See you later, take care, goodbye!

So the day finally arrived when we toasted Damian for being the star of the show at Luna for last 3+ years, and into the bargain welcomed Laura back to our car park BBQ (she joined us last year with her parents, remember?!).

For a while there, sad & lonely Jim was on his own there snuggling his beer & reflecting on how lucky we (Luna) have been with his endless enthusiasm for the "job" here - which is as much as a teacher can make of it...and he has made it a very big job with countless attributes & thorough preparation.

Therefore, no surprise when a whole host of students and rugby types rocked up & shared fabulous munchies, smothered the lad with hugs and sayonara messages.

He's not gone yet though - covering Jim's classes for a final hurrah and to help super cheerful Laura find everything!

Find the rest of the photos here https://flic.kr/s/aHsmvPx9sE and also on our FB page

A teacher's mother writes?!?! - Luna's Hanami BBQ 2018

Mother and son enjoying a beer together!

One of the hottest day in April 2018 in Matsumoto was a great day for me.  It was my 2nd visit to the Luna International School BBQ party since 2014.  Lovely to meet up and chat about with people whom I knew of from the previous party.  So many happy people shared the fun time at that day near Susuki river were students or parents of them or grandparents of them and a parent of a teacher like me.  It was absolutely fabulous BBQ party I must say.  There were plenty of food, chilled drinks.  The wonderful thing is that everyone of the attendance brought such a delicious and a gorgeous homemade cakes, sushi and Okazu.  Many brought their own outdoor picnic stuff like tables and chairs, parasols and such.  The cook, I assume that Jim was in charge of this important task of the day.  Hope he had enough chilled beers... 

I totally enjoy the warm, relaxed and caring atmosphere with the Luna International School bunch.  The younger students (I mean the teenage or younger) were not shy about responding back to me in English.  That is WOW. Thank you everyone at Luna for a wonderful day.

Posted for Damian's mum, Hideko

Postcard from...Hong Kong

Jim & the Gang

Greetings from Hong Kong, Macau & Lamma Island.

You can speak English with everyone, as well as Cantonese, and in Macao, Portuguese.

From the guy in the red boiler suit who totally made the BBQ a massive success last month with his Green Egg but is not Jim's brother nor in the Red Devils skydiving team, and neither is he very quick over 4 metres, let alone 400m... Michael Johnson

Postcard from Iowa, USA

Dear Jim sensei,

How are you? I am always sleepy because of jet lag.

It's good in U.S.A. I meet my friend and spoke English. It was fun.

Yuto

Dear Jim sensei,

How are you? I'm fine. I meet my friends!

I did BBQ with my friends. I bought the t-shirts.

See you. 

Nanako

So what if it rained?!

Well, first of all sorry for anyone who tried to find us by the river yesterday afternoon - it was already raining enough by noon for us to have to go to Plan B, and improvise back at Luna. Turned out to be a very good idea as loads of people still came and spent the afternoon with us.

The kids all had a great time with tons of food, puddles on the tarmac & in the tarps to play with, and charging in & out of the building all day long! Some got soaking wet but oblivious - trying to getter wetter yet!

Thank you dads for coming up with tarps, camping shelters and canny rigging to keep us all out of the rain, and for taking turns at the coals. Mums managed the dry territory and seemed to get first dibs on all the nosh!

Great to see so many people, some making old connections again and others discovering new ones. Also delighted Morten could join us after yesterday's Shinshu JALT presentation on CEFR, something we do know a bit about at JP004!

Check out all the damp photos at the link, and do share any of your own! A grand day in/out!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/saint_george/sets/72157652069424191/

April - a month in pictures at Luna

Thank you Damian for reminding me to make April's slideshow...it was such a great month. The sun came out to play, at long last, and with it the Cherry Blossom (good) & hay fever (awful). Goodbye wellingtons & shovels, hello short sleeves and sunglasses! Social highlight of the spring was our annual barbecue on the Susuki riverside; thank you everyone who came, cooked, ate & drank :)

Loads of fun in classes too, as you will see, with arts projects showing off some really creative ideas...readers getting stuck into their books, and learners learning how to use their indexes properly. Table-top games, dice games, iPad games, board games and any other kind of games you can think of too!



May will see our final month in our current premises; we love the space we enjoy but little else. We hope there will be as little disruption as possible to the regular class schedule, and we expect to be up & running next to Big Boy from June 10th. If anybody would like to help us with the big shift, please let us know - all hands on deck June 6, 8-9.

May will also see some of our students taking their Cambridge PET exams, and others getting ready for their FCE at the beginning of June. Important steps in several language learning careers.

BTW, the song is by Bob Geldof, a man I have a lot of respect for. Very sadly his daughter passed away in April.

The Annual Hanami BBQ - Sunshine, smiles and satisfied stomachs

Where's the meat?

Last Sunday was Luna's annual hanami BBQ party along the Susugi river bank and what a blast it was! The sun was out, the cherry blossoms were almost in full bloom and we got to share the whole experience with a host of our students, families, friends as well as the teachers from Sasabe kindergarten. Even Damian's mum made a flying visit to join in with the festivities! It was great to see some many familiar, and some not so familiar, faces all gathered together to have a great time.

That's more like it!

Lots of our wonderful guests brought along something to share with the rest of the party goers. An excellent effort made by all. Fortunately everybody remembered to bring their appetites with them. It was quite the sight seeing all the different dishes from the classics sausages to Sri Lankan and Moroccan style dishes and of course the imperative Japanese BBQ food: the onigiri and the oinari san. We at Luna however like to take the traditional, let's say British, way of hosting a BBQ. Lots and lots of meat and hold the salad! And boy did we deliver. There was always something on the BBQ from start to finish (a special thanks to all those who helped cook all of the delicious food) and the air was filled with a fantastic aroma all day long. Everybody was left stuffed, satisfied and possibly slightly guilty from devouring such a feast.

Everybody tucking in

Whilst the adults were busy  responsible with BBQ tending and beer drinking duty, the children were enjoying themselves by running around and collecting cherry blossoms, making their own "flower pots" in paper cups and soaking Damian sensei with their water pistols! Luckily for them Damian sensei was far too full from his 20 portions of sausages and drumsticks to waddle after them. Maybe it would be a good idea to bring a lasso next time to round up the mischievous trouble makers.

Many thanks to all our fabulous guests for making this such a joyous and memorable event, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!  We look forward to hosting you all again next year!

Damian Gowland

Oh - anami party! The slideshow edition

Once again we were lucky with the weather - glorious sunshine if a tad windy!

Our usual spot was just about "free" when Jim turned up at 11am. A frantic 1 hour set up and the St. George flag raised at noon = BBQ started! Parking hassle is a nuisance, and the wooden tops patrolling as killjoys no help...but everyone found us sooner or later, and a massive turn out.

Thank you everyone for all your delicious contributions to the BBQ - and all the other food & drink you brought. Big thank yous to Sho for looking after all the younger children - BIG job today! - Michael & Susumu for grill detail. Especially lovely to see so many babies this year - some very large ladies last year ;)

We are always so happy to be able to introduce different families from our community at events like this, and this year was a bumper edition. Brilliant to see so many old friends as well - Yuki-chan especially. Please enjoy the slideshow, as we enjoyed today!

Luna's 2012 Ohanami BBQ

Luna's 2012 Ohanami BBQ, a set on Flickr.

Well, I had a great time (until the hay fever attacked me). It was so good to see so many students past and present come and join us for a lazy afternnon by the river!

I was delighted Soichi could drop by & say hi - I used to teach him back in 1990! Anna-chan I taught when she was in elementary school, now asking about mummy & kids classes with her little sisters! Do I feel old?!

Yuki-chan couldn't eat anything because everyone wanted to catch up with her - meantime all the children ran themselves into the ground exploring river & rocks...one or two grazed knees!

Yet again we were blessed with lovely weather, a mountain of food and a small lake of ale. I hope everyone had enough?

Thank you all for coming, for sharing a great day out with us and for making it feel like spring has finally arrived :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30ppTu2UEMM&feature=youtube_gdata

Cherry Blossom BBQ - THIS SUNDAY (Apr 17th)

It's nearly here - Cherry Blossom time!

Last year it snowed but we still had a superb time - I know the mood is a bit more subdues this year and I feel a little guilty inviting everyone to come and have a party when others less fortunate in this country can't...However, it would be a shame to let a wonderful day go to waste, so come and get some fresh air, blow away the wintry cobwebs, meet new friends and old....throw a steak on the BBQ, eat too many snacks and get some sun. Who knows, we might even enjoy a couple of drinks :)

It is a BYO event - so please bring your own food and drink - it is a pot luck thing as well, so bring extra and share? We will provide a BBQ & a large awning for shade.

Time: from 12:00 (noon) til dusk
Place: Susuki River, on the Massho HS side, near the footbridge
Who: Everyone - children and friends very welcome
Price: Free, very cheap, and free!!!

Ohanami BBQ at Joyama Park

A great big THANK YOU!!! to everybody who joined us on that windy hill on Sunday. Although the weather wasn't all that good, we still managed to have a decent barbecue, have a few beers, play a little football and meet fellow students and friends. We discovered that Matsumoto really is a small place indeed, ALT's and English language teachers were reunited after 15 years, and discoveries through email addresses exchanged that two parties actually worked at the same company, but had just never met there before!

Eventually the rain got the better of us and we had to move up the hill to the little shelter at the top where we huddle d together, enjoyed a little guitar, and ran outside again when the sun came out. All arrived and departed safely despite the slippery path, some in high heeled shoes, and some carrying the massive cooler box and smoldering barbecue.

And then as the temperature began to drop, Shizue kindly came to the rescue by inviting those who still hadn't had enough to make use of her garden at her house nearby. And so, a handful of die-hards lit the second barbecue of the day and Shizwe brought us all hot coffee to warm our cold hands. We ended the evening with a song in our hearts and bellies full, having made some new friends and having reunited with old ones.

We hope to see you all there again next year! And hope we have better luck with the weather next time!
Who knows, we had such fun we might even schedule another one for summer!! So you won't have to wait that long.

Will keep you posted,

Tana

Tana's Birthday Barbecue on the River Bank

Hi everyone! Another year and another birthday! And yes, you guessed it, 23 again!! It’s a perfect excuse to enjoy a barbecue on the river bank, and I’d love it if you all could join me. Husbands, wives, children, pets, friends & lovers – everyone is welcome!!

When: Sunday 21^st September 2008, from 2pm – 6pm

Where: The Susuki River Bank, Matsusho HS side

(same place as Luna’s Ohanami Party)

What to bring: Please bring your own food and drink (cooking utensils too if you have　them!)

I’m looking forward to seeing you there!

Cherry Blossom Party

Mercifully the weather behaved itself and we could enjoy ourselves by the Susuki River once again. The drizzle did come later as forecast, but by then the lightweights had already gone home!

We had a really good turn out, as you can see from the photos, and were joined by the Yokoso Matsumoto group who got their BBQ going next to ours. A good deal of mingling meant that new friendships were made and old ones rekindled. Darryl, for example, met Mine again, whom he used to teach with many moons ago. Mark came along with his wife & son - we`d not met for the best part of a decade!

There was a definite feeling of "the next generation" to the BBQ/picnic - a positive baby-rash actually, showing that we, the expat community are doing our bit to reverse the demographic trend. It was great to see some of our friends' children for the first time, and for them to interact with each other. Others have shot up since we last saw them.

Highlights of the day included Phil's son trying to get a noise out of a didgeridoo; the Vietnamese lads mine-sweeping remorselessly; Tana chatting up all the single Shindai boys; Milton bringing a carpet; Jim & Rupert explaining the hardships of fatherhood to a rather deaf audience. And I must mention 'little' Yuki, who I've not seen for about 8 years - she lives in Nagano now after a couple of years in Singapore. Now a mature, charming & very-well spoken HS girl - another reminder, if I needed one this weekend, of the aging process!

Thank you to everyone who came, who took a turn burning stuff on the barbie, contributed food & drink & charcoal. A lovely afternoon - so let's do it again soon?!