NHK Enkai

End of year gathering for my NHK class last night was a lot of fun, with everyone over indulging suitably.



The China Trip Bar was a good choice of venue, as the food was good and the nomihodai a good deal - without the hassle you can sometimes get. Takeshi, Masa & I got stuck into the draft lager while the girlies ordered the usual bizarre range of chu-hi's, sours, teas, etc.

Takako dropped by to add glamour but couldn't stay because she has a test today - ambitions of a job in Singapore sounds very worthwhile!



Our old classmate Machiko was also able to join us with her lovely son Ryotaro, who spent the evening on my knee eating & getting tickled. Well-behaved children are a pleasure & especially invited to the pre-school!

No more classes this year for NHK (Luna is open until the 22nd) so Merry Christmas Ayaka, Chisato, Teruki, Masa, Takeshi, Toshimasa, Miyako, and Hana-chan. Thank you for being such a pleasant group to teach.

Vocabulary Connect 4 : Chip-O

My little lads struggled a bit last week in the heat, and I wasn't on the best form either, getting frustrated with their lack of energy/brain power!

We are all mates again now, after a 'sound' game of Chip-O. Essentially 'Connect 4', with images of vocab on the board and cards with the words on to try & match. It is more interesting not knowing all the vocabulary, as that stimulates the kids to help each other/have a need to ask me questions - ahead of their turn, importantly, to keep the game moving on & not waiting for someone 'stuck' on their 'go'.

I love this game as a reading review/phonics lab - the game itself is fun and the teacher can rarely contrive the result (usually have to 'throw' a game so students win, which is boring & often transparent!)

A Town Like Alice

I like these kinds of stories very much. I’ve already finished reading over 10 books, I ranked this book in the third-best. (I ranked Cinderella man as the best. The second is The merchant in Venice. )
This is a story during world war 2nd. Jean is a heroine in this book. At first she spent happy time living in Malaya, but after world war 2nd, her life was completely changed. People who lived in Malaya were captured by Japanese soldiers, and they had to march aimlessly. The first half of this story, I felt sore because Japanese give them cruel treatment. As I’m one of Japanese, it was really a pity.
I love the last part of the story, the happy ending. She got a big heritage from her uncle. She made a well in Malaya for people who took care of Jean. In chapter 14, Jean was informed by an old man that Joe was alive. It was big news for her and she went to see him to Willstown in Australia. When she lived in Willstown to wait for him, she knew she could not live in Willstown happily and if she married Joe, she would want to live somewhere else. But, she changed her mind. She wanted to make the town better place like Alice Town. I was deeply impressed by her mind that she wanted to make town better place. In fact, she opened shoes factory, a milk-bar, a swimming pool and so on. Usually, people tend to move their place if they find their place uncomfortable, but she didn’t. I love her thoughts and I would like to make our town or our country better place as she did like Willstown. Oops, I don’t have rich family or rich relatives....., but I would have a chance to win lottery like Joe. ：）

By the way, I checked the place “Willstown” by Wikipedia. “Willstown” is a fictional place, but it is reportedly based on Burketown, Queensland, which the arther also visited in 1948. And Burke and Wills were well-known explorers of Australia. Isn’t it interesting fact?