Big 'scam' by Toyota Shoji

 When you search the scam happened in Japan, you can see many articles about the scam by Toyota Shoji Co. Ltd. Toyota Shoji engaged in door-to-door sales of gold in the 1908s. They first made sales calls by phone to identify households that may have the possibility of making a contract. Their main targets were elderly people living alone.

Salespeople visited their homes, sometimes even helping with personal chores, gradually building close relationships, and they sometimes forced customers into signing contracts. Even after contracts were signed, the customers could not receive the gold. The gold was kept by Toyota Shoji, while customers only received certificates in return. In order to gain trust, they used the company name starting “TOYOTA” to make it seem like it's an affiliated with TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION and aired many TV commercials to appear a stable and reliable company. The number of victims reached tens of thousands, and the total damage amounted to 200 billion yen, which was the largest at that time.

Looking back now, it is surprised that people were deceived so easily, but in the 1980s, when door-to-door sales were often done and there were no cell phones or the internet, it was difficult for victims to realize they had been defrauded.I want to remember that a “get-rich” opportunity never comes only to me.

Postcard from...Bristol, England

Dear Luna International,

I'm studying English in Bristol now. My dormitory is called ....It is okay, bu there are a few problems. My classmates are very kind, but communicating in English is difficult for me.

My teacher is called Thomas. his class is easy to understand for me. He is a very good teacher.

The food in England isn't so delicious. I miss Japanese food.

The United Kingdom is very beautiful. I went to Cardiff, Bath, and Thorpe Park. Also, I did sightseeing in Bristol. It was very fun.

The weather is nice here. It's not hot and comfortable. I'm happy here.

See you in Japan,

Miyu

A poet buffeted by war

 Hiroshi Ota was a Japanese poet and army officer. His life became deeply connected to the tragic story of the Himeyuri Student Corps during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II.

Ota began his carrier as a banker and poet. He was conscripted into Japanese army in 1942 and later sent to Okinawa as a second lieutenant in an anti-aircraft artillery unit.

In 1944, Ota was stationed in Okinawa, and the Himeyuri Student Corps　（female students who assisted the military） were assigned to the unit under his command. The young women engaged in unfamiliar civil engineering work. Ota was impressed by their intelligence and dedication, and his poetic heart was deeply moved. He wrote a poem titled “Farewell Song” , also known as “Song of the Shoushiju Tree”, which was dedicated to their graduation the following March.

This poem was set to music by Keii Kochihira and became a cherished piece among the students. It was meant to be sung at their graduation ceremony, but the ceremony never took place due to the intensifying war. Instead, the song was sung in underground shelters and caves as the students faced unimaginable hardship and death. 

In April 1945, after the U.S. military landed in Okinawa, Ota and Himeyuri Student Corps moved south during heavy fighting. On June 20, he died near Mekaru (now the Himeyuri Peace Museum in Itoman City) at the age of 24.

My favorite pet 【U-Pa-Ru-Pa】

 If someone asked me, “I want to get a pet. Do you have any recommendations?”

 I would say, “I recommend a Mexican walking fish!”

Do you know what that is? In Japan, it’s called an “Upa-Lupa.”

They look a little strange but very cute. On each side of their face, they have three pairs of fluffy gills. Most animals change their body as they grow, but Mexican walking fish stay the same from when they are babies in when they are adults. This is very rare.

They can also grow back their legs if they lose them. This amazing skill has caught the attention of doctors and scientists. Maybe one day, people will also be able to heal quickly, just like them.

Mexican walking fish love to eat red worms. When food in front of them, they eat it very fast. I usually feed them with tweezers, but I have to be careful so they don’t bite the tweezers by mistake.

They don’t know when to stop eating. Sometimes they eat too much and die. They eat so happily that I always want to give them more, but I try not to.

When you watch them in an aquarium, you can see them moving their small legs as they swim. They are so cute that you can lose track of time.

Why not think about having one of these adorable “Upa-Lupa” as part of your family.

If you care for them with love and responsibility, you’ll surely get to see just how adorable they can be!

Rina's snow animal - not melting!

We'd love to know what you think about Rina's after reading creation! Please leave a comment!

 

A rabbit talks!

 Koharu wrote about her favourite animal, and talked about it/recorded herself using an iPad app (chatterpix) - as you can hear, her pronunciation is very intelligible with intonation across longer uttereances under control, and word stress + individual sounds clearly enunciated. All of which should add up to success in a #younglearners #CEFR_A1 #CambridgeMovers speaking test

 

A talking platypus

Check out Minami's unseen platypus project, as an after reading piece for her graded reader (OUP Read & Discover) series. She narrates her illustration beautifully :)

 

 

Ten little fingers - maximizing wordwall

Wordwall keyboard skills

When half the class is away, the rest of us will play! 

Rather than push ahead and lose classmates, we circled the wagons and consolidated together :)

Luna's own brand on Wordwall is a dedicated series of materials per text book/readers that our students enjoy enormously; reusing the vocabulary in slightly different contexts/different images...pause for thought, reasons for openning our books & checking each others' spelling...any and every which way to recycle, drill, and thrill!

To polish off our fun, we played a Detective Game about a monster - arms, legs & ears all a bit strange! 

Moster time - Study Cat

Postcard from - readers in China!

Hello Jim sensei!

Yumi & I have been in China factory this week. We've been busy for the meeting everyday. The Chinese that Yumi learned is "Ming Pai Ra"

See you next class :)

Graded readers on tour!

 

Postcard from... Kata Bay, Mie coast, Japan

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to explore this lesser travelled road down to the south of Nagoya, south of the Ise Peninsula. I took R42 to get south, then bailed onto the more rural R311...slow, windy, and unforgivingly beautiful vistas around every corner. An absolute gem of a coastline road, demanding frequent jaw drops/stops for pictures, and checking the map for shrines and the like.

Asuka Shrine, Katacho

Asuke shrine was one such beauty spot; unassuming yet pristine a few yards from the shore of Kata Bay. Not far away, the fishing boats of Sonecho sat in tranquil waters as the summer heat & humidity drilled into the day. And I say 'tranquil' with a very big Japanese caveat - exactly a week later this whole coast was under tsunami alert following the huge earthquake off Kamchatka...on any coast in Japan you MUST be aware of your escape route (uphill!) and heed any warnings seriously. My trip would have stopped instantly had I ventured along this coast a week later - happy to report, there was not a tidal wave of note, and no damage reported.

Although steamingly hot, the blue skies reflected the azure sea; the inlets and bays are mostly natural (not the concrete monkey puzzles that blight Niigata's shoreline), alternating rocky headlands and forested scarps, with sandy beaches and tiny fishing ports. Ashamed to say, on this trip I was on camera safari with road to burn, not a culinary exploration (next time, when I slow down to tackle restaurants!).

Despite driving for hours, I barely saw a soul - and not a single influencer with a selfie stick :)

The beaches were bare, the rock pools inviting some snorkelling. Every single bay begging a go-slow vacation, reminding me a lot of the Tokushima coastline, south of the city itself. 

I was planning to blast along to see the shrines of Kumano - but decided they could wait for another day. This gorgeous day needed my full ocean-side attention. If you have the chance to drive this way, I couldn't recommend it more strongly. Don't be in a rush like me - stay local, go for a swim, and detox!

Sonecho fishing boats

Kajikacho fisherman's hut

Kata Bay

Off to the races - confidence booster

 How chuffed can a young learner possibly be! Only been teaching this lad a few weeks, but he's hit the Everybody Up Starter learning curve hard and sure!

His older brother & sister are already rock stars at Luna, but they'll have to up their game to stay ahead of this little tiger..I couldn't stop him diving into the next word he knew :)

 

Postcard from Oxford, England

 

Hi :)

It's already been almost three weeks since I arrived in Oxford!

For now, I'm doing well here (though I had been having a sore throat!).

I don't feel improving my English skill, but I'm going to keep studying hard!

I'll send you another postcard later.

Mitsuna