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
始めました！ ニックネームは SnowmanJPN 見てね！
2010 September 1, 2 and 3 Wednesday Thursday Friday.
The
O Kagura Festival is now happening at Chubetsu Park.
お神楽祭りは今現在、忠別公園で開催中です。
MORE LATER.
2010 August 24 Tuesday thru August 31 Tuesday.
After
one full week of back to school at my place, it felt good to see all of my old
friends again.
On Saturday August 28 at about 17:00, Ikuko and I drove to Numata Town to see the 沼田町夜高あんどん祭り.
It is held every year at about this same time, but this was the first time we had actually gone to the event.
I've been thinking about it for years.
Then, last year when Charlie went for the first time and took some fantastic photos, I vowed to myself that 2010 would be the year we finally made it to the Fighting Lanterns Festival in Numata Town.
Fortunately, the weather was perfect for the Matsuri.
Ikuko had even made reservations for front row seats a few weeks before the festival night, so we were able to sit in a proper chair and take photographs and video of the event, in a very comfortable manner.
Being in the front row were the action is the closest, is a photographer's dream come true.
I didn't even have to stand up to get perfectly good shots of the action.
If you yourself have never been to this event before, it is a MUST SEE FESTIVAL, right here in Hokkaido.
For more detailed information, click here for the Numata Town Official Website.
To see the rest of the photos that I took that night, click on the link below.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/snowmanjapan/sets/72157624832337802/
See ya there again next year!
2010 August 14 Saturday thru August 23 Monday.
Heading in to the final week of Summer Vacation.
Every year on August 14 is held the 花火 in Kagura event.
People come from all over the city to watch this dynamic display of light and sound.
One of the best things about this fireworks display, is that it is very close to the Biei River, and the reflections in the water of the lights up above, add an extra special effect to the scene.
You can see from the photo on the left, that it can get as bright as noon for a few moments, during the show.
During this last week of summer vacation, I took advantage of the hot sunny weather to get out the garden hose, and do a complete cleaning of my balcony area.
A lot of dust and other garbage have piled up over the past year, and it was high time this cleaning job took place.
I even used my electric floor polisher to get out the really hard stains on the balcony floor. When I got done, it looked like a white sand beach!
Perfect! My own private island.
To make matters even better, I got out my hammock and attached one end of it to the steel fence running along the outer edge of the veranda, and I attached the other end of the hammock to a solid drainage pipe that is attached to the outer wall of my bedroom.
The hammock fits perfectly into this space and affords a relaxing view of the sky above. I have used oval rings with spring loaded clips to attach the hammock to its two anchor posts, so that it can be quickly removed when the weather gets bad.
Friday morning on August 20, I had 2 classes at the 道立看護学院 even though my own classroom was still closed. It was a nice way to ease back into my regular teaching schedule, after having had so much free time during the past 3 weeks.
Monday morning on August 23, I went out to the くりの木幼稚園 for 英語ふれあい. After my lesson was finished, all of the kids got to eat some fresh watermelon, outside on the big grassy hill that is in the middle of their play ground. What a lucky bunch of children!
2010 August 10 Tuesday thru August 13 Friday.
Time
to take that Summer Road Trip.
When there is no snow on the roads and the weather is fine, it's time to take a summer drive.
Stay overnight in a new location, and then move on the next day.
If you have a car, this can be easily arraigned.
If you have a car with a flat tire, you need to call JAF.
JAF stands for Japan Automobile Federation.
In the USA they have a similar organization called AAA, which means American Automobile Association.
Both of these organizations are very helpful to persons traveling by car.
Anyway, at about 1:01 p.m. when I noticed that my right rear tire was flatter than a pancake, I had no other choice but to pull over to the side of the road, and stop my car.
Luckily, there was a bus stop right there, that had a wider curve in the road, where we could stop safely.
Thank Gawd ikuko has a mobile phone, because I don't! One call to the JAF number and a truck/trailer was on its way. It arrived from Fukagawa City, about 40 minutes later.
You can see from the screen shot of the Car Navi in the photo above, that I was out in the middle of the countryside, not far from the little town of Moseushi 妹背牛.
The JAF guy hauled us and our car, to a tire shop in Moseushi, where they put on a new tire, and a reasonable price. THANK YOU!!
At
about 14:00, we were back on the road and headed towards the Sea of Japan at
Mashike 増毛.
We had reservations at a hotel in Otaru, so we could take our sweet time and drive along the Coastal Roadway with its many tunnels. In fact, it has so many tunnels and cost so much to build that it is also called the Golden Line. I appreciate the wonderful convenience this provides for the driver, to enjoy the scenery while driving on smooth and safe roads.
In the photo on the left you can see a portion of the Golden Line near Cape OoFuyu 雄冬岬.
It was a beautiful sunny day for this nearly perfect drive and we finally arrived in Otaru at about 18:30.
After a quick change of clothes, it was off to Otaru Beer Soko No.1 for food and micro-brew.
The current beer of the season was a German Style Black Beer, so I got one of the biggest mugs they had. A full liter.
A
full liter of beer at this place is about 10 times more expensive than a liter
of gasoline.
And you thought that petrol was expensive?
That one liter was all the beer I needed for that night and the rest of the evening I ate some good foods.
Otaru was not very crowded on this evening, so there wasn't much to see, except the standard scenery that has made Otaru famous with tourists and photographers, alike.
This is the first time I have visited Otaru since I got my pro level DSLR camera, so I re-took all of the photos of the Canal Plaza, from various angles.
You can see the best ones on my FLICKR, by clicking here.
Not much to do outdoors in the streets, so we headed back to the hotel and sat around in a cool and comfortable room.
We saw some interesting shows on TV about large corporations vs. small independent businesses, in the food service industry here in Japan. The competition is tough.
In the morning after breakfast, we saw a TV show about a Japanese woman who teaches the abacus to Japanese kids, using only spoken English. She also showed how the abacus was naturally set up to process big numbers either 4 digits at a time or 3 digits at a time.
Japanese, Chinese and Korean peoples use a 4 digit number system, and most of the rest of the world uses a 3 digit number system.
For example, IchiMan 一万, is a 4 digit unit that is called Ten Thousand 10,000 in English. IchiMan directly translated in to English would be: "One unit of Ten Thousand".
Many non-Japanese who live in Japan, including myself, use the Japanese words for money amounts, during our conversations with each other in English. Numbers can be confusing sometimes, so we just say it the same way as everybody else says it.
2010 August 1 Sunday thru August 9 Monday.
Hooray!
Summer Vacation starts today.
Many a Hot August Night to try and sleep through.
Hot and Humid.
That's soooooooo UnHokkaido.
As usual, there are fireworks and many outdoor events.
The San Roku Festival which was held from August 5 thru August 7, was a big outdoor drinking and eating party.
Yeah, that's right. Open containers of alcohol everywhere.
Thousands of people in the streets.
Not one angry voice.
Not one loud argument.
Not even a single fist fight.
No drive by shootings.
Nobody using drugs out in the open.
The
dozen or so police officers on the scene where all sitting around under a large
white event tent.
No weapon larger than a waist holstered pistol.
Maybe it is possible for responsible adults to Eat, Drink and Be Merry with out disturbing the PEACE.
In the twenty some years that I have lived here, I have seen in public loud arguments about 2 or 3 times.
I have never ever seen a fist fight of any kind, in Hokkaido.
When I lived in Alaska, I saw a fist fight or brawl almost every time I went to a tavern in the town. It was like a local sport or something. Primitive Behavior, in my opinion.
In Hokkaido, the gap between the rich and poor is a very narrow one. Or, so it appears.
After living for 7 years in the USA and getting a Masters Degree in Architecture, one of my former students, who is now a young professional woman, told me recently that in the USA, the difference between the rich and poor is very obvious, right out there on the streets.
Yeah, I know. I lived there for 33 years. I've seen and felt it for myself.
You're right, Chika. Japan is much more beautiful on the surface.
Peace, Enjoyment and Public Safety, are all possible. At the Same Time.
Give it a try.
2010 July 26 Monday thru 31 Saturday.
STATE
OF THE ART
There's another New Kid in Town.
His name is ZOOM R24.
His age is about 2 months, and he weights 1.3 Kg.
Happy Birthday little guy, let's get to work.
What used to cost many tens of thousands of dollars to own and operate, can now be had at about $500 US.
It even operates on batteries, so you can take it to a stage and hook up 8 microphones, and start recording a live concert. Just like that!
Finally, my long time hobby of playing music, has its ultimate tool.
Multi Track Recorder (MTR for short).
Can record and mix up to 24 tracks.
Hundreds and hundreds of pre recorded drumming loops included inside the machine.
Of course, applying effects and wave shape modifications to the recorded music, is totally up to your imagination and virtually limitless.
Click here to read the specs in English.
******** ******** ********
A
small toy for a very big boy.
I think I know what I will be doing every rainy day during this summer vacation. Makin' Music!
First serious project, is to make Original Childrens' Songs, and pass out a free CD to all of my young students, when they come back from summer vacation.
I have lots of self made songs for children to enjoy learning American English.
Now, I have all the tools I need to record multi instrument tracks and blend them all together into two stereo tracks.
Upload to the internet.
Burn a CD
Burn a DVD
Do all three.
I'd like to write more but,........
I think I'll make a little magic, instead.
Let ya all hear it, later on. Ya dig?
2010 July 24 Saturday and 25 Sunday.
All
during the morning on Saturday, it was raining so I was wondering how the
weather would be by 19:00, when the outdoor music gig was scheduled to start.
The rain completely stopped by 17:30, and the streets and sidewalks dried up nicely.
The gig started right on time to a full audience sitting around at tables while drinking beer and eating grilled foods.
About 10 of my students came as well, to listen to the new songs I played that night.
There were even times when some of the audience members got up and danced to the music.
It was a really enjoyable evening on a warm wonderful night, with a light breeze.
It's one of those things that you can only do during this time of the year.
2010 July 13 Tuesday thru July 23 Friday.
If
you think it is hot in Hokkaido, it got up to 38 degrees Celsius in Gunma
Prefecture a few days ago. Not only is it killer hot, the humidity is
probably somewhere around 80% or more!
One of my former students who was born and raised in Asahikawa, is now married and living in that area of Honshu. She uses MIXI and recently made a post with a photo showing the thermometer near the entrance of her house. Yep! It says 38 degrees C!
I could never live down there. Even with Air Conditioning, you still have to leave your home to go buy food and other essentials. I wouldn't be able to move, once I got outside and onto the streets. Hokkaido is already hot enough for me.
I have already finished up all of my "outside of my classroom classes" for this half of the year, except for the fact that I have to give a final exam at Asahikawa University on August 3. Therefore, I have a lot of extra time in the mornings to do various things.
One of the things I am doing is getting ready for another live music gig that will happen on Saturday July 24. Hey! That's tomorrow!
Again this year, I will be a special guest of the Group Sounds Band LiBERTY, at the Sanwa Summer Festival, located at 7 Jodori and Kaimono Koen. The concert will be outdoors at the local Beer Garden and will be from 19:00 - 21:00. For details, click here.
Instead of playing an acoustic guitar this year, I will be playing my new electric "Gibson Les Paul" model guitar, made in Japan. You can see it in the photo of today's blog. The amplifier in the photo is one that I have had for several years. It is a ZOOM FIRE-15 Modeling Guitar Amplifier, and has 11 Modeling sounds, 17 Digital Effects, and 20 Preset/User Set Programs, all within that one little case.
In a word, it sounds great!!!
The 4 songs that I will be playing this year are: 1. Wine Red Kokoro （ワインレッドの心）, 2. South City Midnight Lady (Doobie Brothers) 3. Spanish Moss (Gordon Lightfoot) and, 4. Secret Agent Man (Johnny Rivers).
The first three songs I will play all by myself, and the last song I will play together with LiBERTY.
Hopefully it won't rain tomorrow, and a lot of people can enjoy the music while eating YakiTori and drinking ice cold Beer!
Please come and enjoy the evening with us!!!
Details of all the songs that LiBERTY will play can be seen by clicking here.
2010 July 9 Friday thru July 12 Monday.
The
Lavender Season is here and now.
On Sunday afternoon, Ikuko and I went for a leisurely drive through Biei and into Furano until we arrived at the Farm Tomita.
This farm is very famous for its huge flower gardens, about half of which are lavender.
There were people from all over Japan as well as a few foreign countries.
I heard a lot of Chinese being spoken, both mainland Chinese as well as Hong Kong Chinese.
One family from Hong Kong even asked me to use their camera and take a picture of them, all together.
I didn't hear any Korean being spoken on that day, however.
This year for the first time, I had a pro quality DSLR camera with me so I was able to take some really good photos of the flowers and insects, up close.
The photo in today's blog is a first of its kind for me. An insect in motion, freeze framed. The bee looks as if it is flying towards the flower, but in reality it is flying away from that flower.
As the bee was sitting on the lavender flower, and just as I zoomed in an got it into focus, it jumped off of the flower as I pushed the shutter button.
Those lavender flowers are mighty big plants in the small world of the bumble bee.
More photos of Farm Tomita can be seen on my FLICKR account by clicking here.
2010 July 1 Thursday thru July 8 Thursday.
The
very hot days continue with short sessions of light rain.
On Saturday and Sunday, July 3 and 4, the Higashi Senior High School 東高等学校 held their annual school festival.
One of my former students, who attended my classroom every week from her elementary school days until she graduated from junior high school, is now a second year student at Higashi High School.
Again this year, she invited me to come and see her dance performance.
Last year she was just one of the dancers, but this year she was the manager of the event, and only appeared on stage during one of the dance performances.
The production this year was longer and better than it was last year, and I think the reason is because she was the manager this year.
It was very well produced and performed.
I am looking forward to seeing it again next year.
More photos of this event can be seen on my FLICKR account by clicking here.
2010 June 22 Tuesday thru June 30 Wednesday.
The
summer in Asahikawa is off to a musical start.
On Saturday June 26, there were a lot of performing artists of all kinds on the Kaimono Koen pedestrian mall in the middle of the city.
There were jugglers performing various amazing feats of control and balance.
There was a 4 man band from Peru, playing some beautiful South American Music in front of the old Marui Imai Store.
There was a dancing contest down at the far end of the mall, and a lot of different activities all along the mall, in between the two far ends.
One of the groups performing music on that day was the Groups Sounds Band, LiBERTY.
They played on the mall in front of the Mr. Dounts shop, to a large crowd of people.
The weather was absolutely beautiful, and the music sounded great.
After playing for almost an hour, including two encores, the band packed up their equipment and headed for their next gig of the day at Good Luck.
Starting at 20:00, The Radiators played a set of old rock and roll songs.
At about 20:40, Liberty took the stage and played a set of songs, different from the songs that they had played earlier in the day at the mall.
At about 21:10, the house band NOSIDE got up and played some famous oldies to a totally turned on crowd. Their artistic ability has really improved a great deal since last year.
Then
the cycle repeated with The Radiators, Liberty and NOSIDE again taking the stage
in turns, and cranking out some great music.
I was a special guest of Liberty during their second set, and I played the classic Johnny Rivers Song, SECRET AGENT MAN, with the band backing me up on their musical instruments, and well as the chorus vocals.
That gig was a lot of fun.
If you don't know the song SECRET AGENT MAN by Johnny Rivers, CLICK HERE to see the original artist performing the song on the David Letterman Show.
"Secret Agent Man" is a song written by Steve Barri and P. F. Sloan. The most famous recording of the song was made by Johnny Rivers for the opening titles of the American broadcast of the British spy series Danger Man, which aired in the US as Secret Agent from 1964 to 1966. The song itself peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
They don't make songs like that anymore.
You can see more photos of today's events by CLICKING HERE.
2010 June 21 Monday.
Today
is the Summer Solstice.
According to Wikipedia;
The Summer Solstice occurs exactly when the Earth's axial tilt is most inclined towards the sun at its maximum of 23° 26'. Though the Summer Solstice is an instant in time, the term is also colloquially used like Midsummer to refer to the day on which it occurs. Except in the polar regions (where daylight is continuous for half of the year), the day on which the Summer Solstice occurs is the day of the year with the longest period of daylight. Thus the seasonal significance of the Summer Solstice is in the reversal of the gradual shortening of nights and lengthening of days. The summer solstice occurs in June in the Northern Hemisphere, in December in the Southern Hemisphere.
At the Tropic of Cancer (23°26'N) and all points to the north, and at the Tropic of Capricorn (23°26'S) and all points to the south, the sun reaches its highest position in the sky on the day of the Summer Solstice. However, between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, the highest sun position does not occur at the Summer Solstice, since the sun reaches the zenith here and it does so at different times of the year depending on the latitude of the observer. Depending on the shift of the calendar, the Summer Solstice occurs some time between December 21 and December 22 each year in the Southern Hemisphere, and between June 20 and June 21 in the Northern Hemisphere.
Worldwide, interpretation of the event has varied from culture to culture, but most cultures have held a recognition of sign of the fertility, involving holidays, festivals, gatherings, rituals or other celebrations around that time.
The word solstice derives from Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still).
The picture of the Earth, on the far left side, is it's position during the Summer Solstice in the northern hemisphere. That's where we all are on this day.
2010 June 19 Saturday.
Today
was a new experience for me.
I got up on an outdoor stage, played my acoustic guitar and sang 10 songs in front of several hundred people.
I have done this before as a member of a band, but never as a solo act.
The occasion was the Asahikawa University School Festival known as 北辰際 which is held every year at about this same time.
The reason I was able to appear on stage this time, is because of the help of several staff members at the university.
Back in October of last year, I was able to do a live concert at the 木造館 together with LiBERTY and The Radiators. One of the Asahikawa University staff member came to see the show. After the show he suggested that I do a live performance at the Asahikawa University's annual school festival in 2010.
I was very happy to hear the suggestion, and have kept it in my mind since that time.
Finally, last week, just before the school festival, I asked that staff member if I really could do a show on the outdoor stage.
He put me into direct contact with another staff member who was coordinating the schedule of the stage shows.
Despite being very busy himself, he presented me with 3 possible time slots for me to sing my songs.
I was able to get my first choice which was Saturday at 16:00 - 16:30.
I had to get there one hour early to check in at the headquarters event tent.
After a few minutes of talking with the event staff, I sat down and waited for my turn.
As luck would have it, my performance came immediately after the main event of the day which was a comedian/musician by the name of こまつ （お笑い）.
As I was sitting in the HQ event tent, I started getting a little nervous, because there were a least 100 people in front of the stage, and many more milling around in the immediate area. I've never played in front of that many people before, even when I was just a member of a bigger band.
However, after the main event was finished, there was a 30 minute break before the start of my show. As a result, most of the people left the stage area and went elsewhere.
When I got up on stage at 16:00, there were only about 20 people sitting the the chairs in front of the stage, so I didn't feel nervous anymore.
I played 10 songs, 8 in English and 2 in Japanese. To see a Set List of the songs I played click here.
During the 9th song of my set, one of the Japanese songs, a gust of wind came up and blew over the pages of the song sheet that I was using to sing the song. I had to stop the song in the middle, reopen the song book, and apologize to the audience. Instead of finishing the song, I went on to the next and final song.
My show ended at about 16:30, and I must say, it was very hot up there on that outdoor stage.
It was a great experience and I hope I can do it again someday.
2010 June 15 Tuesday thru June 18 Friday.
With
the Summer Solstice just around the corner, Hokkaido is warm and bright every
day.
On Friday, I cancelled my last class of the day, so that I could go and see Masaki Nishio perform at Good Luck on his Demonstration Tour 2010.
If you don't know who Masaki Nishio is, click here to go to his website.
For his first set he played mostly ballads, and for his second set he played mostly blues, often using a slide on his left ring finger.
His guitar playing is excellent and his voice is loud and clear, with a full range of notes from low to high.
Another thing that impressed me, was how he used his left foot to tap out a rhythm accompaniment to his singing and guitar playing.
Being able to watch a professional singer guitarist up this close, was a real education for me.
I was also able to talk to him about various musical techniques and guitar playing styles.
It was like going to music school and enjoying an excellent concert, all at the same time.
I hope he comes to Asahikawa again sometime.
2010 June 10 Thursday thru June 14 Monday.
It's
getting hotter and hotter everyday. In fact, I think today, Asahikawa was
hotter than Okinawa, if you can imagine that!
I have turned on the Air Conditioner in my classroom, so that the students and I can stay awake, and be alert. Most people who have lived in Hokkaido for a long time, are very sensitive to the heat 暑がり, including myself.
On Saturday, I played my acoustic guitar and sang some songs on stage, or the first time this year.
I was up on stage, between the sets of NOSIDE, the house band of Live House Good Luck.
The photo in today's blog is of NOSIDE. They play the Group Sounds music of the 1960s.
This band has improved a lot since I first saw them last year. In fact, the guy on lead guitar (playing the red Fender Jazz Master) has improved so much, I was completely blown away.
The lead guitar parts for these GS songs from the 1960s, are very complex and difficult to play correctly. However, this guy has been practicing very hard, and he made almost no mistakes during any of the songs. Amazing!
When I got up on stage, I played a bunch of new songs that I have never before played in public. Usually, I play songs written by Gordon Lightfoot and Inoue Yosui, but on Saturday night I played songs written by R.E.M., Tom Petty, Keith Urban, Bruce Hornsby and John Denver. Click here to see a full SET LIST.
The audience seemed to like the songs written by Tom Petty the best. The rhythm guitarist from NOSIDE even asked me to write down his name so that he could check him out on YOU TUBE.
Tom Petty is not well known in Japan but he does have a small fan base here. Maybe the number of Tom Petty fans in Japan will increase a bit as I continue to play his songs at my upcoming performances in the very near future.
2010 June 9 Wednesday.
Happy
Birthday to us, Happy Birthday to us, Happy Birthday to Snowman Beikaiwa, and
all of its wonderful students!!!
Yes, that's right folks. Today marks the 14th anniversary of the opening of 家庭教室のスノーマン米会話。
Has it really been that long? Yeah, I guess so. Time really flies when you are having fun.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many hundreds of students who have come to my classroom over the years, for their continued support, making this classroom possible, and allowing it to become better and better every year.
From the bottom of my heart, Thank You, Thank You, THANK YOU ALL!!!
There is a very long story behind how this classroom came about in the first place, but very briefly, here is a recap of the most important points of that story.
On March 12, 1990, I arrived in Asahikawa for the very first time, to take a job as a teacher/translator at a newly established school called シティー大学. This new school was intended to be the Japanese sister school of City University in Seattle Washington.
Finally, after studying the Japanese Language for about 15 years while living in the USA, I had my Dream Job in Japan! You have to realize that ever since graduating from Washington State University in 1984, I had been trying to get a job in Japan that was not located in a big city. Now, at long last, here I was in Asahikawa Hokkaido Japan, the perfect place for me.
My job at City University Japan lasted for about 2 and one half years, until the Japanese School went bankrupt. Suddenly, myself and a lot of other people were out of a job.
I was hoping to work in Japan for at least 5 years, so that I could get my Japanese Language Skills up to the point were I could work at any number of international companies, in various fields. Two and one half years was not long enough for me to reach my goals.
Because the Japanese Sister School went bankrupt in October of 1992, I was unable to find another job right away, in Asahikawa or anywhere else in Hokkaido, for that matter.
My working visa was due to expire in May of 1993, so I went back to Seattle for about 4 months, where I got my TESL/TEFL teaching certificate from Seattle University.
With my teaching certificate in hand, I arrived back in Asahikawa on February 12, 1993 with 4 suitcases and $8,000 in cash. I had no job offers and no permanent place to live.
I began going to every school in Asahikawa looking for a job, but there were none available at that time. It was like walking across a tightrope, over a very deep valley, with no safety net below me. If I couldn't find a job by May, my work visa would expire, and I would have to fly to Korea and then back to Japan in order to get a 3 month tourist visa. That would be my last hope.
Finally in April of 1993, one of the schools that I had been given a job interview at, suddenly called me back, and asked me if I could start teaching classes there, right away. It was a school called Asahikawa English Conversation School (AECS) located in the Dogin Building 道銀ビル. The job had been previously given to a Canadian man, but he had to go back to Canada suddenly because his mother had become ill. His misfortune had provided the open door for me, to get back up on my feet, and start a new life here, in Asahikawa.
I worked at AECS for 3 years until the American owner and his Japanese wife and their 3 children, decided to move back to the USA, and sold their school to some American guy from Niigata.
The new owner was a "Christian" and wanted to turn the school into a bible study place, and open a new church. I want nothing to do with organized religion of any kind, so I quit my job in March of 1996 at the end of my contract. That school no longer exists because it too, went out of business about 3 or 4 years ago. RIP.
On Sunday June 9 of 1996, my wife Ikuko and I held an opening party for our new school 家庭教室のスンーマン米会話, to which about 50 people came. We started regular classes on the next Tuesday June 11, 1996.
Since that time, many hundreds of students, both young and old, have come to our classroom on a weekly basis. We continue to get new students all the time, while saying goodbye to other students who move away from Asahikawa because of school or job transfers.
It has been a wonderful job for the both of us, and we want to continue this classroom until at least the 25th anniversary on June 9, 2021. At that time I will be 65 years old, if I make it that far. I'll do my best.
Thanks again everybody!
2010 June 1 Tuesday thru June 8 Tuesday.
The
first festival of the year, during the season of no snow, was held on Friday,
Saturday and Sunday, June 4, 5 and 6.
It is called the Gokou Jinja Sai 護国神社際, and is basically a remembrance of all the persons who have died during wars, in which Japan has been involved.
In comparison to other modern industrialized countries around the world, Japan has been involved in very few wars. That may be one reason why Japanese domestic society is very peaceful as well.
I couldn't go to the festival on Friday, but I did go on Saturday early afternoon and Sunday evening.
The big event on Saturday afternoon was the annual All Hokkaido Music Parade 第７８回北海道音楽大行進.
This year marks the 78th year that this event has been held.
Let's see, Asahikawa became a City exactly 120 years ago, so,,,,,, that's a long time!
For some reason, the level of musicianship here in Asahikawa, is very high. There are a lot of really good amateur musicians living in and around this city.
I too, am an amateur musician who started taking piano lessons at 6 years old.
I took piano lessons from the age of 6 until 12 years old. Overall, I enjoyed it very much, but I was forced to play classical music, when what I really wanted to play was more popular music that I was hearing on the radio in those days. Stuff by Elton John and many other famous piano players.
Starting at about age 13, I got a classical guitar, and started learning how to play that. Not classical music but Folk Music and Country and Western Music. Stuff by Johnny Cash and Gordon Lightfoot, to name a very few.
Then at about 16 years old, I got an electric guitar. I drove my parents and the neighbors crazy, by playing it loud in the garage. I was playing hard rock with lots of bar chords, stuff like Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, etc. etc. In fact, I spent so much time playing the guitar, that I didn't study enough in high school. Somehow, I managed to graduate.
During my 5 years in the U.S. Coast Guard, I played lead guitar in a rock band called "Mujum" with other members of the Coast Guard at Air Station Kodiak Alaska. We played hard rock, and we played it loud.
In 1980, when I got out of the Coast Guard and started attending Washington State University, I soon discovered that I didn't have enough time to play the guitar, because I actually had to study, if I wanted to graduate from the university!!!
After I graduated in 1984, I moved to Seattle Washington and lived in a house where I could pick up the electric guitar again, and keep banging away. In addition to the rock and roll music that I was so used to playing, I started learning how to play the blues guitar with Robert Cray becoming a major influence on my musical tastes.
In 1990 when I first came to Asahikawa, I brought my Fender Stratocaster with me, and played rock and blues in my free time after teaching classes all day.
Now in 2010, I almost never play the solid body electric anymore. I prefer the steel string and nylon string acoustic guitars which I can plug into an amplifier. This allows me to play Folk, Country and Classical/Popular Music using the 100% finger picking style.
I guess in my older age, I don't like rock music anymore. The more melodious tunes at a slower pace is what turns me on nowadays.
By the way, the photo in today's blog is of Adrian Tanner and his son. I ran into them by chance on Saturday near Tokiwa Park. I haven't seen them in about 2 or 3 years. It was nice to have a small chat again with them after such a long time.
The photos that I took on Saturday and Sunday can be seen on my FLICKR account by clicking here.
Enjoy!
2010 May 25 Tuesday thru May 31 Monday.
Another
week full of classes.
Getting warmer and warmer during the day, but the nights can still be rather cold.
On Sunday, May 30, Charles Hamel and I went for a drive to the Blue Pond 青い池 which is very close to the Shirogane Onsen 白金温泉。
Charlie has a new used car, this one is a Toyota mini van that is more suitable for a family of four. He drove his van, and I got to sit in the passenger's seat and look at the scenery go by.
When we got to the Blue Pond, there were already a lot of people there. It seems to be a popular sightseeing destination. There were even some tour buses stopping there as well.
The photo on the left is a close up of the trees that are standing in the water. All of the trees are dead. Apparently, the water of the blue pond is not supportive of living things. I didn't see any fish in there either.
I'm not sure why the water is blue like this. I'm guessing that there is a large amount of some types of minerals in the water.
To see more photos of the Blue Pond, click here.
Monday was the first time this year for my 英語ふれあい at the Chestnut Tree Kindergarten くりの木幼稚園. As usual, there were more than 200 kids in the big hall at the school, and I put on a musical performance using my old beat up acoustic guitar, for about 40 minutes.
Photos of that event can be seen on my MIXI account. My MIXI nick name is SnowmanJPN. One of my friends on mixi, who used to be a student at my classroom, left a comment saying that she went to the Chestnut Kindergarten as a young child.
It's a small world.
2010 May 19 Wednesday thru May 24 Monday.
The
good weather continues and provides ample opportunities to take photographs
while enjoying a wonderful drive.
On Sunday, I drove to Arashiyama Park 嵐山公園 that has a vantage point from which you can get a full panoramic view of the city of Asahikawa with the Taisetsu Mountain Range in the background.
After I left there, I drove to the Etanbetsu 江丹別 Post Office on Route 72 and then turned right onto an unnumbered road and went to Etanbetsu Dam.
After Etanbetsu Dam, the road became all gravel and I drove slowly through the beautiful countryside of low rolling hills behind the Honda Test Track, until I came back out at Route 848 in Takasu Town 鷹栖町.
In Takasu Town I spent some time watching a farm family planting rice while the eagle hawks 鷹 flew around overhead. It was a relaxing sight.
The best photos that I took on that day can be seen on my FLICKR account by clicking here.
Enjoy the colors.
2010 May 6 Thursday thru May 18 Tuesday.
Now,
that's more like it. The cherry blossoms are blooming and the green world
of Hokkaido is coming back to life!
But, along with it comes the sneezing and itchy eyes of pollen allergies.
I drink TenCha 甜茶 every day in large amounts, but if I forget to drink it, or if I don't drink enough, I'm sneezing and wheezing my hours away, all day.
Nonetheless, I am really enjoying the chance to get out and drive around to all of the familiar places I know well, and also some brand new discoveries, that are waiting just around the next bend in the road.
Now that I have a GPS Navigation system, I am able to look things up on Google Maps, and then input the exact locations in the the Car Navi, and get there on time, every time.
On Saturday May 16, Ikuko and I went for a drive around the Biei area, taking all of the small out of the way roads that we had time for, and making some amazing new discoveries. Of course, I brought along my Canon EOS Kiss X3 DSLR Camera, and had a field day taking hundreds of photos during the day. The thing that I really love about DSLR Cameras, is that you can take the most beautiful photos, and it costs almost nothing to do so.
All I need to do is download the photos to my PC's hard disk, erase the camera's memory card, and recharge the battery. It's practically free! I very seldom print out any of my photos, so the cost of photography for me is almost zero.
On Sunday May 17, we were on the road again. This time we explored all the little nooks and crannies of HigashiKawa Town, including the back roads behind the Chubetsu Lake 忠別湖. There is a lot of new road building going on back there, and some portions of the roads were closed to traffic.
It was such a wonderful feeling to be out in the great wide open again, with warm temperatures and birds singing all around. There will be a lot more of this in the months ahead.
I uploaded the best of my photos for these two days to my FLICKR account, and you can see them by clicking here.
Where shall we go to next weekend?
2010 May 1 Saturday thru May 5 Wednesday.
Inside
the city of Asahikawa, most of the snow has melted, but the flowers are not yet
blooming.
Even though I had private lessons on Saturday, I still had a lot of time to think about where I wanted to drive to during the next 4 consecutive holidays known as Golden Week.
Ikuko couldn't get any consecutive days off from HOMAC, so I planned two, day trips, instead of one long, multiple day journey.
Sunday was a day when we could have gone for a drive, but instead decided to spend it soaking up some sunshine from a beach chair on our big deck area. The wind was a little cool, but the sun on my bare legs and arms felt so good, I thought I was in paradise. It must have been at least 5 months since the last time I had a chance to just sit in the sunshine and do nothing but relax. A mini vacation, in and of itself.
Monday was another day of just sitting around and reading my latest editions of NEWTON Graphic Science Magazine, that I buy off the shelf every month at the next door supermarket. If you are interested in science, history and the future in anyway, I highly recommend this magazine. The graphics are beautiful and make the text that much easier to understand.
Finally on Tuesday, we went for a drive to Lake Kanayama かなやま湖 which is not far from the Minami Furano Roadside Rest Station. The weather was beautiful and the lake was filled to capacity with water from the snow melt run off. There was even a handful of campers with tents set up who were enjoying the beautiful natural surroundings.
This is a very good spot for camping, because they have a huge grass lawn, several toilets, and a public hot spring bath just a few meters away from the camp site. I will be coming back here again on the next Saturday that has clear skies, in order to pitch my tent and spend the night under the star filled sky. I can't wait.
On Wednesday, we drove to Mashike Town 増毛町 via Route 94, also known as the Inada Mashike Line. I was surprised to see so much snow still covering most of the ground on the inland portion of the drive. Apparently, this area doesn't get a lot of sunlight during this time of year.
When we got to the coastline at the Sea of Japan, the sky and the sea were the same color of dull gray, and it was almost impossible to see the horizon 水平線. Not a very good day to take photos of the seascape.
So,
we drove up into the mountains on Route 546, past the yet to bloom fruit
orchards, to see what we could see and to breathe in the delicious air that is
in the mountains only.
When we got to the entrance of Mashike Ski Ground 暑寒別岳スキー場, we were disappointed to see a chain across the road, that leads up to the ski lift area. I was hoping to get a good view of the the surrounding area from that high ground, but it was not to be.
We continued to drive on up higher into the hills until we got to the end of the road at 暑寒沢野営場. Even though the road was clear of snow, the piles of snow on the sides of the road and in front of the office building was still very high. However, smoke was coming out of the chimney of the cabin so somebody was surely inside. You could see their foot prints from where they had climbed up the snow bank that leads to the front door.
The air at this location smelled so good, it was like natural aroma therapy for me. We stayed for about 30 minutes.
After that, we drove back down the mountain into Mashike Town, then over to Rumoi City and continued along the seacoast as far as Obira 小平. It was starting to get dark so we headed back, on over towards Fukagawa City 深川市.
One of my regular students who comes every Friday at 19:00, had recommended a Chinese Restaurant in Fukagawa called 志峰飯店 located at 深川市8条１０−９, so we went there to try it out. By the time we got to Fukagawa City, it was very dark, and I would never have been able to find the restaurant, except for the fact that I had previously input the location into my Car Navigation System. As such, all I had to do was push the right buttons to set the restaurant as our next destination, and the car navigation system did the rest.
The meal was very good and reasonably priced. I think I might go back there again whenever I am in that part of Hokkaido.
Tomorrow, it's back to the regular lessons schedule. I can't wait to hear the stories from my students, of their adventures during the Golden Week holiday.
2010 April 23 Friday thru April 30 Friday.
Thursday,
April 29 was a National Holiday in Japan called Showa No Hi 昭和の日. Up until
the year 2007, it was called Midori No Hi みどりの日, but Midori no Hi was moved to
May 4 and April 29 has become Showa No Hi.
Anyway, from April 29 until May 5 is a consecutive holiday season known as Golden Week here in Japan.
As such, many people will be traveling around Japan as well as traveling overseas to various foreign countries.
I too, enjoy driving around Hokkaido looking at the many and various beautiful sights, and enjoying some delicious foods and trying many new hot springs, that are almost everywhere on this island.
This year will be especially interesting for me, because I now have a portable GPS navigation system, which I have been programming with the locations of all of the 109 Roadside Rest Stations 道の駅, as well as many other "must see" locations.
In the past, I had no way having so much information at my fingertips, at exactly the time I needed it.
I would be driving along and completely miss the road signs that pointed to many interesting places, that I had read about in the newspaper or other sightseeing guidebooks.
Nowadays, when I see an article about an interesting place in Hokkaido, I immediately input its exact location into the GPS navigation device. Then it will automatically come up on the screen whenever I get close to that destination. I can even program an alarm sound to go off as I get very close to the place, so I can't miss it, even if I am a little sleepy.
What part of Hokkaido should I drive around this year? Hmmmmm,,,,, There are so many possibilities.
2010 April 22 Thursday thru April 25 Sunday.
About
two weeks ago, I signed up for an account on a Social Networking Service (SNS)
for the very first time in my life. The one that I chose was MIXI.
The reason I did so, is because one of my new students said that she has been a
MIXI member for about 4 years and it has allowed her to keep in contact with her
former classmates and coworkers who now live in many different places all over
the world.
Also, she said that there was a video of her playing the song "Shadow of your smile" in the Bossa Nova style on a nylon stringed guitar, so I wanted to see that too.
When I tried to sign up for the service, I came upon a web page that required me to input a mobile phone email address in Japan, before I could complete my registration. I don't have a mobile phone of my own, so I used my wife's email address to complete the registration process.
In other words, If a person doesn't live in Japan, it is basically impossible to become a member of this SNS. Also, you need an invitation from a current member to join MIXI. Lucky for me, my wife is also a member, but she doesn't seem to use it that much.
Because about 99% of MIXI members are Japanese, I write all of my blog posts and everything else in Japanese. In fact, it is a very good opportunity for me to do some writing in Japanese. Something which I haven't been doing very much of in the previous years. I do a lot of speaking and reading in Japanese, but writing is something I haven't done much of, until now.
Another thing I discovered after joining MIXI is that a lot of my students at the university and nursing schools are also members of MIXI, and a few of them have even sent me a request to become a "MyMixi" (friend) on their web page.
I am hoping to meet more local musicians through MIXI and also more Japanese people who like to speak or study English. After all, I do have a very nice little classroom where they can come and enjoy learning English for a very reasonable lesson fee.
Other well known SNS websites are FaceBook, MySpace etc. Although some of my friends and former students are members of these SNS websites, I am not. I think MIXI will be just about enough of the SNS scene for me in the coming years. You see, I live in Japan and most of my friends are Japanese too, so,,,,,,,,,
2010 April 12 Monday thru April 21 Wednesday.
The Cherry Blossoms are still far from blooming, in fact the
cherry trees haven't even sprouted their leaves yet. However, when I went
for a drive on Saturday April 17 around the back roads of Biei, I did see the
FukiNoTou 蕗の薹 poking their green faces out of the wet ground.
This is nature's message of assurance, that the snow melt will continue, and more and more plants will come back into bloom, again this year.
FukiNoTou is called Butterbur sprout in English, and is an edible plant, both when it is in its very young and budding stage, and also later on when it is fully grown and has huge elephant ear leaves. People don't eat the leaves, but rather the long hollow stalks.
In about 2 weeks from now, there will be some consecutive holidays known as Golden Week. If the weather is nice, I like to go for long drives around Hokkaido and stay at the roadside rest stations 道の駅.
Driving around Hokkaido is pretty easy to do without getting lost, so I have never seriously thought about having a car navigation system before.
However, recently the price of such units have come down and the functions that come with with them have gone up, so I decided to take a look around the internet and see what was newly available.
I finally decided on the Car Navigation system that you can see in the photo above. Click on the photo itself to read more about it in Japanese.
The thing I like best about it, is that it is portable. I don't need to leave it in my car all the time. In fact, I never leave it in my car unless I am actually driving it.
The operation is very simple and 100% touch screen. It even has a Walking Navigation function 徒歩ナビ which you can use to find your way around a strange new town or city. It also has suggestions and detailed explanations for shops, restaurants, hotels etc.
Last night around 21:00, I set the unit up in my car and went for a test drive. Oh what a difference a car navi can make. As I was driving around I was noticing the names of schools that some of my students go to, but I had never before realized exactly where the schools were, until now. Also the names of bridges, hospitals, companies etc. are all clearly labeled on the screen and easy to remember.
I'm really looking forward to this coming Golden Week road trip. I will even be able to watch One Seg Digital TV or a video of my choice on this new gadget, while staying overnight at the Michi no Eki. Living in a digital world can be very enjoyable indeed.
2010 April 1 Thursday thru April 11 Sunday.
April
Fools' Day came and went without any practical jokes being played on anybody in
my world. It is not a popular occasion over here in Japan where people are
usually very serious about everything, all the time.
Americans like to joke around on a regular basis, and even the newscasters on TV are prone to being comedians from time to time. Over here, that never happens. In fact, when I first came to Asahikawa to live and work about 20 years ago, I was surprised by the total seriousness of everybody all the time. When I tried to joke around with people, like I did in the USA, they would just look at me with a blank expression, not understanding anything that I was saying.
Japanese have their own brand of humor called Rakugo 落語 and Manzai 漫才 as well as many humorous types of television dramas and quiz shows. Rakugo is just one man, sitting on a cushion, usually holding a folding fan, and telling humorous stories, all by himself. The closest thing in the USA would be the lone stand up comic, but the two are really very different.
The Rakugo comedian doesn't use any foul language, and is popular mostly with older people. Manzai, on the other hand, is two young men or women who play off of each other, describing funny situations, or making fun of each other. It is similar to some of the older Comedy Duos or Double Acts, that used to be popular in the USA.
When I first came to live and work here 20 years ago, I used to watch the TV show 志村けんの大丈夫だ, which is a rather silly and easy to understand show, which consists of a series of situation comedies. Later on, as the years passed, I got tired of it and started watching the more sophisticated 笑点 instead.
Shouten 笑点 (point of laughter) is rather difficult for me to understand, even today. But once in a while I completely understand the punch line オチ and burst out laughing. One thing I can say for sure is that different people in different countries, have completely different concepts about what is funny and what is not funny.
The photo in today's blog, is of my new ink jet printer, the Canon PIXUS MP640. Not only is it an ink jet printer for the PC, but is also a Color Copier and Scanner! Not to mention that you can print right on the surface of CDs and DVDs using the special attachment that came with it.
The largest size of paper that it can print on is A4, but it can print on smaller paper down to the size of a single business card. The quality of the printing in both color and in black and white is truly amazing, being just as good as that of a much more expensive laser printer.
Another new function that I really like, is the printer's ability to automatically print on both sides of an A4 sized sheet of paper! That's Right! No more need to print one side and then hand feed it in again to print the other side, this machine does it automatically. This is very helpful for me when I am making lesson materials for my more advanced classes.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about this new printer is that it only cost 21,000 yen, including the ink tanks! That's the lowest priced printer that I have ever bought, and it has the most functions as well. Technology just keeps getting better and better with every passing day.
2010 March 29 Monday thru March 31 Wednesday.
It's
the end of March and most of the students from elementary school through high
school and beyond, are on their spring vacations.
My classroom is open for business as usual, and most of my students come to their lessons despite the fact that they are not going to their regular schools at this time.
Oh! Did I mention that it is still snowing off and on? Yeah, that's right. Even though the cherry blossoms are blooming in most other parts of Japan, Hokkaido still has a long wait ahead of it.
This time of year, they have what they call a 桜前線 Sakura Zen Sen Report on the TV news. This report shows how the cherry blossoms start blooming in the south and slowly move their way up north, until they spread through all of Hokkaido.
The Cherry Blossom Front doesn't always move at a steady pace. Sometimes, it just stops at Aomori City, and waits for Hokkaido to wake up from its long winter slumber.
I remember several years ago, while I was driving around in the southernmost Hokkaido town of Matsumae 松前町 during Golden Week, and seeing tour buses full of visitors who had come from who knows where, to view the cherry blossoms in that famous town. Only one problem. The flowers weren't blooming yet. Not even close. Too damn cold.
The drawing in today's blog, is something I made in November of 2005 using Macromedia Fireworks and a touch pad tablet. It was a dream I had of a warm summer day near a mountain lake. I may have been flying together with those two birds, but I can't remember for sure.
Even if it is still looking like winter outside, I can gaze at this drawing and get that warm and fuzzy feeling inside my heart. How about you?
2010 March 24 Wednesday thru March 28 Sunday.
On
Saturday from 16:00 until 24:00 at
Live House GOOD LUCK, was the 10th Annual
Hokkaido Amateur Music Festival. I took a taxi at about 18:30, in
the middle of a ferocious snow storm, along with my classical guitar, and
arrived at GOOD LUCK shortly before 19:00.
Even though I arrived late, I was still able to watch the beginning of the event on the internet via STICKCAM. The quality of the video is not that good, but the sound is quite clear.
There were amateur musicians from many places in Hokkaido, and also some form the main island of Honshu, at the event. Even though I was not scheduled to perform that night, they allowed me to play a set of 5 songs during the course of the evening. Recently, I haven't had much time to learn any new songs, so I played the songs that I know best from Gordon Lightfoot and Tom Petty.
Later on this year, probably in May, I will perform some songs by EVERLAST, Dire Straits, Robert Cray, Terri Clark and maybe even Z Z Top. I just need to find the time for practice.
The photo in today's blog shows a young guy with a red Gibson Guitar, who played really good Chicago Blues and sang in English. Later on in the evening, he invited me to play along on bass, as well as a drummer to lay down some rhythm, while he played the song "Hoochie Koochie Man".
I made an MP3 recording of that song, which you can listen to by clicking here. The song will open up in the MP3 player that you have set as the default for your PC.
Enjoy!
2010 March 15 Monday thru March 23 Tuesday.
Monday,
March 22 was a National Holiday in Japan to celebrate the Spring Equinox 春分の日.
That is supposed to mark the beginning of spring, but not this year. I
have lived here in the middle of Hokkaido for 20 years, and I have never seen
this much snowfall at this time of the year, ever before.
Not only was it still snowing, but on Saturday and Sunday, the wind was blowing so hard, it was almost like a typhoon had struck the island. I had to go out on my balcony and wrap up my flag around the flag pole, to insure that it would not bend the flag pole over so far as to break it off.
Some of the other stuff on my balcony had been moved around a bit, but none of it had been blown off. Other folks were not so lucky.
Some businesses had their signs blown down and some building had parts of their roofs blown off. It was a wild and windy two days.
I can't imagine any of the ski lifts being open during that time, and even driving along the roads, especially over bridges could be considered dangerous.
Is spring just around the corner now??? According to the weather forecast in the Hokkaido Newspaper, NO!!!
Although tomorrow, Wednesday, March 24 is supposed to be a clear and sunny day everywhere in Hokkaido, starting again on Thursday and running through at least Saturday March 27, it is going to be snowing AGAIN!!!
WTF?????
2010 March 8 Monday thru March 14 Sunday.
Two
steps forward and ten steps back.
The hope of spring like weather being just around the corner, was totally destroyed by a massive snowstorm and strong winds on both Saturday and Sunday of this week.
Skiers and snowboarders may have been happy to see the fresh dump of new powder snow, but I doubt that many of them were on the ski slopes for those two days, because of the high winds. In fact, the ski lifts at some places may have been closed for the safety of the snow sliders.
I stayed close to home, and got out a book that I had purchased about 5 years ago entitled; "SAMS Teach yourself Macromedia Flash MX in 24 hours." They mean 24 one hour lessons in how to use Flash.
It is taking me more than one hour for each lesson, so this book will be my new daily companion for the next several months.
I have been using Adobe Captivate 4 to produce the SWF files for my eLearning website, and have discovered that I can't do all of the things that I want to do, without using the Flash software itself.
The newest version of Flash out now is Adobe Flash CS4 Professional. I recently bought a book that will teach me how to use this newest version of the software, but what I discovered while reading the new book, is that I didn't have enough understanding of the very basics of using Flash yet. So, back to the older book again, and relearn it all from page one.
Most of the animations used on the internet these days, for advertising, games, videos etc., are made with Flash. If you put your mouse over an animated portion of a web page, and click the right mouse button, most likely you will see a menu for Flash Options appear on your screen.
Also, most of the videos on You Tube are FLV files nowadays. This is mainly because the Flash files are smaller than other video formats and can thus download faster to your PC.
I have also found a lot of helpful tutorials on the web, for learning how to make animations in Flash. One of the things I discovered is that it is almost always better to make your drawings right inside of Flash itself. Even though Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand have more drawing options and can thus produce better looking results, there can be some problems when importing them into Flash and trying to animate them.
Oh well, as usual, I have a lot more to learn about using this software. I guess I better finish up this blog, and get back to work on it.
2010 March 1 Monday thru March 7 Sunday.
Sunny
days during which sudden snow storms appear and blast every thing back into
winter again. The roads are starting to clear up from the ice and snow,
making driving a little easier, but everything goes back to below freezing at
night.
I had a small adventure this weekend while trying to put all of the files for this website on my new PC, and then uploading new blog entries to the internet.
This website is about 10 years old and was made starting from one blank web page using Microsoft Frontpage 2000.
Since that time I have upgraded the software to Frontpage 2002, and also used other software to make graphics and flash movies for photo slideshows and podcasts.
At the end of last year, I bought a new PC running windows 7 and when I first tried to run Frontpage on the new PC, I discovered that I couldn't upload any new updates to the internet from the website using the publish wizard. I was busy at that time so, I just continued using the old PC for this website blog and did everything else on my new PC.
Finally this weekend, I decided to take the time to make Frontpage work on this new PC, and boy was I in for a struggle. I had to do many things along with help from some customer service representatives at my hosting company in Canada, but I finally got Frontpage to upload to the web from this new PC.
You see, part of the problem is that Microsoft no longer makes or supports Frontpage, because they have come up with some new software for use as web design and web publishing. I don't want to use that new software, because Macromedia (now Adobe) Dreamweaver, is so much better. That is why my new eLearning website is made with Dreamweaver.
However, trying to change this old classroom website into a Dreamweaver website, will take more time than I have available until about summer vacation, so it will have to wait until then.
Speaking of the eLearning website, I have been redesigning the menu system and making all the sub menus and that sort of thing, in preparation for putting some totally new and totally different types of English Language lessons on it. The original 13 lessons that I used with the students at Asahikawa University have been moved to the sub menu entitled eXtreme World. You can check out the new menu system for yourself by clicking here. Not any new lessons yet, just some of the new menu pages. More coming soon. Stay tuned.
2010 February 22 Monday thru February 28 Sunday.
The
last week of February has wound down with a mixture of warm weather and freezing
cold weather. It is now a season between seasons, here in the city of
Asahikawa. Not my favorite time of year. The only thing I enjoy
looking forward to during this time of year, is the next season of spring.
For those of you reading this blog, who have never lived in SNOW COUNTRY, it is hard to describe the feeling one gets when spring is just around the corner.
After many long months of frozen snowy weather, the start of the snow melt excites the soul like few other things. There is even a different smell in the air not to mention mixtures of snow and rain falling from the sky.
It will still be many weeks until one can say that it is warm outside, but the certain knowledge that the warmer days are coming, gives one a sure confidence that a whole new world of green is not far down the road.
It is a true feeling of hopefulness, based on certain knowledge.
2010 February 12 Friday thru February 21 Sunday.
I
have finally finished giving and grading the final exams for the university and
nursing schools, so I now have more time to get back to playing the electric
bass guitar and the acoustic six string guitar again.
After about 3 months of not playing either musical instrument at all, I found my attempts to get back into the swing of things, a bit clumsy. Especially with the electric bass guitar and its rather large and thick strings.
Even with the steel stringed acoustic guitar, I had some re-adjusting to do with my fingers, because the hard calluses that I used to have on the tips of my fingers, had gone away through non-use.
I am hoping to get back into live performance mode by the middle of March, so that I can start doing Acoustic Live Concerts again, about once per month if possible. I will make announcements about upcoming Acoustic Live Events, on this website, as I know more about them.
On a different subject. Last Monday on February 15, while I was at my weekly class at the 神楽公民館英会話を楽しむ会, I suddenly broke out into a cold sweat and started to feel like I was going to throw up! So, I told the students that I had to go to the toilet, and slowly shuffled my way out the classroom door and down the hallway towards the toilet.
No sooner had I entered into one of the stalls, when I started vomiting. Up came the natto and rice that I had just eaten for brunch. After up-chucking about 5 or 6 times, I sat down on the toilet seat and the diarrhea started coming out on its own. All the while, the cold sweat continued to come out of me like Niagara Falls.
Because everything happened so quickly, I began to suspect Food Poisoning as the cause of my sudden illness. You see, after I finished eating the natto and white rice, I ate a 4 month old cup cake that one of my students had brought to me from a trip to Hong Kong in October. The cup cakes came in a beautiful metal box and when I first received it, I ate 2 of them that same day. Although the cup cakes were no so delicious as compared to Japanese Confectionary Standards, they tasted OK. After that, I sort of forgot about the cup cakes and they sat on my dining room table for about 4 months.
Finally, on Sunday February 14, Ikuko decided to take the beautiful metal box over to her mother's house, and took out the two remaining cup cakes that were still in the box, and put them on the dining room table, where I could easily see them. It was on the next day, Monday February 15, after eating my natto and white rice, that I absent-mindedly reached over, picked up one of the cup cakes, and started to eat it.
It didn't smell or taste spoiled, and I thought it was still OK to eat. So, I ate about half of it and then walked over to the Kagura Koumin Kan for my weekly English Lesson there. About 45 minutes later, the cold sweat started and I headed for the toilet.
While I was in the toilet for about 10 minutes, some of the students called in from the entrance asking; "Are you OK?" I replied in a sickly voice; "Yeah, I'm OK." Finally, I came out of the toilet and sat down on the bench in the hallway, still feeling awfully bad. One of the students asked me if I wanted her to call an ambulance. I replied; "No, thank you. Please drive me home instead."
At this point in time I knew for sure that the cause of my sudden illness was food poisoning and that I would be throwing up again sometime soon, so what I really needed to do was get back home as soon as possible.
One of the nice ladies drove me the short distance back to my condo. I got out of the car at the front entrance, took the elevator to the 2nd floor and started walking down the hallway towards my classroom. Before I got to my front door, I felt the vomit coming up again. Lucky for me, there is a public toilet in the hallway on the 2nd floor, so I went into that toilet and threw up about 5 or 6 more times while standing over the toilet. Not only was vomit coming out of my mouth, but diarrhea was coming out of my arse at the same time. What a mess!!! It's a very good thing I didn't get into an ambulance, isn't it!
Finally, I made it back to my classroom, told Ikuko to cancel all of my classes for that day, took a shower and went to bed. I slept until about 20:00 and when I got up, I felt just fine.
Sorry to everybody for the inconvenience that I may have caused you all by being down and out for the count.
2010 February 1 Monday thru February 11 Thursday.
The
school year for 2009 is winding down with final exams either already finished,
or coming up soon.
From February 6 until February 11, was the annual Asahikawa Winter Festival. I went two times this year. Once on Saturday February 7 to watch LiBERTY perform its live music on the Tokiwa Stage from 13:30 until 14:00. This time, I took along my Canon X3 DSLR camera and took about 300 photos of the band while they were performing on the stage. The reason I take so many photos is because I always get some really excellent photos out of the bunch. I'm just playing the odds. And of course, I did get some professional quality photos on that day. I gave a photo DVD to one of the band members on Wednesday, so that they can use any of the photos which they may like.
Again on Thursday, February 11, a National Holiday in Japan, I went back to the last night of the winter Festival in order to take photos of the ice sculptures that were lining the pedestrian walkway called Kaimono Koen. While I was walking down the mall and taking photos, I noticed that a building was on fire and many police cars and fire trucks were assembled in front of it.
The building was not on the pedestrian mall, but rather down one of the side streets between 9 Chome and 10 Chome. It was a big fire with lots of thick white smoke coming out of the 2nd floor windows. Firemen were up on the roof with a circular saw, cutting through the metal in order to gain access to the room below.
I stood there and watched them work for about 10 minutes, and then decided to go back to the pedestrian mall and continue photographing the ice sculptures. Just as I was doing so, it started to snow very heavily and that forced me to put away my camera and go home early.
The coldest month of the year is only half over, and spring is still a long ways away in Asahikawa. Nonetheless, I am looking forward to the melting of the snow that comes with the warmer weather, and the increase in opportunities to use my new camera.
Can't wait to see green grass again.
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.
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