Rugby

The most important sport in New Zealand is rugby.

Lots of young people watch or play in winter.

Charles Monro brought rugby to New Zealand from Great Britain in the late 1860s.

Rugby is a fifteen people sport and the ball is an oval shape like an egg. New Zealand national team is the famous All Black. All Black is famous for their special dance - called Haka.

Posted for Tomoro - as we speak Japan are playing the All Blacks in the rugby World Cup....

Tokyo Bookfair & Bledisloe Cup

Last weekend I spent in Tokyo at the annual Tokyo EFL bookfair/English Teachers in Japan jamboree. I try to go every year, to dig up new ideas and remember old ones, figure out what the next big thing in teaching will be etc. It is also a good opportunity to meet old friends in the industry - teachers as well as publishers - and to catch up over a few beers on the Saturday evening.

Delightfully, somebody organised the Bledisloe Cup to coincide at the National Stadium...and along a good sized group of us went, finding a row of seats up at the back of the stand. No problem except we couldn't see the screen/scoreboard for replays, score updates etc; neither did the beer dollies manage to make it far enough up the stand with any supplies for our thirsty mob. Some parts of the ground apparently ran out altogether. Bad planning again, JRFU. Why do they insist on selling canned beer, openning each one and pouring it it a cup? Think this is why draft beer was invented...

Anyway, good game, and as will be with this weekend v England, Australia outclassed. We lost a few stragglers on the way to Shinjuku, picked up a few others including one of my old students at Waseda now. A fairly bizarre night as it was also Hallowe'en!

The presentations over the weekend proved valuable for me; these days I orientate towards the more technical ones as I have seen enough happy clappy ones to last me a while. One in particular on using Google documents more effectively made the trip worthwhile.

Saturday - must be Sapporo

Late into the night I was chatting things over with my good friend Peter. I wish I could get to see my friends like this more often - or find a way to get them all in the same place every once in a while. Anyway, I think we sorted many things out in the world, as we watched "The 100 Best Rugby World Cup Tries". Peter's a Kiwi, so we didn't agree on anything at all :) unfortunately, he can't make it to the Bledisloe Cup game next month in Tokyo. Anyone else going to be there instead?

Today I was making sure that we retained some good faith. Due to no reason of their own doing, some OEs missed the chance to examine last year and their approval lapsed. Righting wrongs, after an intensive day with me at Peter's SOEN English School in Sapporo, they are now back and track.

Following up last night's training at Hokkai was a PET training event this evening; another late night with dedicated teachers proving their commitment to their own professional development, and the promotion of quantifiable English language assessment. Everyone left Peter's school tired but unbowed; we SHALL examine in November!

No food left at Jusco as Auld Lang Syne was telling us to leave - Peter & I grabbed a few croquettes (yes, beer too) and spent the next three hours vainly trying to find the All Blacks vs Springboks anywhere on the TV/internet. (In doing so we both saw the score but didn't tell each other until 2.30am when we gave up!)