Thursday, 26 March 2026

Ayumu Hirano - profile of a famous sportsperson

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Ayumu Hirano is a professional snowboarder and skateboarder. He was born in Niigata on November 29th, 1998. He started snowboarding when he ...
Monday, 16 March 2026

Visit Matsumoto - Hikari's top tips

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Visitors can rent Yukata If you come to Matsumoto, you'll definitely enjoy visiting Matsumoto Castle. It was built in the medieval age. ...
Thursday, 5 March 2026

☻My best friend☻

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 My best friend and I are both twenty four years old. We met last year of high school in Matsumoto when we were eighteen years old. We studi...
Wednesday, 4 March 2026

A Precious Friend in My Life

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I met her at high school. We were in the same class and chose art class.  We went to the art class room together every class. She was really...
Monday, 2 March 2026

My best friend Mariko

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Mariko and I were neighbours.  We met when we were four years old.  In the first grade of elementary school, we went roller skating together...
1 comment:
Thursday, 19 February 2026

Are All Animals Equal on Animal Farm?

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 I don’t think life on Animal Farm is fair for all the animals.   At the beginning of the story, all the animals believed they were in an eq...
1 comment:
Wednesday, 18 February 2026

The animals of Animal Farm were not equal

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I think life on Animal Farm is not fair for all the animals. At the beginning of the story, all animals are equal. They work together an...
1 comment:

Appropriate shopping

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 When I was in my twenties, I would go to Shinjuku once every few months to buy clothes. I would walk around all day, carefully consider wha...
2 comments:
Thursday, 12 February 2026

Telling your students to "Go Away!"

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  Go away, kids! A risky strategy if you want to get paid next month! My kindy classes fell on Feb 3rd, which is 'setsubun' festival...
Wednesday, 11 February 2026

My great cousin Hiroko

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 I like my cousin Hiroko. She's my father's older brother's middle daughter. She is seven years older than me. I often played wi...
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Assumptions - a hand game that tanked!

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We make assumptions all the time - mine was to expect my young students to be able to take turns. How old do you need to be before you can m...
Tuesday, 10 February 2026

Task based learning - is it?!

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As I keep saying, I'm not an expert! I'm not sure if this classroom activity actually meets the methodological definition of "T...
Thursday, 5 February 2026

Seiko Matsuda biography

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She was born in Fukuoka on 10th March 1962. When she was born she almost died, but she survived. Her real name is Noriko Kamachi. She has a ...
1 comment:
Wednesday, 4 February 2026

Professional Development from an "expert"

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 I'd been losing sleep for weeks over the Christmas & New Year holiday, about an invitation I'd accepted to be a panelist for OU...

Intonation is key! Encouraging learners to bounce

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Having 'learned' the vocabulary & structure - third person + be + adjective - to describe how someone is  feeling...and also ex...
Monday, 2 February 2026

On Thin Ice - the graded reader (not the state of Greenland)

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Reading for detail - Read & Imagine As you can easily see, there's a lot of text on the page, which most learners in Japan would bau...
Sunday, 1 February 2026

Postcard from...Nagoya, Japan

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Hi there blog readers! I went to Nagoya to meet English teachers, school owners, an ex-student and a couple of really cool old friends I...
Friday, 30 January 2026

Train ride review - Shinano

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I read recently that the trains on the Shinano service between Nagano & Nagoya will be replaced in 2027, and that the new ones will be ...
Thursday, 29 January 2026

Hard Worker Boxer - after reading "Animal Farm"

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 The animal that I felt sorry for is Boxer. He deeply trusted Napoleon, and he made his best in the Battle of the Windmill and worked hard t...
Sunday, 25 January 2026

Take it outside!

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Started this week's lesson with "Put on your shoes" song...reason being, I wanted to hurry up, hurry up, let's go outside!...

No, I'm not fine!

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"How are you? " "How are you." Try again. "No. How are you?" "Oh. I'm fine." How's he?  And ...
Saturday, 24 January 2026

A joined up lesson - making the most of students' flashcards

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Making a learning record with flashcards I'm a firm believer of doing more with less - and a massive fan of good text books. Students ne...
Friday, 23 January 2026

Postcard from Yutoku inari Shrine, Saga pref, Japan

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  This one of the most stunning shrines I've ever seen! Up on a hillside, well off the beaten track in rural Saga Prefecture, Yutoku Ina...
Thursday, 22 January 2026

Yumi's Air BnB offering

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Enjoy staying in a nostalgic, atmospheric Heisei-era house Although it was built in the 90’s, it’s been recently renovated. This one-bedro...

Postcard from Ouo Shrine - The Floating Gates in the Ariake Sea, Kyushu

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  What a great find, on the Ariake Sea! This is a beautiful spot to slow down and take in the view! Regardless of the tide, these Torii (gat...
Wednesday, 21 January 2026

Postcard from Karatsu Castle, Kyushu

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I think this castle has been famous on Japanese TV/manga? How would I know! My journey here across NW Saga prefecture was delightful (but sl...
Monday, 19 January 2026

Postcard from Taipei, Taiwan

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 Dear Jim-sensei, Happy New Year! I had been Taipei in New Year's Day. It was very nice place, people and food than I expected!! I'd...
1 comment:
Thursday, 15 January 2026

Postcard from Himeji Castle - an evening's stroll

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Himeji Castle floating in the night sky I unexpectedly had an evening to kill in the famous castle city of Himeji, so of course I dumped my ...
Wednesday, 7 January 2026

Memories at the Hot Springs—Talking with a Stranger

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  I have had a long conversation with a complete stranger. One day, I was at a hot spring. An elderly woman dropped her towel in the bath....
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About “Horiemon,” who shocked Japan with his fraud

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  Takafumi Horie, known as “Horiemon,” is a famous Japanese businessman. When he was a university student, he founded an internet company ca...
1 comment:
Wednesday, 17 December 2025

My Tropical Rainforest Project - Kokona

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  Orang-Utans live in Indonesia's rainforest. Orang-Utans sleep in nests in trees and eat birds, insects, some frogs.  Bali Mynas live i...

Old memories for talking with Strangers

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Looking back, it might have been risky. When I was a high school student, I had a long conversation with a stranger who was an older man. Af...
Saturday, 6 December 2025

A modern three-bedroom house in Yamagata village

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 A modern three-bedroom house in Yamagata village, with easy access to Matsumoto city center. The house has three bedrooms on the second flo...
Wednesday, 3 December 2025

Postcard from Ariake Sea - Floating Torii Gates of Ouo Shrine, Saga, Kyushu

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Floating Torii Gates of Ouo When I was thinking about extending my little trip around Kyushu, I happened to notice this little spot on the m...
Tuesday, 2 December 2025

Postcard from Takeo Onsen, Saga, Fukuoka

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Takeo station  A quick 'hello' from western Saga - I got the train here from Tosu, via a walkabout in Saga to find the castle there ...
Monday, 1 December 2025

Postcard from 1609 - Hirado Dutch Trading House

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Unfortunately, I did not have the time to actually visit the Dutch Trading House in Hirado, but with the benefit of a zoom lens I got close...