Sunday.
No
longer any doubt about it, autumn is here to stay. Warm sunny days with
cool breezes, then suddenly, heavy rains, sometimes with thunder and lightning.
It might be a good idea to carry an umbrella with you, everywhere you go these
days.
Most of my morning classes at other schools have already started except for one.
My classes at Asahikawa University for the fall semester will start on Tuesday, September 8.
Since about 5 years ago, the school introduced a very expensive (for the school) eLearning software package, produced by a big name Japanese company, so that the students could learn English via the internet.
I too have used this system along with the students, and found it lacking in many ways. While the system does have some fancy features like being able to slow down or speed up the speaking voice for the listener, it lacks some very basic features such as, having spoken audio for ALL of the printed material that appears on the screen.
In a word, it sucks. I know it and the students know it too. In fact, the software fails to hold their attention for longer than about 5 minutes. Then they are off, surfing around on other websites and not learning any English.
So, during this entire week, I have set up my very own eLearning website, to use with the first year students at Asahikawa University in the computer lab, at the school.
Right now, the website has only one lesson on it. A lesson about the tallest mountains in the world. I will add a new lesson every week for the entire fall semester, and see how the students interact with my new website.
In order to be sure that the students really are learning the material, I have not allowed the user to back up to a previous page in the program. They must complete the entire lesson, see their final score, and then retake the lesson if they didn't get a passing score.
Also, the students will have to fill out a paper quiz with the same information on it, that they just learned from my new website. That should keep most of them busy for the full 90 minutes of class.
We will see how it works on Tuesday.
You too can try out my new website by clicking here.
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